Blackmagic Forum

Hi. I have 18 clips, half are scenic and the other half are a talking head (subject of small overlay). The overlay was created with transform (zoom, position) and crop properties.

All 9 subject clips have identical transform/crop so that the window is uniform through entire track.

Problem is the camera intermittently pans so that the subject is not centered. This needs to be fixed.

I know how to do it with keyframes so that the subject pans back and the crop adjusts in sync. Problem is it takes forever to do it since there are 10 corrections needed. All those keyframes create huge problems for other adjustments.

I tried fusion tracking without luck. The background bobs around wildly. Edit\stabilization (translation) did not correct it.

Is there anything else that might work?

I can't think of any.

Yikes... ouch. Okay

If installing R17 beta is an option, you could try the smart reframe. It creates keyframes to keep a subject centered, which sounds exactly like what you need. The results I've gotten with it are very hit or miss. When it works, it works pretty well. When it doesn't, it gets it miserably wrong, but it only takes a few seconds to try, and potentially saves some work.

Definitely willing to try! Thanks!

Jason Conrad wrote:If installing R17 beta is an option, you could try the smart reframe. It creates keyframes to keep a subject centered, which sounds exactly like what you need. The results I've gotten with it are very hit or miss. When it works, it works pretty well. When it doesn't, it gets it miserably wrong, but it only takes a few seconds to try, and potentially saves some work.

Is Smart Reframe Studio-only?

I don't think I'm understanding. You have 10 talking heads that are appearing as a picture-in-picture over scenic video, and the talking head shot occasionally pans horizontally -- for some reason -- and the head is then not centered?

It sounds to me like you could stabilize the talking head footage. I'm thinking you'd create a timeline with all 10 talking heads and Stabilize each clip. The clip would wander around in the timeline's View, but you'd then nest the timeline in your final timeline -- the one with the scenic shots in it -- putting it on V2 and then crop THAT to the size you want. Does that make sense? The idea is the talking head timeline has all the talking heads centered, and as long as you crop it (as a clip, nested into the main timeline) small enough you won't see the edges of the actual talking head clips showing.

Also, are you using Studio or free Resolve? Also, you've gotten a suggestion to upgrade to v17 -- and it is amazing -- but be careful because it will convert your DB and render it inoperable in v16! So backup your DB before you try v17! (Read up on the details a bit more. There's a thread about it in this forum.)

wfolta wrote:It sounds to me like you could stabilize the talking head footage. I'm thinking you'd create a timeline with all 10 talking heads and Stabilize each clip. The clip would wander around in the timeline's View, but you'd then nest the timeline in your final timeline -- the one with the scenic shots in it -- putting it on V2 and then crop THAT to the size you want. Does that make sense?

As I mentioned, stabilize did not work. I don't understand how nesting a timeline would make it work, noting I've never nested a timeline before.

Successfully upgraded to 17B studio. Thinking I'll need to undo all talking head crops and then reset their resolutions to the tall aspect. I tried to reframe in the crop window (as is) but it did not account for the crop window also being a fixed reference point.

NickMDal wrote:[quote="wfolta"I mentioned, stabilize did not work. I don't understand how nesting a timeline would make it work, noting I've never nested a timeline before.

[Edited to delete commend on stabilization. I missed a sentence of the OP, and the next post addresses it very well.]

I'm suggesting nesting the clips in a timeline so that you can crop the timeline for all 10 talking heads in one shot. If you get stabilization working, the image is shifted around exposing the edges of the original clip. You usually want to hide this by either cropping, or by scaling the original image up. In your case, it seems cropping makes sense. So if you cropped all of the talking heads to the center 1/3 of the stabilized image it could work in one shot.

The part I don't understand is the bobbing around of the background. Isn't that to be expected if you're changing the position of the head? i.e. you're keeping one thing in place - by stabilizing - then the BG will overcompensate for that, depending on whether or not the optic center of the lens was over the center of the tripod.

How exactly did you stabilize your footage?

The symptoms you describe sound a lot like you used a Planar Tracker on the face. This would definitely move the whole world around as they moved their head while talking. Basically, camera stabilization should look pretty much like what you're going to do by hand, unless there's something strange about the footage.

The symptoms you describe sound a lot like you used a Planar Tracker on the face.

Yes you are right. I used fusion planar tracking, which stabilized one part of the image, in this case the subject's head. The way I tried it held the head steady and let everything else move.

As in this example (go to 4:48), which I followed in my attempt.

For stabilization, I set it to translation (x,y axis since there was only movement on the x), with and without camera lock. Again I'm pretty new to DR so I don't know why it didn't work. No change resulted. (I double checked with uncropped/zoomed original clip and the pan is not corrected by stabilization\translation).

When the camera inadvertently pans, the subject only moves about 6 inches to one side, which crops half of his left shoulder. Its very obvious in the clip since the crop window is tight around the subject.

Feeling that transform (zoom and position) and cropping (all sides plus softness) are interfering somehow.

NickMDal wrote:

The symptoms you describe sound a lot like you used a Planar Tracker on the face.

Yes you are right. I used fusion planar tracking, which stabilized one part of the image, in this case the subject's head. The way I tried it held the head steady and let everything else move.

You got the results you asked Fusion to give you. As the head moves, the Planar Tracker will warp the rest of the world around the head, which is totally unnatural. Locking down a person's face when they talk is about as natural as someone talking with their chin on a table so that their head moves up and down rather than their jaw. This isn't the tool we're talking about when we say "Stabilize".

Use the Stabilize function in Edit/Cut/Color. You want to stabilize the overall image (the camera), not just the face. A full-frame Stabilize will detect camera motion versus subject motion and will stabilize appropriately.

This job would have been done in maybe an hour with manual Position keyframes.

Something to consider.

Jim Simon wrote:This job would have been done in maybe an hour with manual Position keyframes.

In a prior career, I was a software developer. We are notorious for taking a couple of days to develop and debug a program to accomplish what could've been done manually in three hours. Sometimes, it's the journey, not the destination!

Sometimes, it's the journey, not the destination!

I was thinking too that this would have long been done with keyframes. But DR's endless features are so enticing!

Tried stabilization again and it does not solve the problem. The pan seems to not be enough to trigger the function. Tried all modes with and without camera lock and zoom.

Smart reframe doesn't seem right. I can't seem to duplicate the position of the crop box. It does prevent some (not all) lateral movement, but that is moot. It also seems to only apply the timeline resolution to all clips, which does not work for my vid.

Last possibility is a matte composite but I don't see why it alone would successfully stabilize. Guess I'm back to keyframes.

wfolta wrote:

Jim Simon wrote:This job would have been done in maybe an hour with manual Position keyframes.

In a prior career, I was a software developer. We are notorious for taking a couple of days to develop and debug a program to accomplish what could've been done manually in three hours. Sometimes, it's the journey, not the destination!

When I have a deadline or a client breathing down my neck, I care not about the journey!!!

When I have a deadline or a client breathing down my neck, I care not about the journey!!!

Now that I get! Casually exploring new features is for the non-professionals.