I've just finished my latest Tour video, and this time I tried out John Meyer's DeShaker script. Wow! What was once about 7 steps for every single DeShaken clip is now just a matter of selecting a clip (or series of clips) and then hitting the script button.
There are always going to be requests for improvements, of course. It would be nice to be able to access the DeShaker settings in a logical way. It would also be nice to be able to specify other preferences without having to get into the Javascript. Still, what an amazing improvement.
One thing every DeShaker user discovers eventually, however, is that even DeShaker can't work perfectly on all material. There are times where parts of the resulting clip exhibit sudden "jumps" due to large areas of the scene moving in certain ways. For example, one of my handheld shots follows people out of a subway car on the Paris Metro. Everything is wonderfully stable until a large woman crosses my path, which momentarily confuses DeShaker. It makes a couple of jumps until finally settling down again.
One can, if so inclined, go into the settings and tell DeShaker to only focus on a specific portion of a scene, then focus on another portion, and so forth, avoiding the large lady. This works but is fairly labor-intensive. An alternative technique works almost as well and is relatively easy to do:
(1) Isolate the error on the timeline and mark it.
(2) Switch to the original take, double-click on it, and paste it to a new track just above. That new clip will be in sync with the DeShaken one.
(3) Split the DeShaken clip on either side of the glitch and remove the offending portion.
(4) Replace the missing segment with its cousin from the original clip.
()5) Blend the edges to minimize the transitions.
Since there is usually major stuff happening in the field of view when DeShaker flakes out, I've discovered it's relatively easy to substitute back the original clip and dissolve the two transitions relatively transparently. The result is a very smooth video with no obvious glitches.
There are always going to be requests for improvements, of course. It would be nice to be able to access the DeShaker settings in a logical way. It would also be nice to be able to specify other preferences without having to get into the Javascript. Still, what an amazing improvement.
One thing every DeShaker user discovers eventually, however, is that even DeShaker can't work perfectly on all material. There are times where parts of the resulting clip exhibit sudden "jumps" due to large areas of the scene moving in certain ways. For example, one of my handheld shots follows people out of a subway car on the Paris Metro. Everything is wonderfully stable until a large woman crosses my path, which momentarily confuses DeShaker. It makes a couple of jumps until finally settling down again.
One can, if so inclined, go into the settings and tell DeShaker to only focus on a specific portion of a scene, then focus on another portion, and so forth, avoiding the large lady. This works but is fairly labor-intensive. An alternative technique works almost as well and is relatively easy to do:
(1) Isolate the error on the timeline and mark it.
(2) Switch to the original take, double-click on it, and paste it to a new track just above. That new clip will be in sync with the DeShaken one.
(3) Split the DeShaken clip on either side of the glitch and remove the offending portion.
(4) Replace the missing segment with its cousin from the original clip.
()5) Blend the edges to minimize the transitions.
Since there is usually major stuff happening in the field of view when DeShaker flakes out, I've discovered it's relatively easy to substitute back the original clip and dissolve the two transitions relatively transparently. The result is a very smooth video with no obvious glitches.