Comments Perhaps the most exciting new feature in After Effects CS5.5 is the Warp Stabilizer effect. This effect automatically stabilizes a shot, removing unwanted motion.
Chris and Trish Meyer review the Warp Stabilizer effect on the ProVideo Coalition website, as well as providing a very detailed and absolutely crucial set of video tutorials on Adobe TV. Please, watch these videos before using the Warp Stabilizer:
- introduction to the Warp Stabilizer
- basic properties of the Warp Stabilizer
- advanced properties of the Warp Stabilizer (mostly about synthesizing edges)
- using the Warp Stabilizer to stabilize a background, not a foreground
Video2Brain provides a set of videos about stabilizing motion:
- extended overview of Warp Stabilizer effect
- details of Warp Stabilizer effect controls
- using the point tracker (legacy tracker) for stabilizing motion
- brief overview and demonstration of the Warp Stabilizer effect
Mark Christiansen also reviews the Warp Stabilizer effect as part of an overall review of After Effects CS5.5 on the ProVideo Coalition webiste, and he gives some basic instructions in a video on the Lynda.com website.
Yes, there have already been features—both in After Effects and in other software—that have provided motion stabilization capabilities, but these have been more labor intensive and not as capable of dealing with various problems that come from undesired camera movement.
If you’ve ever used other motion stabilization tools, you know that the stabilization process results in gaps around the shot as the layer is moved to compensate for unwanted camera motion. The conventional way to deal with these gaps has been to scale and/or crop the shot, losing information and resolution. The Warp Stabilizer effect provides the option of synthesizing edges, filling in the gaps around the edges with image information from previous or subsequent frames. Advanced parameters provide a high degree of control over how the edges are synthesized and the gaps filled in.
Another problem with conventional motion stabilization techniques that merely move and skew an entire layer is that they don’t deal with the problems of parallax—the changes in perspective as a camera shifts its position relative to the foreground subject and the background. The Warp Stabilizer analyzes many, many points in each frame and determines how to subtly distort (warp) the image to remove unnecessary motion and remove these artifacts of parallax. Rolling shutter artifacts common to HDSLR cameras can also be diminished.
The Warp Stabilizer effect is the outgrowth of the work of many people, including university researchers and members of the Adobe research team. Jue Wang gives some insight into the technology leading up to the Warp Stabilizer effect here.
For details of all new and changed features in After Effects CS5.5, see this page.
Will the warp stabilizer work well with footage shot with a handheld glidecam/merlin or other similar stabilizer? I would hope you could use the warp stabilizer to make an absolutely perfect shot of footage that was already decently shot on a handheld stabilizer. Is there any reason why the warp stabilizer would not work well in this situation?
[reply from TMGK:
It should work. The best thing to do to be sure is to get the trial version and see for yourself. There's information about the trial version here:
http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2011/04/improved-trial-version-for-after-effects-cs5-5.html
]
I recently used the Warp Stabilizer and I am impressed! I had a 40-seconds, hand held, walking shot that needed to be stabilized and the WS did a great job. And it was very easy to use. I think it is the closest I have gotten to 1-click stabilization
You guys rock!
Peter,
Denmark
May I also recommend my technique for using the warp stabilizer to remove motion from a clip for easy rotoscope: http://t.co/oEsRt2j
Is Warp Stabilizer available for cs4 or cs5?
It’s new in After Effects CS5.5.
Hello to all,
I just started to make some picture stabilization with new warp stabilizer but when I export video, quality of it is not the best. I try export in all formats but results is the same. Is this because stabilizer or am I doing something wrong. My original footage is in mpeg-2 and I import that footage direct in ae.
Bring questions to the After Effects forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/aftereffects_general_discussion
Can anyone provide some links where i can READ about WS. I just dont have time to watch a dozen videos, when a few pages of text would do the job.
The first link on this page is to the Warp Stabilizer section in After Effects Help, which is nothing but text.