In both Vegas 14 Pro and the trial version of Vegas 21 Pro, when I use stabilization on a clip, it enlarges the video so part of it is off screen. I never had this problem in Vegas Pro 10. What am I doing wrong? Thank you.
As this is a double post, the following is a copy/paste of my comment on your other post:
On the timeline, have you trimmed the video event so that there's no extreme camera movement at the head and tail of the event? Also, how shaky is the image and are there pans/tilts/wobbly zooms in the shot? And in VP21, are you using the 'Professional' or 'Expert' user views (rather than the 'Basic' user view) as they allow for greater control of how stabilisation is applied?
Generally, stabilisation seeks to provide a stable/steady shot and pans, tilts, zooms make stabilisation difficult and usually result in a heavily cropped image. Ditto with very shaky images - the stabiliser seeks an area of image that is common to every frame.
Older versions of ProDad's excellent Mercalli stabiliser had a stabiliser setting called 'Glide Camera' which can handle camera movement quite well (it smooths the overall image) but ProDad no longer have a Mercalli for Vegas plugin (the Mercalli for MAGIX version is for MAGIX NLEs but not Vegas), and the Mercalli 5 Standalone (SAL) also has the 'Glide Camera' setting, I still use Merc 5 SAL. ProDad now have Mercalli 6 SAL but it doesn't provide user options like 'Glide Camera' so I find Merc 6 unsuitable for my needs, but Mercalli does cater well for action camera video (e.g. helmet cams, drones, cams attached to moving vehicles, etc). ProDad offers a free trial.
@Dexcon - Well said, sir! Now, I do have the Glide Cam in my Merc4, which works a treat.
But now I'm experimenting with HOS DeshakeRedux. Check here the Border solutions here:
This is part of the Happy Otter Scripts, this stabilizer software is designed around the John Meyer Deshake s/w and has so many more parameters than Merc. It is truly stunning and, for me, removes the need to understand and implement the Dark-Arts of frame and pixel command structure! It just works. Also, you get to CHOOSE what output you want. Stunning!
Check out this, DeshakeRedux:
https://tools4vegas.com/deshaker-redux/
and Wayne Waag's other clever and 100% Grazie-Proof Tools:
Thanks @Grazie for highlighting HOS DeshakerRedux ... I've now bought HOS which was especially attractive because its currently on sale - but only for the next couple of days.
One thing I've found, especially after years ago watching ScrapYard Films YT video comparing the results of different stabilisers with different video shooting characteristics, is that no single stabiliser is the be-all-and-end-all for stabilisation in all cases. Vegas Pro's stabiliser is good for some tasks, Mercalli for others (the majority), DaVinci Resolve for others and Mocha Pro (and Mocha Vegas now) for some other tasks. So DeshakerRedux is another stabiliser to add to the arsenal.
On the next trip in a couple of weeks time, I'm taking a tripod so that the need for a stabiliser in post-production will hopefully not be necessary, most especially if the Northern Lights come out to play.
Credits should also be given to Gunnar Thalin, the developer of Deshaker. More info her:
http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm
Jøran Toresen
@J-Toresen - Quite. 😉
I did a DRx then Merc and also the other way around too. Understanding/appreciating the outcomes is a very powerful learning curve.
Absolutely.
Imagine this ... a handheld shot of the top area of a flagpole with the flag flapping madly in the wind. Most stabilisers including Mercalli go bonkers on such a shot because they try to track the flapping flag - so the result is worse than the original video. With Mocha Pro (and Mocha Vegas no doubt), you can define (by splines) the area to be stabilised thus Mocha's stabilisation only considers the flagpole and ignores the fluttering flag. Vegas Pro's stabiliser in 'Expert' mode is next best as it allows for the target area to be defined using an adjustable grid ... it's good but not as targeted as Mocha's spline approach - IMO anyway.
In DRx as @Grazie calls it, there is a mask option (just rectangular) that enables the user to ignore pixels either inside or outside the mask.
According the Thalin's website, the option to Let area follow motion is considered experimental and may or may not work. LOL. My speculation is that Deshaker is really the basis of stabilization that is used natively in PremierePro.
Thank you for all the replies. I did trim the heads and tails of my video but the same problem occurs (Expert Mode) with key parts of it being cut from view. Has anyone tried TopazLabs VideoAI's stabilization?
@wwaag @Dexcon @Grazie You can use the Bezier mask in Vegas and then use the Mercalli plugin in chain. Whatever you mask gets hidden from Mercalli. I just tried with the Vegas Video Stabilizer but my system froze up. Even though I disabled the Mercalli plugin, it could have had an influence on the freeze-up.
@wwaag @Dexcon @Grazie You can use the Bezier mask in Vegas and then use the Mercalli plugin in chain. Whatever you mask gets hidden from Mercalli.
@Robert Johnston - OMG! That's truly innovative, very clever sideways view on this. Gonna give it a try on my i9 and RTX3080 rig. Wish me luck.
Jack S, your reply was incredibly helpful - thank you. I was able to steady the video I wanted however the borders of the viewer screen seemed to take all the movement the subject used to have. This is not a deal breaker but I'm wondering if you can suggest a remedy to that issue? I hope my explanation makes sense.
Unfortunately, nothing can cope with that amount of shake. By default, with an unpanned (by this I mean static) shot like this, after you click the Stabilize button in basic mode, you should select Freeze Motion for the mode. The auto zoom will then kick in and you can select a reference frame to fix the shot. However, with this amount of shake, you're going to have a fair reduction in frame size as the auto zoom attempts to get rid of the black outline. You could select the Professional or Expert view instead of Basic and play around with the settings, but in my experience, you won't get much better than the result obtained with the Basic view.
Can you upload the original video instead of your stabilized version. I thought the most obvious thing to do was not to use a stabilizer but use a tracker on the branch. Using your footage the branch stays stable, but your bird is jumping around un=naturally, which I think must be a result of your stablizer. Also the branch is warping.
Could also be cmos wobble
I agree with @Former user as it seems that the stabiliser is likely trying to stabilise the dominant feature of the image: the bird. This is where I would be using Mocha Pro or Mocha Vegas (the latter coming with Vegas Pro Suite or Post) to target the branch (highlighting it with splines) thus making the branch the feature on which stabilisation is based. Let's just hope that the branch never falls out of shot in the original video.
Alternatively, in Vegas Pro 21's native stabilisation FX, the Expert mode would allow you to target the branch only by placing/sizing the grid over the branch, and probably increasing the number of grids in X and Y as well as the number of points per grid cell in the Expert mode's control panel/window.
Todd-AO, Jack S, and Dexcon, thank you for your replies - very helpful! I have attached the original.
Thank you for uploading the original video. Unfortunately, the camera is so unsteady that good stabilisation without the resulting image being substantially zoomed-in is a gigantic ask. For example, at 00:51:19 the bird's head clips the top of the frame; at 00:13:20 most of the branch (LH side) falls out of shot.
The best stabilisation result I got was in DaVinci Resolve using its ''Perspective" stabilisation mode - but the zoom in is substantial. Turning the zoom off gives a good result but the top/bottom/L/R frame edges is a shuddering mess of ever moving black cropped edges.
Mocha Pro couldn't complete a successful track on this video.
Mercalli 5 SAL in "Glide camera" mode was reasonable but the bird and branch were pitching up and down like a ship in heavy seas.
Vegas Pro's native "Video Stabilisation" FX was also reasonable and with less pitching than in Merc 5. The Expert settings were:
... and with the grid placed over the branch ... but the branch does almost fully fall out of shot at one point.
In all cases, stabilisation suffered at around 00:26:00 when the bird flaps its wings, and the branch suffers a lot from the 'jello' effect throughout the video after stabilisation.
Overall, the video can be improved but only so much and with compromises needed as to steadiness versus the amount of zoom in.
Like Dexcon, I had problems with tracker, difference between frames is too great, I believe i've seen a tutorial related to this about MochaPro, but currently wouldn't know how to proceed. This is what the Resolve Stabilizer looks like as a comparison, also not perfect
@Former user @Dexcon Hi, you can get a track of this with Mocha Pro, tracking the constantly visible part of the branch a 2-3 inches either side of the feet works if you turn the Search Area up to about 400 but the stabilization isn't very good, the birds head is still wobbly, I've seen this before with Mocha, If you track one object, other parts further away get distorted, using the spline with + on the end so all splines are in the same layer tracking several parts around the screen helps but still leaves a bit of distortion. you can't do that with this, the bird moves too much.
Using unlink tracking with a big spline covering more than half the screen you get a full track also ( I turned the search area up again but I don't know if that works with Unlink) & I had to adjust the spline a bit twice just to make Mocha continue tracking, this gives a better overall stability of branch & bird but as you've mentioned there's serious cropping if you apply full stabilization+Crop+Zoom, turning the smoothing down to a point where the cropping is acceptable leaves too much shake. The results of both tacks weren't worth keeping., That Resolve Stabilizer is pretty good for this clip, ,
@Former user I remember your number plate track, very proficient. I am thinking Resolve's 'guess' may actually be correct, and the bird is shaking what at first looks like a substantial branch that shouldn't be shaking, but then again that's a big bird, so Mocha maybe be keeping a shaking branch stable, while bird artificially shakes instead - that may make sense (bird shakes at around 20seconds)
With stabilizers it can be difficult to work out what is introduced synthetic wobble and what is real movement
@Former user 👍 I've had to stabilize more of my vids than I'd like, because of the tripod I use is sat on the top of something I'm working on, it's sat on sawdust floors, floorboards & shakes a fraction by machines or outside by the wind, Movement/shake is always minimal tho,
This bird clip would be better if it wasn't already zoomed in so close & had a bit of 'play' all around to allow for cropping.
Like i say that Resolve one you posted is quite impressive, I quite often used Adobe AE's Warp Stabilizer (haven't got AE anymore) which was pretty good but I remember from previous posts on here it wasn't as good as a different one that was prob Resolve. I have Topaz but it's the Enhancer, don't use it & can't remember from those previous posts if it was a stabilizer or if it was any good,🤷♂️
Here's a link of your video stabilized in Topaz Video AI. It's on OneDrive https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvEeirjEFWKUgdwvffJJ8Cq_S99h5A?e=F261ss
Based on @Former user 's use of a half screen track in Mocha Pro, tracking worked for the length of the video ... but the result was terrible.
The result that I got with Resolve is much the same as @Former user uploaded, not all that surprising since there are few user controls with Resolve stabilisation.
As Gid stated:
This bird clip would be better if it wasn't already zoomed in so close & had a bit of 'play' all around to allow for cropping.
... or a tripod was used (unless of course this was a conincidental and unintended shot).
At around 00:28:00 in video, I got the impression that the bird was looking at me asking, "Why are you doing this?" 😃🕊😀