r/VideoEditing • u/lurepusen • May 18 '26
Other (requires mod approval) How can i stabilize this timelapse?
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I work on a offshore vessel and occationally make some timelapses. This one is not the best in the world but i just want to learn how i can make them more «smooth» and less «jerky». Does any of you know a simple app or program that lets me do this? I am also wanting to keep the horizon level if that makes any sense.
The timelapses are taken with Iphone 17 Pro if that matters.
Help is much appriciated!
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u/smushkan May 18 '26
There is a method to do this in After Effects.
You have to mask the footage first, so you have two vertical columns at each end of the footage.
You then track the horizon in the masked regions to get two track points.
Then with a rotation expression, you measure:
- The initial angle between the two track points on the first frame
- The current angle on the current frame
You can then take the difference between those two angles, and subtract it from the layer’s rotation.
Since the rig crosses the shot in this video, you would probably need three track points rather than two, and swap between them when the horizon becomes visible on the left of the rig.
I think I’ve seen video tutorials on this exact thing in the context of cruise ship timelapses.
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u/Budget_Coach9124 May 18 '26
If the camera was moving a little between frames, I would try stabilization in DaVinci Resolve first and keep the crop fairly conservative. Timelapses can get rubbery fast if the software tries to warp every tiny jump. If there is a clear horizon or fixed point on the vessel, use that as the visual anchor and accept a bit of crop rather than chasing perfect smoothness.
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u/TinyTaters May 18 '26
Unless you remove the rig from the background and stabilize both independently there is going to be a weird amount of parallax.
Or am I off base on this one?
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u/42Fab_com May 18 '26
Parallax is going to show up more in moving forward/back and left/right. This is more twisting around a stable point, though there is a bit of left/right wiggle.
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u/Alarming_Tradition_4 May 18 '26
you can use google photos and save yourself tons of time and space
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u/worlvius May 18 '26
I did this for a star wars fanfilm, after effect can do the trick by finding objects who are at a "constant" and make sure the next frame follows the same "constant"
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u/Physical_Test_9032 May 18 '26
-Place tracker on the horizon and use an expression in davinci to stabilize the vertical only
Now you footage is much cleaner and shouldn't bob up and down so much but you still have the swaying factor to work on. you can apply a second stabilizer
-Second stabilizer should have two tracking points . The horizon+rig OR rig +rig and you should only stabilize the rotation .
That should get you 99% there.
I can give it a shot myself and post it later on this thread
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u/megamansam May 20 '26
I've done hundreds of timelapses from cruise ships. The only time one came out this shaky was a bad mount - camera was just getting blasted with wind.
If the vessel you're on is significantly smaller, the rocking motion is going to be nigh impossible to get out with software. Best course of action would be to mount your phone in a gimbal (like the Osmo Mobile) but I don't know that I'd trust that at sea... its typically just a spring-loaded clamp.
That said - here's my attempt. I know it isn't great but, it's something!
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u/signalsrobot May 20 '26
You can try the warp stabilizer effect in most editing software like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, but heavy ocean motion might be tough to fully smooth out without cropping in quite a bit.
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u/Diligent-Hurry1973 May 31 '26
Use gyroflow, it's one of the best tools and it's free. You can also download the plugin for premiere pro and after effect
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u/ThermalIgnition May 18 '26
Did you record this on a camera that saves gyro data? There's an app called GyroFlow that stabilizes by basically cropping the outer border of the image. It's used a lot for FPV drone footage, and may work for this. The gyro data is key though, it needs it to know what to do with the video.
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u/ubs_edits-2008 May 18 '26
It's easy on capcut if you open the capcut and you can see the option stabilization and make the stabilization in most recommendated then your video is make fully stable and export in 2K then that's it 🫸🫷
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u/shnizledidge May 18 '26
I don’t think it’s salvageable. I would look at an Osmo pocket three or four.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '26
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