This is basically a short written set of instructions derived from Cody Wanner‘s YouTube video on the topic, refined a little for simplicity and updated for the newer GUI in more recent versions of Final Cut Pro. So feel free to view that video if you prefer that medium. I just find I need to reference this sporadically and it’s easier to just re-read written instructions that re-watch a whole video.
Background: Final Cut Pro’s built-in image stabilisation is a bit unreliable. Sometimes it works perfectly, just like you’d expect. Most of the time it requires manual tweaking and futzing in order to get good-enough results. And sometimes it just does not work, no matter what you do, for reasons that are beyond me. The technique shown here is annoyingly laborious to execute, but it works not just more reliably but also often just better (if your objective is complete stabilisation, at least).
Steps:
- Duplicate the clip (option-drag it in the timeline view) and place the duplicate above1 the original. Ensure it’s perfectly aligned on the timeline’s X (time) axis, otherwise it won’t show up as a tracking source in step 3.2.
- On the duplicate clip (make sure it’s selected and your playback position is within it so that you can see what you’re doing!):
- Invert the scale (e.g. make it -100% instead of the default 100%).
- Invert the X & Y offsets (if necessary – if they were non-zero beforehand).
- Add an Object Tracker (the + icon to the right of the “Tracker” titlebar at the bottom of the Video Inspector (right-hand pane)).
- A white grid – your anchor section – should appear over your clip. Move and resize it to have it cover an appropriate part of the clip (a subsection that’s contrasty and contains object(s) that are stable – in appearance and position – within the world space of the scene, and ideally are never obscured by anything during the clip).
- ☝️ You can adjust the timeline position of the clip to find the optimum frame in which to identify your anchor section.
- Click Analyze.
- ⚠️ This will sometimes not work if certain other operations are outstanding, such as dominant motion analysis for the clip – you have to either cancel those background tasks or wait for them to finish. One of Final Cut Pro’s many irritating bugs.
- ⚠️ Watch carefully as it works through the clip (forwards from your starting point, then backwards, as necessary), for:
- Your anchor section being intruded upon by any moving objects within the scene. If that happens, try to go back and refine your anchor section placement so that it won’t be intruded upon. If that’s impossible, you can proceed but be aware that the results may be subpar.
- The anchor section changing in position and size – the more it ‘wobbles’, the worse the final results are likely to be. Consider different anchor section placement, or try a different analysis method (in the Video Inspector, for your Object Track, change the Analysis Method from the default, “Automatic”, to another option – note that you must click Analyze again after changing this, for it to take effect).
- On the original clip:
- Open the Transform viewer (the rectangle icon in the “Transform” titlebar in the Video Inspector).
- Click the downward chevron next to “Tracker” text on the Tracker tab button (at the top of the video preview view), to bring up the configuration pop-up:
- Set Tracker Source to your duplicate clip.
- Set Tracker to the Object Tracker (or whatever you renamed it to).
- Set the axes you want stabilisation to apply to (the Apply Tracker To checkboxes).
- Disable the duplicate (e.g. V key while it’s selected).
- ☝️ You cannot have it disabled before you select it as the Tracker Source, as it won’t show up in the pop-up menu while disabled.
- On the original clip:
- Set the scale to -100%.
- Adjust the X & Y positions to correct the framing, if necessary (if your X & Y position were both 0 on the original clip, this shouldn’t be necessary). Note that this usually isn’t a simple sign inversion as in similar previous steps.
Optional sixth step: file a bug report or suggestion with Apple asking for them to make their built-in image stabilisation work better, and/or make the object tracker GUI easier to use (it could be just one or two clicks, to enable it and say “lock this part of the scene in place”).
- Technically it doesn’t matter if it’s above or below, I just find it slightly more convenient when it’s above as usually it’ll be disabled (showing the original, now-stabilised version from below) but I access it easily by simply enabling it (V key), such as if I want to adjust the tracking. ↩︎
