Trouble editing action sports (keyframed position + zoom + stabilize)

Hello. Newbie/amateur editor here.

I've been using a drone to shoot footage of action sports. Piloting a drone is hard; it's hard to keep the subject centered and do smooth pans. I figured I could take care of that in post.

My drone shoots in 4k @ 29.97 and my project/timeline/output is 1080p @ 29.97.

My workflow is this:

1. Zoom in to something less than 200%. Usually 133% to 175%
2. Use keyframes and transform position to keep subject reasonably centered
3. Turn on image stabilization (this is why I don't go all the way to 200% zoom)
4. Usually retime anywhere between 80-90%

The result is less than stellar. It doesn't look HD at all. The subject isn't crisp, clear, and sharp.

A few questions...

1. Any ideas on how to do this better?
2. Are there any plugins that do a best effort to keep a subject centered (without letting the edges creep into the shot)
3. Is there anyway to tell stabilization not to zoom past a certain percent? Or to tell me how much it had to zoom to do its job?
4. If I use spatial conform none, then image stabilization is almost guaranteed to cause loss of image quality, correct?
5. Will shooting in higher fps (60) help any of this?

Thanks for the help!

The single most major problem with using 4K to do fake close ups/zooms for me is that with 4K focus is tricky. The image make look in-focus in its native 4K mode, but when zoomed in on a 1080 timeline, you can see the focus wasn't surgically precise. Shutter speed also plays a role, in that it can increase or decrease the natural motion blur recorded (baked-in) to the image. And drones aren't the most focus accurate cameras unless you're using a high end model with an actual monitor (not a phone or tablet). Now to your specific questions.

1. I never stabilize, nor do I scale up a drone shot more than about 115%. And I never stabilize drone shots, they just don't seem to work out all that well.

2. TrackX does this, and Coremelt has a tutorial for it.
vimeo.com/124021177

3. The "Translation Smooth" parameter does this.

4. Depends on the content of the clip.

5. Not really, unless you want to use it as slow motion in a 24fps timeline. To get more crisp, clear image you need to improve the camera's focus and play with shutter speed to reduce recoded motion blur.

All this said, I rarely use stabilization, and we use a LOT of drone shots, just not for close ups, ever. Someone else here may have more insight to this than I do, though.

What specific drone model/camera are you using?

Thanks for the reply, that helps a lot.

That makes so much sense about what you said about the focus and seems to completely explain my zooming issues. I've also had focus problems where I had to throw away large chunks of raw footage because it was completely out of focus.

The drone is a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum.

Since the original post, I have discovered Apple's Motion 5. It's stabilize functionality using an on-screen tracker does a better job than I do by hand with keyframes, but the resulting video still looks... unnatural. Also, the FCP clip -> Motion -> FCP workflow is ridiculous. Seriously mind boggling that you can't just say "edit this clip in Motion" from FCP and "add this to currently open timeline in FCP" from Motion.

Can you explain "Translation Smooth"? What I'm looking for is 2 things: stabilize without zooming past a certain percent, and also don't allow black bars into the frame.

Does TrackX work like Motion's analyze motion + stabilize? Motion works pretty well for my purposes, but the integration with FCP is awful.

About the shutter speed. I read somewhere that the rule of thumb is double your framerate. So if shooting at 30 fps, then shutter speed should be 60. But should the rule of thumb be broken for action sports? I do notice motion blur in a lot of frames. Also, am I wrong in thinking that shooting in high fps will also help with the motion blur?

It sounds like really my solution should be to get better at piloting so I can stay close to the subject and control the drone better so my panning isn't so janky.

Thanks again!

TrackX has about the best stabilization around.

"Translation Smoothing" is a parameter in FCPX's built-in stabilizer.

I've helped a few beginners get started with flying drones. My boys (14yo twins) are flying drones and fixed wing. I find learning to fly fixed wing RC aircraft helps you appreciate and get better at flying drones. But that's a lot of work and money. So yeah, just practice. Practice flying your butt off. And if someone makes fun of you for having no butt, well, ignore them, you'll be a better pilot.

I have a few situations I can practice flying fast in wide open areas following offleash running German Shepherds (wife is a trainer). Plus I practice following my kids on their bicycles in open spaces.

Recently our local RC aircraft club sponsored the opening of a drone racing branch and filed. I go there when there's no events and practice flying around those obstacles. Not through them, as their made for much smaller drones, and you WILL crash. But just using them as points of focus to fly around, avoiding the other obstacles (slowly at first) helps.

As for shutter speed, your available light will dictate what shutter speed you're able to achieve, but in daylight you should be fine. Get some good ND filters, too, cause up that high bright mid-day skies can wreck havoc with exposure (PolarPro are my favs).

cjbottaro wrote: ...It sounds like really my solution should be to get better at piloting so I can stay close to the subject and control the drone better so my panning isn't so janky...

What FCPX.guru said is correct. My documentary team has several drones including the Mavic, Phantom 4 Pro and Inspire 2. I never need to stabilize their footage in post. I will sometimes do a keyframed zoom, but not that much.

Getting quality drone footage requires a lot of experience. A good pilot is very smooth on the controls and doesn't jerk the vehicle around, especially in yaw.

It's often better to make multiple straight passes, not zig zag at each new object of interest. E.g, if the drone is flying straight you can do a speed ramp in post, but if the drone flight path turns, it doesn't look right.

On drones without interchangeable lenses you are limited because the shot is pretty wide so you have to get physically closer. But the solution is getting closer (safely) not zooming it 200% in post.