Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona at DVinfo.net

Torrey Meeks · June 15th, 2011, 03:03 PM

Hi all. I shot this video while in Barcelona with my wife. We finally had a chance to take our honeymoon after being married for six years.

I've been wanting to give a good test to the new Warp Stabilize feature in CS 5.5 and figured this sort of guerilla style street filming would be the perfect opportunity.

I was curious to see how close to the floating Steadicam look I could get with two hands and one lens. Check out the results. I was pretty impressed. All feedback welcome!

Paul Digges · June 15th, 2011, 04:52 PM

Looks to have done a much better job than the Steady Move Pro plugin I used a couple times. I was stoked to see this feature added. I haven't had any time lately to try it out though. Looks like it'll jump to the top of my list though haha.

Can't wait to get home and see this in HD. My poor laptop is ancient and can't do the HD videos haha.

It particularly seems to do a pretty good job of not totally destroying the picture quality like SMP did for me. Were these default settings or did you mess with it some?

Torrey Meeks · June 15th, 2011, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Digges

It particularly seems to do a pretty good job of not totally destroying the picture quality like SMP did for me. Were these default settings or did you mess with it some?

Yeah I was very impressed that it didn't destroy the picture quality. It's very nice in that it usually has to do minimal cropping (on average 110-115%), because it's using some sort of implementation of the wave warp filter to stabilize things.

I did stock settings on most of the shots, but on some it took tweaking and fine tuning. It's a quick system to learn though, really not a complicated plugin at all.

If you tweak it too far you'll get very obvious ripple distortions in your footage where it's overcorrecting for the movement. So, the trick is to find a happy medium. If you look close you can see where some areas of the image warp in this video. What I like about it is most of the time, it's not distorting the areas of the image that your eyes are focused on, so it doesn't throw you out of the picture.

Paul Digges · June 15th, 2011, 06:13 PM

Word, well I'm sold. I've seen some people on here say they weren't a fan, but it looks like it did the job pretty darn well to me. I think it's all a matter of taking the time to do it clip by clip. I've known some people to output their entire work area to a single clip and then apply grading or stabilization to that, which of course if there's any sort of variety in your shots isn't going to give satisfactory results.

Were render times alright?

Torrey Meeks · June 15th, 2011, 06:36 PM

Render times were very reasonable unless I got into the advanced settings. Even then though, it wasn't bad. Yeah with any kind of stabilization you really have to isolate the exact segment you want. Clip by clip is essential.

Might as well not even waste your time if you're trying to apply one stabilize filter an entire baked down sequence of shots all at once.

What I really love about it is that it doesn't analyze the entire subclip like FCP's SmoothCam. i.e. When you apply SmoothCam it doesn't just analyze the clip you've selected, it analyzes the WHOLE video file. So you have to clip, export, reimport. A real pain.

Warp Stabilize analyzes only the clip segment you've selected, nothing more. It's fantastic.

Paul Digges · June 15th, 2011, 07:43 PM

Sweet, that's all good news to hear. Oh, and congrats on finally getting to go on your honeymoon! Looked like a pretty great trip. The video was really nice.

Greg Fiske · June 16th, 2011, 10:46 AM

I wonder how it compares to prodad? Prodad is pretty quick, warp stabilizer takes a couple runs to finalize?

June 15th, 2011, 03:03 PM	#1
Torrey Meeks Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Las Cruces, NM Posts: 25	Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona Hi all. I shot this video while in Barcelona with my wife. We finally had a chance to take our honeymoon after being married for six years. I've been wanting to give a good test to the new Warp Stabilize feature in CS 5.5 and figured this sort of guerilla style street filming would be the perfect opportunity. I was curious to see how close to the floating Steadicam look I could get with two hands and one lens. Check out the results. I was pretty impressed. All feedback welcome! Honeymoon on Vimeo

June 15th, 2011, 04:52 PM	#2
Paul Digges Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 153	Re: Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona Looks to have done a much better job than the Steady Move Pro plugin I used a couple times. I was stoked to see this feature added. I haven't had any time lately to try it out though. Looks like it'll jump to the top of my list though haha. Can't wait to get home and see this in HD. My poor laptop is ancient and can't do the HD videos haha. It particularly seems to do a pretty good job of not totally destroying the picture quality like SMP did for me. Were these default settings or did you mess with it some?

June 15th, 2011, 06:13 PM	#4
Paul Digges Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 153	Re: Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona Word, well I'm sold. I've seen some people on here say they weren't a fan, but it looks like it did the job pretty darn well to me. I think it's all a matter of taking the time to do it clip by clip. I've known some people to output their entire work area to a single clip and then apply grading or stabilization to that, which of course if there's any sort of variety in your shots isn't going to give satisfactory results. Were render times alright?

June 15th, 2011, 06:36 PM	#5
Torrey Meeks Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Las Cruces, NM Posts: 25	Re: Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona Render times were very reasonable unless I got into the advanced settings. Even then though, it wasn't bad. Yeah with any kind of stabilization you really have to isolate the exact segment you want. Clip by clip is essential. Might as well not even waste your time if you're trying to apply one stabilize filter an entire baked down sequence of shots all at once. What I really love about it is that it doesn't analyze the entire subclip like FCP's SmoothCam. i.e. When you apply SmoothCam it doesn't just analyze the clip you've selected, it analyzes the WHOLE video file. So you have to clip, export, reimport. A real pain. Warp Stabilize analyzes only the clip segment you've selected, nothing more. It's fantastic.

June 15th, 2011, 07:43 PM	#6
Paul Digges Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 153	Re: Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona Sweet, that's all good news to hear. Oh, and congrats on finally getting to go on your honeymoon! Looked like a pretty great trip. The video was really nice.

June 16th, 2011, 10:46 AM	#7
Greg Fiske Major Player Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Santa Ana, CA Posts: 499	Re: Warp Stabilize test with handheld shoot in Barcelona I wonder how it compares to prodad? Prodad is pretty quick, warp stabilizer takes a couple runs to finalize?