Keeping talking head centered in frame

I also asked this question to CoreMelt's forum on Creative Cow but thought someone on here might know the answer:

I shot some "talking head" video in 1280x720. The talking head for the most part stands still but a few times does move. I am not using the full width of the video since I am placing the Powerpoint slide next to the talking head. Is there a way with SliceX/Track X I can track the subject so that when the subject moves I can keep them in the center of the frame? I know I can keyframe the movement but want to try it with SliceX/Track if possible.

I asked the same question a couple of weeks ago

www.fcp.co/fcp-forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-f...ecified-bounds/54465


no aswer as yet... but I can tell you that keyframing it takes a LONG time!

I'm sure it must be possible to have rectangular matte track the speaker's head.
Then all we need to be able to do is tell it that one corner of the clip should always be at a specified corner of the viewer.....it just has to be possible.

Hi, sorry I missed the post a few weeks ago. I replied to the one on our creative cow forum yesterday. Please email us at support at coremelt dot com

It might be possible to do this with lock and load but I need to see some of the footage to try it out. The best way to contact us is always to email or use our support form and we always reply within one business day.

Roger, it would be fabulous if you could figure out how to do this with one or more CoreMelt plugins. I've tried in the past without success but you know your plugins much better. I'd be happy to work with you on this.

Highab, I posted in your other thread my workflow using tracking in Motion after your latest post here. It may not be the answer you are looking for but it does work.

I saw, thanks.

Exporting 2 hours worth of 2 minute clips to have motion do something to them to then import them back into the right place seems fraught with perils to me, and very slow because we've a computer that needs replaceing.... and this all the more so as this could be something we'd want to do regularly. A plugin of some sort really would be ideal.

I like the look of the coremelt slice transitions.... if there were a way to play with them to keep the split at a certain position when there's a portrait jpg in the presentation and then move it to another place when there's a landscape jpg in the presentation, etc... that could be nice...., but still wouldn't ensure that I have the speaker in the right place at the right time.

Surely a left crop/ right crop could be bound to a spot on the speaker? (and changeable depending on the image to be shown in the presentation)

I hope so!

I plan to send Roger some footage when I can get around to it later today. What I did since I had to have the video done today is to keyframe the first frame where she starts to move in the direction when she goes off centered. Then I added a keyframe when she came back to center. Next I just added keyframes from half way between keyframes. This seemed to work. Since I am going from a 16x9 frame to something closer to square I also had to do some cropping. You can crop the footage but then you would have to keyframe the crop also. Instead I added an adjustment layer to the footage and did the cropping from that layer. A little time consuming but the technique did work.

Please send the footage, we will do our best to find a solution because a few people have asked us for this.

Hi, I'm getting closer to an answer....

1)import clip into motion
2)analyse motion for the clip in Motion
3)add a camera, OK change to 3D layer
4)add track motion behaviour to camera
5)drag the analyse motion track to the track motion source well in the inspector for the camera track

It's definitely a step in the right direction, although I've probably more to learn about tracking the speaker properly.

I have not heard back from CoreMelt yet. After the holiday I will try your approach.

Hi there

Somebody has asked a very similar question on this thread:
www.fcp.co/fcp-forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-f...please-read-in#59111

I've proposed a solution there (that I don't want to copy here to avoid a double discussion), but it might be improved.

Are there any news on this topic? Roger did you find a solution ? I think it could be a new idea to implement in Lock & Load.

Hi, I've heard nothing at all about this and this would be REALLY useful to be able to do automatically.

At the moment the idea I suggested breaks down for me because I can't track more than a few minutes before the track is lost and not all means of tracking allow me to get to X point and pick up tracking.... and restarting every 2 minutes out of a 1.5 hour clip is not something I'd be looking forward to doing.

Some of that will be because our computer isn't good enough any more.... a new one is about to be bought so I'll be better able to work through things after that.

Thanks for bumping this topic, I'm sure we're not the only ones this interests.

I'll have a look at that link in more detail too. Thanks

Yes. I've just posted a reminder on your post there.

I am really frustrated with Coremelt's support.

It's like a lottery over there: sometimes they answer you in 2 minutes, sometimes they never do. Very often they start helping you and then never come back.

It's a very poor customer service.

It's too bad because SliceX is extremely powerful, but also difficult to use - the tracker is a wild animal - and there are some bugs that they don't seem to fix.

Chiming in...with plan B.

Depending on footage, MOTION "stabilize behavior" can use full image, a specified surface or traditional tracking points. I have also tested Davinci Resolve stabilizer which is quite a performer !

We did look into this, but it can't be done with our current products. It might be something we can add in future but its not something we can add with a quick fix.

I'm not sure what bugs in SliceX you are referring to, please can you email us at support at coremelt dot com so we an help you.

Hi there,
In my first post on this forum I asked about something similar and got some great help.
In the end I used stabilise function in Motion set to horizontal only and got some very usable full fram results tracking the presenters head. If you are planning to make this a small section in a PowerPoint presentation I'm sure it will be fine.
Export from Fcpx, import into motion, apply stabilise behaviour, set this to horizontal only,
Add tracker (I put mine on the presenters nose ) then analyse.
It too nearly 2 hours to render 10 mins of video on my 8 core Mac pro but it was worth it.
Good luck

Dave

Thanks Roger for answering, it's very appreciated.

I'm sending you now an email with the unresolved issues I had posted on the forum.

Best,
Emmanuel

Just wanted to say that since I mentionned the lack of answers from Coremelt, they have answered to all the issues I had open.

So I'm not complaining anymore. Thanks Coremelt!

I finally heard from CoreMelt. The support person says there is not a way to do this with any of their plugins. They might create such a plugin at some point but there will not be any program from them anytime soon. I just ended key framing the footage to kept the person in the center.

Just want to bring this thread up-to-date. The latest version of TrackX has an effect called Track and LockDown which is designed specifically to keep a presenter centered and does a great job. Here's the tutorial: