In the manual and a couple tutorials, it's mentioned that the "stabilize" button in Mocha is just for preview. There's no method of output.
Is there any way to stabilize footage (I need to remove a couple bumps in a dolly move)? Tried SmoothCam in FinalCut, but it picked up on the moving talent in the shot rather than the background.
Can I bring some tracking data into Shake or After Effects and counteract it?
Re: Mocha as image stabilizer? by Joe Moya on Jun 12, 2008 at 2:52:42 am
Can I bring some tracking data into Shake or After Effects and counteract it?
Yes... at least with After Effects you can... not sure about Shake.
The methods to do this is not really simple... but, it is not that difficult either. The method uses a negative/reverse tracking process that negates the bumb. The trade off is that in some instances, it will force the clip to be enlarges and edges are sometimes loss (...depending upon how much movement there is).
If it was me, I would use Heroglyph's Mercalli to do this since it is MUCH simpler, WAAAY faster and frequently has better stabilizing results. But... if you want to use AE... here is the Andrew Kramer tut. site that shows the methodology (BTW, ... it is not the main subject matter of the tut, but describes the process within the tututorial).
Re: Mocha as image stabilizer? by Ross Shain on Jun 18, 2008 at 5:34:59 pm
One way to do what I believe you are trying to do:
Export mocha tracking as AE transform.
Import into AE.
Delete all keyframes except the anchor point.
Copy anchor point keyframes to transform.
At this point the 2 sets of keyframes balance out and your stabilized image is back to the original.
Next, select the transform keyframes and go to the smoother. Smooth to average all the jitters back to a smoothed motion.
I will try to post a tutorial in the next few days on this. (its on my to do list! )
Re: Mocha as image stabilizer? by Joe Moya on Jun 18, 2008 at 9:19:56 pm
At this point the 2 sets of keyframes balance out and your stabilized image is back to the original.
By that, do you mean that one set of keyframes will the positive/original numbers (i.e., original tracking keyframes) for any rotation changes and the other will be same keyframe points with negative/opposite numbers... and, this would be accomplished with a simple expression using a multiplier of -1 to one set of keyframes?
However,... if you do it that way... you don't want to delete the keyframes... you simply use the tracking keyframes found with Mocha to determine the rotation changes... but you use the negative/opposite direction of a new set of keyframes to remove the movement.
For example, if the original rotation movement was -20 and the next key frame tracks shows a position of +3... then with a simple expression you would multiply each keyframe by -1. The resulting new location for the original x axis movement would be 20 and the next key frame movement would be -3. Associate these new opposite keyframes of 20 and -3 to the entire frame position and you will see the edges of the frame rotate. Then, zoom in to remove any visiable edge movement from view.
The same thing would be corrected with the x and y movements except you simply apply the x and y key frame tracks to the overall frame (like the rotation) then zoom in to remove any edge movement from view.
