First Look at the Vegas 11 Stabilizer

amendegw wrote on 10/18/2011, 8:17 AM

In their advertising, Sony has hyped the improved stabilizer. I've played with it for a couple of hours & here's the results.

1) The stabilizer gets applied as a Media FX, rather than a take (as in the V10 stabilizer). That's okay, but it complicates issues like:
...a) Two events on the timeline, one stabilized, the other not.
...b) Splitting an event where you two different stabilization settings for each section.
2) The Vegas stabilizer has only three adjustments:
...a) A Pan Smoothing slide bar
...b) A Zoom Amount slide bar
...c) A Rolling Shutter Correction checkbox.
3) The first few tests resulted in some unexplained jerking (i.e. the image was steady, then abruptly shifted, then remained steady again). Or, it would be steady for a while and then seemed to lose stabilization. The following final render seemed to work fine - were the problems I experienced transitory? Fixed by a restart? Time will tell.

One of the reasons I value stabilization is for the Mercalli V2 "Rock Steady" template, i.e. emulating a tripod. So that's what I tested. I slid both slider bars on the Vegas Stabilizer to the 1.00 (max) setting and compared that to the Mercalli V2 "Rock Steady" template. IMHO, the Vegas stabilizer did a pretty good job (let's hope the glitches I saw in the early testing do not recur).

Here's "glich" I saw in my early testing (about the 10-11 sec mark).

...Jerry

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Comments

jerald wrote on 10/23/2011, 2:35 AM

Hi, eightyeightkeys,

[[being able to split a clip on the timeline, apply it only to one or the other part of that clip is far superior. ]]

You can do exacty that. It just requires that you create the subclip. The SVPro 10 stabilizer would ask you if you wanted it to create the subclip for you.

Not as convenient but, as far as I can tell, just as capable in this aspect.
Jerald

Arthur.S wrote on 10/25/2011, 4:39 AM

Well, after installing 11, I thought I'd give the 'new' stabilizer a try. YE GODS Sony! Are you serious??? After a couple of mins faffin' about, I just installed the free deshaker for 11. Easy, simple, does exactly what it sez on the tin.......with a minimum of fuss. Not being able to use the stabilizer directly on an individual take on the timeline is....is....is....I can't even think of a word to describe the stupidity of it!!!

johnmeyer wrote on 10/25/2011, 9:57 AM

Yes, the implementation is very stupid. However, if someone wants to write a script, there is a very easy workaround. Without a script all you do is right-click on the event and create a subclip. Then, add the fX directly to that subclip. This two-step process could be reduced to one step with a script assigned to a toolbar button.

amendegw wrote on 11/2/2011, 12:00 PM

Jerry's Stabilization Principle: When stabilizing video in Sony Vegas 11 using the internal stabilizer or Mercalli V2, best results are obtained when matching properties of source footage, project properties and render properties. If render properties must be different, render to an intermediate or a new track.

Okay, now the details. I've been doing more testing with Sony Vegas 11 (this time build 425, 64 bit), and I've discovered that the best stabilization occurs when the above principle is followed. The video below illustrates what happens if we render from 1920x1080 59.94 progressive to 1280x720 29.97 progressive using the builtin MainConcept "Internet HD 720p" builtin template.

I've tried all manner of combinations and permuations, 720p project properties, disable resample, etc. etc. All look crappy. However, the Vegas Preview looks fine - it's just the render that is shakey.

However, if we follow the principle and match all three variables, the following is what we get. Render was to DNxHD 1920x1080 59.94 fps and resized in HandBrake to 1280x720 29.97.

I invite peer-reviewed critiques (here's my source footage: 00171.zip
...Jerry

btw: the secondary conclusion is Mercalli V2 still does a much better job of stabilizaiton than the most recent version of Vegas 11 internal stabilization. (both tests had rolling shutter correction = on). Mercalli V2 is not perfect (look at the leaves in the shadows) but imho, it's amazingly good.

musicvid10 wrote on 11/2/2011, 2:00 PM

@johnmeyer,
Now that V3 of Deshaker for VDub has been released, would you have time to put it through its paces and update your excellent "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" tutorial?

I've been having a lot of fun frameserving to it and experimenting with different settings (the Vegas plugin and script use older Deshaker).

david-ruby wrote on 11/2/2011, 3:29 PM

where can you get the new deshaker?

Jøran Toresen wrote on 11/2/2011, 3:32 PM

You can download Deshaker (from Gunnar Thalin) here:

http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm

Jøran

david-ruby wrote on 11/2/2011, 3:35 PM

Thanx. But does it work in 64 bit vegas 11? It says only 32 bit. mm.

Jøran Toresen wrote on 11/2/2011, 3:40 PM

No, Deshaker 3 only works in VirtualDub 32 bit

Jøran

JHendrix wrote on 11/20/2011, 8:55 AM

"Using the latest version of New Deshaker. Works great with VP 11"

sorry but what is "New Deshaker"?

i got lost in this thread, does Vegas 11 have a deshaker that actually is "better" than 10 or for that matter even as good as 10

johnmeyer wrote on 11/20/2011, 1:22 PM

sorry but what is "New Deshaker"? First hit on Google:

New Deshaker for Sony Vegas

Deshaker is a motion stabilization plugin for VirtualDub written by Gunnar Thalin. David Arendt wrote a Vegas script to automate the way in which Vegas could send video to VirtualDub/Deshaker. I took his concept and created scripts in both VirtualDub and Vegas (his script only handled the Vegas end) that made Deshaker "feel," more or less, like a plugin, even though it is not. Finally, Andy Edmiston took all of our work one step further and created a dialog front-end to the whole thing so you could set and change the Deshaker settings directly from a dialog within Vegas.

As the link above shows, it is Andy's work that is known as the "New Deshaker."

Thalin has upgraded Deshaker several times since all this work has been done. I am not sure whether the latest version of Deshaker works with Andy's excellent dialogs, but I am sure that my old scripts could still be adapted to work.

Deshaker is an excellent stabilizer, although I think Mercalli outperforms it substantially when the camera is not moving and is pointed at a distant object not moving much (e.g., filming a person at a distant podium using a handheld camera at full telephoto). Deshaker has significant advantages when you don't want to "zoom into" the image in order to eliminate borders because it has a much better border fill algorithm than does Mercalli. I have not used AE or other programs that have motion stabilization so I can't comment or compare on their relative merits.

P.S. From my limited testing, the Vegas 11 implementation of the Mercalli plugin is a major step backwards, and I personally cannot use it. Even in prior implementations, the way in which the limited version of Mercalli that ships with Vegas is crippled made it zoom into the video far too much to be useful. In previous versions of Vegas, you could simply purchase the complete plugin from Mercalli, and that worked great. With Vegas 11, I am not sure whether this is going to help or not.

Arthur.S wrote on 11/21/2011, 10:50 AM

I use 'Deshaker' in Vegas 11 64bit on Vista 64bit OP. Works perfectly. I've persevered with the Vegas stabilizer. Using right click.create subclip, then right click/media FX, it's reasonably quick to get to it. It's a LOT faster than Deshaker, but zooms in a lot more, and the results are not as good. It also randomly crashes Vegas.

hotshotav wrote on 11/22/2011, 12:46 AM

I'm with Marky on this one. WTF. I pay more money to Sony and now I have no stabilizing feature. Get it right and if it's not broken...DONT FRIGGIN FIX IT!!!!!

hotshotav wrote on 11/22/2011, 12:50 AM

Thanks for that Marky. Maybe Sony should offer you a job. At least now I can stabilise.

WayneM wrote on 11/28/2011, 11:03 AM

OK, I'm down to the wire on the "deal" to upgrade from VP10 to 11. I was excited by the Sony marketing hype about the "new" image stabilization, but it looks like they neutered it. VP10 sounds better.

Is there anything in VP11 (other than the opportunity to report MORE hard crashes :-) worth the upgrade cost? Working 80% in HD and image stabilization has been very handy for some footage.

I'm running Win7 Pro 64-bit.

Basic config:

> Processor : Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4 GHz (Unlocked)
> Physical Memory : 16 GB (4 x 4 GB DDR3-1600-SDRAM)
> Video: Intel HD Graphics 3000
> Video Memory : 1.7 GB

Any insights appreciated. . .

drewU2 wrote on 11/30/2011, 8:49 AM

Wayne, I have to say that I was disappointed in Vegas 11. I have purchased Vegas Pro upgrades 8, 9, 10 and 11. Each one was valuable and worth the early upgrade price except for 11. Now, I don't have a video card that will really take advantage of the preview acceleration available, so that is one area that may be worth upgrading to Vegas 11 for if you are willing to invest in a nice video card.

However, not much has changed from 10 that is important. In fact, I am astonished (that is not an overstatement) at the lack of stabilization integration. They made Vegas 11 almost unusable for my company, because I use the Vegas 10 stabilization constantly. constantly.

I am an event cinematographer, and the reality is that stabilization in Vegas 10 has made a huge difference in the outcome of most of my work. To have to take 2 extra steps to stabilize in Vegas 11 is a major, major downgrade.

Please Sony, bring back stabilization as a right-click option in Vegas 11.

Motljus wrote on 12/14/2011, 8:42 AM

I hear you, drewU2!

But I sure hope someone from Sony is listening in on this, because they really, really need to get their act together and fix this.
The most annoying part isn't that you can't add stabilization directly to individual clips though, but that you'll have to render and produce a new video, to avoid glitches, when rendering into any other format than the original video.

This is not only time consuming, but introduces more artifacts than needed, since you'll have to render the video twice basically.

PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS SONY!

WayneM wrote on 12/19/2011, 10:13 PM

drewU2, I let the upgrade "opportunity" slip and see that Sony is now offering it again, but they seem to have released an update that makes V11 less stable in some circumstances. "Time well spent?"

I'm also less than pleased that they don't seem to have put effort into making an important plug-in (NR 2) work on the 16-bit version. I use Vegas for mixing and mastering HD recordings and am not pleased at the thought of loosing the ability to access some of the tools I need on occasion.

I'll keep checking back in the Forum to see if things get better. Right now the upgrade looks like something Bernie Madoff would have offered :-)