Mercalli Stabilzr v4 Frustration: What's the workflow?

j.razz wrote on 7/24/2018, 10:10 AM

My setup:
Canon 5d mkIV 1080 60fps
Canon 5ds 1080 60fps
DJI Phantom 4 Pro 1080 60fps (not using Mercalli)

Razor Blade 15 (8th gen Core i7 Hex with GTX 1070 gpu and 16gigs of ram)
Latest Build of Vegas 15 Edit
Latest download of Stabilzr v4

Here's what I'm doing, but I'm sure there's got to be a better way- there has to be!

Cull footage
Edit footage
Apply fx (brightness and contrast, color corrector, color match, HSL)
Then go back to each event and apply Stablizr at the end of the fx chain

(I've turned off gpu in the Mercalli options as it was causing issues with jumpiness)

Render out to a magix intermediary file at 60fps to match project settings and footage (If it don't render out the large intermediary file I get all kinds of strangeness- jumpy lead-ins, unstablized footage, the mercalli banner over the footage stating it needs to analyze, etc.).

Use that intermediary to render out to mp4 for the web. (even with the intermediary I still get random frames with the mercalli banner or an event here or there that doesn't stabilize). And if I go back to the events, sometimes random events will have the mercalli banner over them again stating they need to be analyzed and sometimes the plugin tells me it needs to be unlocked again.

If I could figure out a workflow for utilizing Mercalli, it would shave hours off my editing as I fix one thing and another event loses it's stabilization... it's like playing whack-a-mole but in a completely non-fun way.

I also have an asus 13" notebook that doesn't have discrete graphics and has an Core i7 6th generation quad processor and I get the same results there as well.

Any tips?

Comments

Grazie wrote on 7/24/2018, 12:48 PM

Complex. I Merc first, Render to MXF and then get busy with other FXs.

j.razz wrote on 7/24/2018, 12:58 PM

Thanks Graham. Are you experiencing any quirks or are you getting along just fine?

diverG wrote on 7/24/2018, 1:06 PM

1) Dump any clips you don't need.

2) Top & tail clips to get rid of movement if cam handheld. Reduces work done by Mercalli

3) Apply Mercalli and set up a batch render of all clip.

4) Ensure you have space for rendered clips.

5) Render overnight.

j.razz wrote on 7/24/2018, 1:21 PM

1. I only edit the event portions I need.

2. I'm using gimbals ,but always trim the bleed from both ends.

3. Each event is different and may require tweaking of Mercalli's settings. But it would be nice to know how to batch stabilize.

4. Space is a non-issue.

5. No need to render over night, I'm only working on 59 second edits and 3 minute edits. Render timed are short.

Thanks for the points, but what I'm looking for is how to avoid the glitches i'm encountering- an improved, reliable workflow.

Kinvermark wrote on 7/24/2018, 5:35 PM

"render and replace." As @Grazie suggests, do your Mercalli work first.

So, rough cut your clips, apply mercalli and tweak it to your liking (but don't change the clip/event length or any project settings). Then render these clips to a suitable intermediate (uncompressed, cineform, MagicYUV, XAVC-intra, …) and use these to replace the clips on the timeline.

Then do your colour work, etc.

I think there are free scripts to batch render clip by clip, but I like to use Vegasaur to make this easy.

j.razz wrote on 7/26/2018, 9:29 PM

So, I bought Vegasaur, edited to length events, batch rendered all events with Mercalli first to intermediary files. Then applied color correction/grading, etc. That seemed to do the trick.

However, I also contacted Magix to see what they had to say. The response was "I can't go into details on what we're planning, but it will be something done within the software itself." So, maybe a hint at what's to come in Vegas 16?

Kinvermark wrote on 7/27/2018, 9:15 AM

you're welcome 😜

gmtmtfilms wrote on 1/15/2019, 4:25 PM

All of my work is multicam, with 5 plus cameras. The latest Vegasaur update is awesome help with this. Batch stabilise your clips using the Vegasaur "Quick Select" option. Select one clip/take then Vegasaur QUICK SELECT>SELECT SAME MEDIA(VIDEO ONLY)>BATCH STABILIZE then I render to AVI and replace the unstable footage via drag and drop, then split and delete the blank areas. Simple. I also use it for applying colour correction to multiple takes. Saves me a tone of time!