Aerial Drone Shot - Tracker is Great but How to Stabilize?!

Hello there,

I'm trying to stabilize a rotating 'birdseye' drone shot. (Please see the jpg). It was a windy day so although the drone was rotating nicely, it was also getting blown to the left and right of the subject. I'm trying to stabilize so that the rotation keeps happening but it ALSO stays directly over the subject, with no left or right drift.

Using a power window and the tracker, Resolve has done a great job of staying on the subject even as the drone rotates. So now i'd like to keep the rotation (lock the center point of power window?), but stop the left and right drift. I've tried using the stabilizer in the Tracker window but it seems to ignore the tracker info - just smooths out the shot. I've also tried the stabilizer using the Inspector in the Edit window, which again just smooths the shot, but doesn't stop the drift. I've even gone into fusion, but it doesn't seem to like the rotating subject and loses the track. Arrrgh!

Can anyone help? Kind of specific challenge - but i'd like to solve, so i can keep my client happy!
Thanks,
Rob

Where it says "Window" in the Tracker window, click the arrow down and select "Stabilizer" instead. Then you get the option to stabilize the footage

Something like this?

Hello there,

I'm trying to stabilize a rotating 'birdseye' drone shot. (Please see the jpg). It was a windy day so although the drone was rotating nicely, it was also getting blown to the left and right of the subject. I'm trying to stabilize so that the rotation keeps happening but it ALSO stays directly over the subject, with no left or right drift.

Using a power window and the tracker, Resolve has done a great job of staying on the subject even as the drone rotates. So now i'd like to keep the rotation (lock the center point of power window?), but stop the left and right drift. I've tried using the stabilizer in the Tracker window but it seems to ignore the tracker info - just smooths out the shot. I've also tried the stabilizer using the Inspector in the Edit window, which again just smooths the shot, but doesn't stop the drift. I've even gone into fusion, but it doesn't seem to like the rotating subject and loses the track. Arrrgh!

Can anyone help? Kind of specific challenge - but i'd like to solve, so i can keep my client happy!
Thanks,
Rob

You might try a new feature in 17: Smart Reframe in the Edit page Inspector.
Select: Object of Interest / Reference Point - and draw a box around it.
This is a cool new feature that basically automatically adds Transform/Position keyframes using AI.
(edit: add a slight to modest zoom to eliminate black edges and better results)
You might then review and manually add additional keyframes to keep subject centered.
Or just manually keyframe all of it to taste.

@Mads - thanks, but as per my original post stabilize only smooths the shot, but doesn't stop drifting.

@Dave - thanks and i tried this tutorial, but i found that as my subject rotates (unlike the girl with headphones), Fusion loses track of my subject.

@capthook - thanks for suggesting SmartFrame...it looks promising!, but at the moment I'm not willing to download 17 until its out of Beta. Several client projects that need to get out the door - and I don't want to risk glitches, crashes from database upgrades etc.

So i'm still stuck on how to keep my subject rotating, but not have her drifting? (Here's a screen capture video from Resolve. You can see the tracker doing an amazing job of staying on the subject...but how do I lock the central point, so there's no 'side-to-side' movement):

Are there any Fusion experts or Stabilization wizards who can help me solve?

Thanks,
Rob

If this is literally the footage you want to stabilize and not just one of a series, I'd be tempted to just use a Fusion translation node and stabilize it manually using keyframes. The motion is pretty smooth and slow so it shouldn't take very many keyframes to compensate. The bigger issue might be what to do with the margins if you're not willing to accept a fairly high degree of zoom in.

Version 17.0 final is now out, and works great.
But I understand wanting to wait....
As I mentioned, you can manually keyframe the position using the Transform tool on the edit page in the Inspector.
You might also add a grid overlay by dragging it onto the clip, or into the preview window to help.
The grid can also then be modified by selecting the Effects tab in the Inspector.

grid.jpg (534.39 KiB) Viewed 881 times

Can I hijack this post with a similar question?

The power window tracker in the color tab is extremely fast, like a 1000x faster than the Fusion tracker, and perfectly follows any shake. It does an outstanding job really.

But indeed there doesn't seem to be a way to use this tracking info for stabilization. This baffles me.

I was confused at first until I found out the stabilizer is not connected to the tracker in any way.
I've searched like crazy (including the manual) but it really doesn't seem possible.

Stabilization rarely works properly for me and the fusion tracker is incomparably much slower, requires more steps and has no auto-zoom / fit.

Can I hijack this post with a similar question?

The power window tracker in the color tab is extremely fast, like a 1000x faster than the Fusion tracker, and perfectly follows any shake. It does an outstanding job really.

But indeed there doesn't seem to be a way to use this tracking info for stabilization. This baffles me.

I was confused at first until I found out the stabilizer is not connected to the tracker in any way.
I've searched like crazy (including the manual) but it really doesn't seem possible.

Stabilization rarely works properly for me and the fusion tracker is incomparably much slower, requires more steps and has no auto-zoom / fit.

It is connected. Click the second dot in the tracker window to get the Stabilizer.
(or the manual page 828 or 2738)

It is connected. Click the second dot in the tracker window to get the Stabilizer.
(or the manual page 828 or 2738)

So how do I connect the Window tracker to the stabilization?
Stabilization just does it's own thing.

From the manual:
In Stabilizer mode, the same underlying technology is used to smooth or stabilize the
motion within the entire frame

That suggests that it's not possible to use only a part of the frame for stabilization tracking.
That's a real miss for an otherwise excellent feature.