Rotating a clip and deshaking

[David_S]

Two questions from a beginner
1) Is there any way in MS of rotating a clip to correct for an inclined camera angle? For example a shot of a lake or the sea with the horizon not horizontal. I have searched the manual and help but can find no reference at all.
2) Is there a plugin or something similar to reduce camera shake such as the Steadyhand plugin for Adobe. I have resorted to using VirtualDub with the Deshaker filter which works well (and it's free) but it would be much more convenient to be able to do it from within MS.

[Terry Stetler]

You can rotate and scale video by applying a 2D Advanced Moving Path to the clip. Once in the dialog control the position and scaling of the clip with keyframes in the Motion Control windows timeline.

I'd start by clicking on the first keyframe (a red diamond) and setting the Width and Height to those of the project settings. Center the clip using the X/Y settings.

Now right-click the first keyframe to get the context menu and Copy its settings, Pasting them to the end keyframe. This gives you a stationary and centered moving path. Finally check the "Keep 'Aspect Ratio" checkbox.

Now you can rotate the clip with either the dial on the right or its associated rotate spin box. You can also Zoom in using the Width & Height settings in case the frame corners get "empty".

All you need do is change the Width setting and the "Keep Aspect Ratio" function will set the Height for you. In my experience zooming a 720 wide frame to a Width of about 860 should cover enough of the corners for a rotation of up to 20 degrees.

You can also add more keyframes with varying rotation values during the clips duration to give the "seasick" effect if you so desire

[Devil]

1. Terry has answered you adequately. I remember one shot, in particular, I took where I was doing a 180° panorama with the sea as the background and a building in the foreground. I carefully set the cam on the tripod and adjusted the horizon to the coastline on the left of the building. When I started to edit the shot, I discovered the horizon on the right of the building was as much as 3 or 4° out. I must have been lacking caffeine, as I had set the camera on the tripod without ensuring that the bubble on the tripod head was centred I corrected this perfectly with MSP7 and no one would have guessed my error.

2) If you are using DV, SteadyHand does have a pretty good shake corrector which works with any editor. However, if you input DV Type 1, it outputs DV Type 2. The best example I have of its use was a shot in Utah. I caught a glimpse of a Bighorn sheep behind some bushes and handheld a shot at full zoom. It lasted only about 1½ secs, but it was completely unviewable as is, because I was twisting around, as well as trying to keep the beastie in frame, as it rushed behind some bushes. I hopefully passed it through SteadyHand and the animal became recognisable for what it was. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

[Fizick]

Devil_S,
I have answer to your second question in first post.

There is DePan video filter for Ulead MSP.
It is motion stabilizer similar to Steadyhand and Deshaker.
It works at Ulead timeline.
See link:
http://www.fizick.com
Try.

[David_S]

Thanks to all of you for your detailed replies. And thanks for not telling me to use a tripod! A lot of my footage is shot when hiking/hunting in the mountains around here and my pack is heavy enough with supplies for a week without adding a tripod. And as Devil found with his Bighorn wild animals don't hang around to pose for their picture while I am setting up a tripod. Though I have started carryng a nifty pocket-sized lightweight mini-tripod which is handy if I have time. David

[heinz-oz]

in similar situations I often use a monopod which can double up as a walking stick . Not as good as a tripod but a lot steadier then a nopod

[David_S]

Heinz-oz, you have set me thinking - maybe I could use a bipod which fits either the camera or my rifle for those extra long shots!

Fizick - I have tried Depan but can't see any real improvement at all though I have experimented with various settings. This is probably because the explanation of what the settings do is not very clear to me so I have most likely set them incorrectly. I tried what I thought were quite aggressive settings but nothing much happened. A pity as it looks a lot easier working within MS7 than using deshaker or Steadyhand though they both give good results. I also note that it is designed for smoothing panning shots rather than smoothing the jerkiness associated with hand-held cameras, though I would have thought the corrections required were similar.

[David_S]

Terry Stetler - your instructions re rotating a clip were very clear. Thanks for your time. I knew there must be a way somewhere in MS7 but could not find it. Quite easy when someone shows you how. Thanks. David