You can stabilize motion with the Warp Stabilizer effect.

It removes jitter caused by camera

movement, making it possible to transform shaky, handheld footage into steady, smooth shots.

Stabilize with the Warp Stabilizer effect

To stabilize motion using the Warp Stabilizer effect, do the following:

1. Select the clip you want to stabilize.

2. In the Effects panel, choose Distort > Warp Stabilizer, and then apply the effect by
double-clicking, or by dragging the effect to the clip in the Timeline or the Effect
Controls panel.

After the effect is added, analysis of the clip begins immediately in the background. As
analysis begins, the first of two banners displays in the Project panel indicating that
analysis is occurring. When analysis is complete, the second banner displays a message
that stabilization is occurring.

You are free to work with the footage or elsewhere in the project while these steps are
occurring.

Note:

The Warp Stabilizer effect in Premiere Pro requires that the clip dimensions match the sequence
settings. If the clip does not match the sequence settings, you can nest the clip, and then apply
the Warp Stabilizer effect to the nest.

Warp Stabilizer settings

Analyze
There is no need to press this button when you first apply Warp Stabilizer; it is pressed for you
automatically. The Analyze button remains dimmed until some change takes place. For example,
if you adjust a layer’s In or Out points, or there is an upstream change to the layer source. Click
the button to reanalyze the footage.

Note:

Analysis does not take into account any effects that are applied directly to the same clip.

Cancel

Cancels an analysis in progress. During analysis, status information appears next to the Cancel
button.
Stabilization

Stabilization settings allow for adjusting the stabilization process.

Result

Controls the intended result for the footage (Smooth or No Motion).

 Smooth motion (default): Retains the original camera movement but makes it smoother.
When selected, Smoothness is enabled to control how smooth the camera movement
becomes.
 No Motion: Attempts to remove all camera motion from the shot. When selected, the
Crop Less Smooth More function is disabled in the Advanced section. This setting is
used for footage where at least a portion of the main subject remains within the frame for
the entire range being analyzed.

Smoothness

Chooses how much the camera’s original motion is stabilized. Lower values are closer to the
camera’s original motion while higher values are smoother. Values above 100 require more
cropping of the image. Enabled when the Result is set to Smooth Motion.

Method

Specifies the most complex operation the Warp Stabilizer performs on the footage to stabilize it:

 Position: Stabilization is based on position data only and is the most basic way footage
can be stabilized.
 Position, Scale And Rotation: Stabilization is based upon position, scale, and rotation
data. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer chooses the previous type
(Position).
 Perspective: Uses a type of stabilization in which the entire frame is effectively corner-
pinned. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer chooses the previous type
(Position, Scale, Rotation).
 Subspace Warp (default): Attempts to warp various parts of the frame differently to
stabilize the entire frame. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer choose
the previous type (Perspective). The method in use on any given frame can change across
the course of the clip based on the tracking accuracy.

Note:

In some cases, Subspace Warp can introduce unwanted warping, and Perspective can introduce
unwanted keystoning. You can prevent anomalies by choosing a simpler method.

Borders Borders settings adjust how borders (the moving edges) are treated for footage that is
stabilized.
Framing

Controls how the edges appear in a stabilizing result. Framing can be set to one of the following:

 Stabilize Only: Displays the entire frame, including the moving edges. Stabilize Only
shows how much work is being done to stabilize the image. Using Stabilize Only allows
you to crop the footage using other methods. When selected, the Auto-scale section and
Crop Less Smooth More property are disabled.
 Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling. Stabilize, Crop is identical to
using Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale, and setting Maximum Scale to 100%. With this option
enabled, the Auto-scale section is disabled, but the Crop Less Smooth More property is
enabled.
 Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale (default): Crops the moving edges and scales up the image
to refill the frame. The automatic scaling is controlled by various properties in the Auto-
scale section.
 Stabilize, Synthesize Edges: Fills in the blank space created by the moving edges with
content from frames earlier and later in time (controlled by Synthesizes Input Range in
the Advanced section). With this option, the Auto-scale section and Crop Less Smooth
More are disabled.

Note:

It is possible for artifacts to appear when there is movement at the edge of the frame not related
to camera movement.

Auto-scale

Displays the current auto-scale amount, and allows you to set limits on the amount of auto-
scaling. Enable Auto-scale by setting framing to Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale.

 Maximum Scale: Limits the maximum amount a clip is scaled up for stabilization.
 Action-Safe Margin: When non-zero, specifies a border around the edge of the image
that you don’t expect to be visible. Thus, auto-scale does not try to fill it.

Additional Scale

Scales up the clip with the same result as scaling using the Scale property under Transform, but
avoids an extra resampling of the image.

Advanced

Detailed Analysis

When set to on, makes the next Analysis phase do extra work to find elements to track. The
resulting data (stored in the project as part of the effect) is much larger and slower with this
option enabled.
Rolling Shutter Ripple

The stabilizer automatically removes the rippling associated with stabilized rolling shutter
footage. Automatic Reduction is the default. Use Enhanced Reduction if the footage contains
larger ripples. To use either method, set the Method to Subspace Warp or Perspective.

Crop Less <-> Smooth More

When cropping, controls the trade-off between smoothness and scaling of the cropping rectangle
as it moves over the stabilized image. Lower values are smooth; however, more of the image is
viewed. At 100%, the result is the same as the Stabilize Only option with manual cropping.

Synthesis Input Range (seconds)

Used by Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing, controls how far backward and forward in time the
synthesis process goes to fill in any missing pixels.

Synthesis Edge Feather

Selects the amount of feather for the synthesized pieces. It is enabled only when using the
Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing. Use the feather control to smooth over edges where the
synthesized pixels join up with the original frame.

Synthesis Edge Cropping

Trims off the edges of each frame before it is used to combine with other frames when using the
Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing option. Use the cropping controls to crop off bad edges that
are common in analog video capture, or low quality optics. By default, all edges are set to zero
pixels.

Hide Warning Banner

Use when you don’t want to reanalyze footage even though there is a warning banner indicating
that it must be reanalyzed.

Warp Stabilizer workflow tips

1. Apply the Warp Stabilizer.

2. While Warp Stabilizer is analyzing your footage, you can adjust settings or work on a
different part of your project.
3. Choose Stabilization > Result > No Motion if you want to completely remove all camera
motion. Choose Stabilization > Result > Smooth Motion if you want to include some of
the original camera movement in the shot.
4. If the result is good, you’re done with stabilization. If not, do one or more of the
following:
 o If the footage is too warped, or distorted, switch the Method to Position, Scale,
Rotation.
o If there are occasional rippled distortions, and footage was shot with a rolling
shutter camera, set Advanced > Rolling Shutter Ripple to Enhanced Reduction.
o Try checking Advanced > Detailed Analysis.
5. If the result is too cropped, reduce either Smoothness or Crop Less Smooth More. Crop
Less Smooth More is much more responsive, as it doesn’t require a restabilize phase.
6. If you want to get a feel for how much work the stabilizer is actually doing, set the
Framing to Stabilize Only.

When Framing is set to one of the cropping options and the cropping gets extreme, a red banner
appears saying, “To avoid extreme cropping set Framing to Stabilize Only or adjust other
parameters." In this situation, you can set Framing to either Stabilize Only or Stabilize,
Synthesize Edges. Other options include reducing the value of Crop Less Smooth More, or
reducing Smoothness. Or, if you are satisfied with the results, enable the Hide Warning Banner
option.