I also post on the CC forum where someone was asking how to add handheld camera shake to video shot on a tripod. At the time, I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do this (and probably still don't). Suggestions centered on keyframing in the pan/crop window, which at best seems tedious. Then a dim light came on--why not take the motion characteristics of handheld footage that are computed in an attempt to stabilize a clip (e.g. in Mercalli or Deshaker) and apply those to an already stable clip.

To try out this idea, I made use of the freeware motion stabilization software Deshaker. In a nutshell, the motion characteristics of the first video clip are determined during the first pass. But rather than applying them to stabilize the original clip, they are then applied to the second video clip in the second pass. Here is an example using some handheld footage taken simply "walking" and then applied to a still image.



I only used two points--the original movements (simple pixel changes from one frame to the next) applied to the still and second, those movements simply doubled. These can be easily changed to produce whatever degree of "shakiness" one wants.

I certainly have no need for this, but if there is any interest, I can provide details. If not, it was just a fun exercise. Regardless, this would seem to be a lot more realistic and certainly easier than trying to produce movement through keyframing. In any case, just thought I'd share.

wwaag