In this video,
we’ll take a look at advanced stabilization
in Final Cut Pro.
This looks very different than normal video stabilization,
where the entire framed is analyzed and stabilized.
In this method,
you pick a point or a subject in your frame,
and keep it in the exact same spot,
while the rest of the frame
is shifted around to keep it there.
Some call this the Sherlock effect,
because of its extensive use
in the in the second Sherlock film.
This effect was also used
in the latest Powerbeats Pro commercial,
keeping the headphones
perfectly centred in every shot.
Let’s take a look at how we can do this
in Final Cut Pro.
Hey guys, what’s up.
This is Serge, and welcome back to my channel.
Before we get started,
I’d like to give a huge shoutout
to Pixel Film Studios,
who not only make this effect possible in Final Cut Pro
with their Stabilizers 2.0 plugin,
but also sponsored this video.
So let’s get started.
To achieve this stabilization effect,
you first need to download
and install the Stabilizer 2.0 plugin
from Pixel Film Studios.
I’ll have the link for this in the video description below.
Down in our timeline,
we have a simple shot of a woman
running towards the camera.
If we place a rectangle over her face,
and play back the clip,
you can see just how much it moves.
So let’s stabilize it.
Open the effects browser,
and scroll down to the
Pixel Film Studios - FCPX Stabilizer category.
With your clip selected,
move your playhead to the start of the clip,
and double click the Stabilizer Effect
to apply it to your clip.
Up in the inspector,
de-select the Rotation and Scale Data checkboxes,
and click on the track editor button.
The track editor pops up in it’s own window,
where you can select the part of your clip
you want to base the stabilizer on.
Here, you can use a rectangle or a circle shape
to pick out the focus point of your subject.
For our example,
we’ll focus on the woman’s face,
so a rectangle will work just fine.
For best tracking results,
pick a high contrast area on your subject to focus on,
and make it fairly small.
There’s good contrast between the subject’s
dark eyes and light skin,
so thats what we’ll use for tracking.
Click and drag the red box over the eyes,
and adjust the corner squares to fit the shape.
Under the viewer,
you can adjust the scale of your clip
for more precision.
If you need to move your clip,
select the hand button on the right hand side,
and click and drag your clip to reposition it.
Click on the hand button again to deselect it,
and go back to adjusting your shape.
Next, on the right hand side,
bring the track quality slider
all the way up to 100 percent,
and for tracking type,
select position only.
Click the track forward button to track your clip.
The Stabilizer plugin tracks your selected area,
and in this case
creates keyframes for the position values
on every frame to keep the focus point centred.
Once the tracking is done,
click the export data button.
This exports all the created keyframes,
and adds them to the transform parameter in your clip.
By default,
any time your image moves out of the frame,
the plugin creates a mirror effect
to keep your video frame full.
If you don’t have much movement in your shot,
and a plain background,
sometimes this works,
but majority of the time, it just looks weird.
To disable this mirror effect,
in the inspector,
select the Guide Controls checkbox,
and bring the opacity slider up to 100 percent.
So this is what we have so far.
The stabilizer plugin centres your focus area,
and moves the image on every frame to keep it there.
Next, to fit our frame,
we need to move and scale up our image.
In the inspector,
in the Stabilization Controls,
click on the Offset Position dropdown menu,
and use the X and Y sliders
to move your focal point in the frame.
Skim your clip,
and adjust the position to minimize
the back borders around your image.
Next, use the scale slider to crop in
on your image
to make sure your entire frame is filled.
So, here’s our clip before,
and after the stabilizer has been applied.
Notice how our subjects eyes
stay in the exact position throughout our entire clip.
Let’s try this again in a more extreme example.
This next clip has quite a bit more motion in it,
so let’s try and stabilize it.
I’ll apply the Stabilizer plugin,
de-select the rotation and scale data,
and open the track editor.
Next, I’ll select the woman’s eyes as our focal point,
set the track quality to 100 percent,
and hit the track forward button.
I’ll export the keyframe data from the plugin,
and resize and crop my shot to fill my frame.
This is our clip before,
and this the stabilized version of the same clip.
Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
You can also use this plugin
to not only track the position of a focal point,
but also the rotation and scale.
Let’s try rotation tracking.
In this next clip,
the model slowly tilts her head
from one side to the other.
Apply the Stabilizer plugin to this clip,
select only the rotation data,
and in the track editor,
use the woman’s eye as the focal point.
There is a lot of contrast here,
so it we should be able to get a good track.
Adjust and rotate the shape
to fit the entire eye as close as possible,
and from the Tracking Type dropdown,
select position and rotation.
Bring the track quality slider all the way up,
and hit the track forward button.
When the plugin finishes tracking,
click the Export Data button
to export all our keyframes
and apply them to our clip.
With only applying the rotation data,
this is what the plugin does to our clip.
Our subject’s eye stays perfectly level
throughout our entire shot.
Now we can use the combination of the mirror effect
and scaling to fill our frame.
This is the clip before,
and the same clip after.
The Stabilizer 2.0 plugin
can track the position of your focal point,
it’s rotation, and scale.
You can apply these parameters individually,
use a combination of any of them,
or combine all three for the most extreme effect.
There’s a few things you have to keep in mind
to get the best results for this effect.
When filming,
decide on your focal point,
and keep it as close to the centre of the frame as possible,
to minimize the amount of cropping.
Also, since you will have to do some cropping,
whenever possible,
film in the highest resolution you can.
And last, to get the best tracking results,
your focal point needs to as sharp as possible.
If you have enough light,
turn up your shutter speed to minimize motion blur.
Once again,
I’d like to thank Pixel Film Studios
for making this video possible.
I’ll have a link in the video description
to their website,
where you can download the Stabilizer 2.0 plugin
and many other plugins.
Thanks for watching,
and I’ll see you back here next week.