Image Stabilizer in FCPX

[Dominik Muench]

Hi Guys


I was wondering if anyone could help me understand image stabilisation in final cut x a little better. I have around 10 clips in my timeline that need a little stabilising done to them and I applied the basic final cut pro effect to it, which does a great job, however now i have black bars at the top and bottom of the image jumping up and down, sort of like a jittery letterbox effect.
If I upscale the footage from 100 to 110% the bars are gone, but then my footage gets quite fuzzy and out of focus. Is there a better way ?

thank you.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

That's pretty much standard process for stabilization; you have to give up a little around the edges to get things smoothed out. So, the slight upscaling is going to be necessary. Perhaps your fuzziness is simply due to it not having yet rendered. It certainly shouldn't be any more out of focus than the original. And the upscaling should have a pretty minimal effect. And, if a recall, you can make some adjustments as to how you do the stabilizing (horizontal, vertical, etc.). And, FWIW, I think the stabilization might be a little more powerful if you go to Motion. :smiley:

 

[Scott Crawley]

Image stabilization: another reason for 5k acquisition for 4k distro. ;-)

 

[Bob Gundu]

Also, don't judge the footage until you render it out. A little sharpening helps too.

 

[David Battistella]

What size timeline are you dealing with?

If you are in a 1080P timeline, you could easily scale the clips with no real sign of loss.
If you are in a 5K timeline you will have to blow it up a bit

The other thing to check is your timeline render format settings/codec. sometimes the render defaults to prores instead of prores HQ.

The rest of the advice in here is good advice.

David

 

[Bob Gundu]

If you are editing higher res clips in a lower res timeline, the default setting for Spatial Conform is "fit". For the clips to fit at 100% change it to none and then scale down to your liking.

 

[Dominik Muench]

thanks for the help guys, im using 1280x720 footage as this is only for a web clip on vimeo. the footage looks a little fuzzy in FCPX, I've been trying to render out a test version for the last two hours but I'm getting a strange render error I never encountered before when exporting footage.

I usually just export through FCPX as a "Apple Devices 720p" option into H264, but the last two renders came up with a quicktime error message -50, and now this render just keeps idling at 16%.....argh.

 

[David Battistella]

thanks for the help guys, im using 1280x720 footage as this is only for a web clip on vimeo. the footage looks a little fuzzy in FCPX, I've been trying to render out a test version for the last two hours but I'm getting a strange render error I never encountered before when exporting footage.

I usually just export through FCPX as a "Apple Devices 720p" option into H264, but the last two renders came up with a quicktime error message -50, and now this render just keeps idling at 16%.....argh.

Maybe try this.

Set the sequence settings to Prores 4444
render settings to Prores 4444
export a master file.
drag the master file to compressor and create the h264 in there.

i use x264 and handbrake and the results are stunning on two pass encodes.

david

 

[Dominik Muench]

thanks David, where can I change the settings for my sequence in fcpx ? or do you mean the export settings for the clip ?

I think there is something fundamentally wrong with my project, because on the background render task monitor, it keeps starting and stopping at 6%, but never progresses further from there.

 

[David Battistella]

thanks David, where can I change the settings for my sequence in fcpx ? or do you mean the export settings for the clip ?

Go to the main projects wwindow select you project don't double click into it.
in the inspector on the right you will see a little wrench icon, that is the sequence preferences.
click on it.
set the setting for the sequence and render
close
double click into you sequences.
command a for select all
then render all (not in front of a machine so I forget the exact menu
after the render is complete chose the share >export master ffile then do the compressor thing.
Seriously, download and install x264, it's much faster.

david

 

[Dominik Muench]

cheers for that, will give this a try now and see how i go

 

[David Battistella]

Ok,

best of luck.

David

 

[Bob Gundu]

Yes I would never suggest you render a different format out of FCP. Way to slow. Always render out a master and then use compressor to convert. At least 3 times faster this way. Safer too.

 

[Dominik Muench]

Ok so I tried Davids approach, but same issue here, the transcoding progress bar idles at 16% and nothing happens.

the footage plays fine in the timeline all the way through and there are no glitches. but it wont let me export.

Since I am using the original red file names, could it help if i re render all the files and reconnect them in my timeline ?

i originally rendered out fo redcine X as apple proresHQ in 1280x720 and ingested to final cut.

 

[Scott Crawley]

You may have a bad render file or alias. I would try a re-render, but save the existing render files just in case. Quit FCPX then go into the project folder and rename the render folder in question. then relaunch and re-render.

 

[Dominik Muench]

thanks Scott, transcoding new files now, hope that fixes the issue.

 

[Scott Crawley]

It could also be an effect or transition. I would search the beginning of the cut for customized transitions or effects. A wonky motion file could be at fault. If no, then try the re-render.

Is it possible that an effect you are using is just extremely slow to render from your source footage? Stabilizations can be S L O W to render. @720 it shouldn't be that bad though.

Good Luck

 

[Dominik Muench]

Scott: I m running neat video noise reduction on all the footage. transition is a good idea I will check that, Im using a few transitions ive never worked with before so that might be the issue.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Neat video will definitely bring it to a crawl.

 

[Dominik Muench]

Bob: my footage is proresLT 1280x720 and the edit about 8 minutes long..... you reckon that would take a while ? I had it rendering for about two hours and nothing changed....it wouldn't take that long ?