Using premiere to correct & maintain a constant camera speed?

[Lee M]

I am working on the logistics of a one take that I would like to maintain a constant slow camera speed. I am using the DJI Ronin handheld walking about 10 feet and am noticing that the speed is inconsistent. The Ronin is actually set to speed 1 on pan and tilt, if that gives you an idea of how slow I want to go. I don't think warp stabilizer in adobe premiere has an option to maintain a consistent speed. Are there any post editing tools to help with this? I don't think adjusting the speed setting in Premiere 100 times for batches of inconsistent frames is practical but that's the only thing I am finding searching online.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Lee, can you post footage of your test?

 

[Björn Benckert]

Its quite easy in a normal compositing tool.
preferably 3d track the movement and then remove jitter to the number that equals the frame length of your clip then the movement should be 100% constant. you would probably have to push in a bit into the frame as the inconsistant camera move would show as the image moving out of frame. upload footage some place and we can fix it for u.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Bjorn, what compositing tools would you recommend for this type of work? Thanks!

 

[Eric Santiago]

Bjorn, what compositing tools would you recommend for this type of work? Thanks!

use After Effects Timewarp.

 

[Lee M]

I will give timewarp a shot. I tested the same shot last night with a jib on a track instead of the Ronin on ready rig and it seemed to do a lot better but the jib is a harder setup/logistics then the freedom of handheld. You can see there is a bit of inconsistent speed in both videos but not too much. I can try to perfect the shot but if I mess up doing a good actual shot it would be good to know I can make the pace more consistent in post.

With Ronin on Ready Rig Vest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJnom_7KRfo

With Jib Crane on Rubber Track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsCXosGsXI&feature=youtu.be

 

[Eric Santiago]

...it would be good to know I can make the pace more consistent in post...

Using timewarp comes with a price if you dont have extra frames to play with.

AE does a great job interpolating missing frames but it depends on your taste of course.

 

[Lee M]

Playing with 3d track now, seems pretty confusing. Any other options if I mess up the speed? Should I just shoot at 48FPS instead of 24FPS?

 

[Eric Santiago]

Playing with 3d track now, seems pretty confusing. Any other options if I mess up the speed? Should I just shoot at 48FPS instead of 24FPS?

I would shoot at 48fps.

For testing export an HD version ProRes LT or whatever your system can handle.

Place clip into a composition timeline preferably a few seconds longer than original clip for time buffer.

Select Enable Timewarp from Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping.

You should see two key frames (toggle U to view all keyframes) at start and end of clip.

A keyframe represents a point in time.

So you would need to add keyframes at specific times to play with the speed.

If you haven't used this before, I suggest to play with it a bit to get accustomed to the workflow.

 

[Lee M]

Thanks Eric I will give that a go! Would it cause the speed of the subject and audio to change noticeably?

I would shoot at 48fps.

For testing export an HD version ProRes LT or whatever your system can handle.

Place clip into a composition timeline preferably a few seconds longer than original clip for time buffer.

Select Enable Timewarp from Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping.

You should see two key frames (toggle U to view all keyframes) at start and end of clip.

A keyframe represents a point in time.

So you would need to add keyframes at specific times to play with the speed.

If you haven't used this before, I suggest to play with it a bit to get accustomed to the workflow.

 

[Eric Santiago]

Yes of course it would affect audio.

You would need to fix that in post.