deshaking 1920 mxf's

megabit wrote on 4/18/2008, 3:39 AM

I guess I am going to quite often render my final outputs, from 1080p to 720p (the resolution drop is not that dramatic even on my new 50" plasma, hung literally above my head, at just 1m from my eyes). This will let me use panning inside the 1920x01080 image (using Pan&Crop), which can simulate very smooth panning that my tripod head head is not capable of (the technique as shown by Phil Bloom in many of his marvellous pieces).

Now, I've been thinking - outputting from 1920x1080 to 1280x720 can also be great for deshaking hand-held footage. Can anyone recommend how to do it in Vegas? Any scripts, plugins, etc? TIA!

Piotr

Comments

DJPadre wrote on 4/18/2008, 5:58 AM

errr.. u from DV Info?
Ive got tonnes of posts there about this, but ur best option is Huffy YUV with Vdub

megabit wrote on 4/18/2008, 6:33 AM

Could you please be more specific? The tonnes you're referring to have mostly been on de-shaking DV. I'm talking full 1920x1080 mxf, delivered as 720p - a lot of potential but quite different workflow.

Thanks,

Piotr

johnmeyer wrote on 4/18/2008, 12:16 PM

I would recommend the Mercali stabilization plugin. It works within Vegas and while it lacks the ability to synthesize borders, that doesn't matter for your applications since you will be reducing resolution anyway.

You can also try my script that works with Deshaker:

Deshaker Script

Batch deshaker

I just edited the links in the first post listed above, so that it contains a current reference to the script (i.e., the link works for the next seven days).

Laurence wrote on 4/18/2008, 12:36 PM

I second the Mercali plugin recommendation. It really is incredible.

I'm just putting together a triathlon event coverage piece. All the footage is 30p 1440x1080 HDV and most people will end up seeing it in SD DVD format. It was three short races in two days and I only had time to use a tripod in a couple of shots. I used a Tiffen steady stick but there was still a lot of shaky shots, especially where I had to zoom.

Anyway, before Mercali, the footage looks like typical hand-held footage, especially in 30p progressive. After Mercali, it looks just beautiful.

The only problem is that now that I can, I find myself spending days tuning each clip and matching it to the best stabilization algorythm. Before I would have just edited and turned it in. This shoot is going to take me ten times as long. It's going to look ten times as good too, but it is time consuming.

megabit wrote on 4/19/2008, 7:19 AM

Thanks guys for the tips.

I've downloaded the Mercalli trial; interestingly the avi de-shaken files it produces are of much higher quality in Vegas (visually loss-less), than in Edius - what settings does Mercalli use for the avi's?

Laurence wrote on 4/19/2008, 7:45 AM

Check your edge correction. You should be losing some quality, even if it is still more than 1280x720. Otherwise the edge correction is going to drive you nuts once you notice it.

megabit wrote on 4/19/2008, 8:36 AM

Laurence,

I'm not talking about the (inevitable) quality loss due to rescaling (to eliminate borders). I'm talking about the compression quality of the avi, apparently produced by applying the Mercalli FX (when analysis is being done, Vegas shows a progress bar "Rendering ProDAD-Mercalli.avi). Even without rescaling, the previewed clip shows some compression artefacts not present in the original.

On the other hand - apart from the above mentioned message - no avi is saved to disk, so is it working inside the original MPEG?

Laurence wrote on 4/19/2008, 8:56 AM

OK now I understand. Yeah, Mercali deshakes the original m2t clip in Vegas. Doesn't it do this in Edius?