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Newsletter No. 34
A TRIPOD FOR YOUR VIDEO EDITOR!
Mercalli from ProDad sets new standards
For video stabilisation!
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
I'm often asked - where are the previous Newsletters kept? The answer is, they are
usually incorporated into the relevant tips pages on this site. It seemed to me more
logical to do that than to keep them all in one place. Thus, a previous Newsletter
covering the creation of moving lines on a map can be found in the Edit section,
under the heading 'How to create moving lines on a map.
Some Newsletters, with transitory information, are simply dropped from the scene...
I suggest you save this (or any other) page (File>Save as) for reading off-line or
printing out.
I have re-adjusted all the page settings, so they should print ok now, but if they
don't ... set the printer to landscape. Alternatively, load the saved page into Word
(HTML format), and resize it to suit your printer parameters.
Rarely does a Plug-in generate as much enthusiasm and excitement as the recent offering from ProDad - already renowned for their superb range of plug-ins to help amateur - and prosumer - videographers get more from (and put more into) their movies. Mercalli, a video ‘deshaker’, doesn’t just work brilliantly, it is also simplicity itself to use, taking virtually all of the donkey work - experienced when using most other ‘stabilizer’ plug-ins - out of the task.
The video editor’s Tripod!
Make no mistake, Mercalli really does work where others can fail to show any improvement. We all (well, certainly me) suffer from shaky shots - especially when a tripod cannot or has not been used. Videos shot through an airplane window, from the deck of a boat, from a speeding car, or simply trying to follow the flight of a bird or a running animal - all can (and often do) suffer from the wobbles. Unavoidable. And until now, very difficult to cure. Enter Mercalli, and the problem is solved.
Two Flavours. Mercalli comes in two flavours, and as a Plug-in, neither can be called ‘cheap’ . The ‘basic version will handle virtually everything most home movie makes could possibly want, handles SD videos, and costs 59 Euros/Dollars. The ‘Expert’ version offers more options - and can handle HD videos - for 119 Euros/Dollars. You must add local taxes to these prices. That may sound a bit expensive at first, but consider the cost of a decent tripod, and then consider that with Mercalli, you have an extremely efficient tripod attached to your video editor, ready to pull out and use whenever you want. Suddenly, it doesn’t look too expensive after all! .
How does it work?
When applied as a filter to a clip, Mercalli examines every frame of the footage, and detects and analyses the movement. You can select an object as the ‘subject’ to concentrate on, or simply regard the whole frame as something that needs stabilizing. Unlike many other ‘stabilizers’, you don’t have to sit and battle with complex mathematical theories - Mercalli does all that for you. All you need to do is choose, from a list, the a stabilisation (or ‘de-shaking ‘, as they call it) profile you want for the clip. How hard can that be?
You may have to experiment at first to get the kind of stabilization you want, but you’ll very quickly find the one that suits the subject best. The point is, the analysis is extremely fast - and carried out at sub-pixel level to cater for the slightest movements. Rendering too is pretty fast, though to some extent, this must depend on your operating system.
Mercalli works with PAL and NTSC, SD and, for the expert version HD, HDV and HDTV. It will also work with VGA formats - as used in mobile phones, for example, and even formats such as WHUXGA.
It works under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista. (all trademarks recognised).
At the moment, Plug-ins are available for
Avid Liquid 7, Canopus Edius 4, Adobe Premiere Pro 1, 1.5.2 and CS3, And Premiere Elements 1, 1.5,2 and 3.
What, no Studio? It is coming - probably by the time you read this (say, by November 2007) a plug-in will also be available for Studio 11.
Just have a look at these examples showing the original footage, and the Mercalli de-shaken footage. When you realise that these were achieved, almost literally at the click of a button, you’ll appreciate just how good Mercalli is.
And - it comes with the shakes!
Quite the reverse of stabilizing your video, if you want to give a clip a bit of a shake-up - to emulate an earthquake perhaps, well, ProDad are now including their Video Shaker with Mercalli, for free.
Get the full story
Visit the Mercalli pages of the ProDad web site for the full story. And stop those shaky videos, for ever!
Check the degree of stabilization achieved in this split screen demo, taken from a boat - where a ‘conventional’ tripod would be useless. Mercalli - your video editing tripod - to the rescue!
