FCPX’s Tripod Mode

Posted on by Jeff Riegel, Producer/Editor

May 6, 2014

by Larry Jordan

There’s a new feature in the image stabilizer section of FCP X called Tripod. What this does is stabilize an image so solidly that it looks like it was shot on a tripod.

We now have a second stabilization option that may work better in some instances. In addition to the Smoothcam stabilizing we’re used to, we have a second method called InertiaCam. Final Cut analyzes your clip and makes its best guess as to which one to use, but you can manually choose either one and adjust the settings – even while the clip plays back in real time! InertiaCam includes a “Tripod Mode” option which is great for removing all motion from a shot instead of just smoothing it out.

28-Inertia-Cam

 

 

 

The new InertiaCam stabilization option.

That’s the good news. The bad news was that I could never get this to work. So, I went rooting around on Apple’s website and discovered that “…the Tripod function is only available when a clip will benefit from it. When a clip is too shaky to successfully simulate a tripod-type effect, then the option will be grayed out. If the camera has no motion except for shakiness from panning, tilting, boom, crane, etc.) then the check box will be available.”

 

2 thoughts on “FCPX’s Tripod Mode”

  1. Yeah, my experience with FCPX stabilization has been about 10% successful. Thankfully, Lock & Load X has stepped up and provided a great tool at a fair price.

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For two decades, Jeff Riegel was a senior level Producer/Editor for the Department of Defense and various government contractors in Northern Virginia. Outside of the workplace, Jeff keeps himself busy with the creation of festival worthy documentaries "Tori Nelson: Fighting for Her Future" and the once nominated and two-time Emmy award winning "A Journey of Education and Remembrance." His short film "The Great Realisation" captured the eyes at 18 international film festivals with various winning honors; a poem that takes on heavy themes such as fevered capitalism, man-made ecological issues, digital addiction during the global Covid blight. Jeff is looking for funding investors and co-producing "The Lost Clipper," a two+ decades project about the first hijacking in U.S. history and the search for those 15 lost souls abducted in 1938, the true first act of war with Japan. Filming takes him to Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Canada, and locations across the U.S. (see www.LostClipper.com) He enjoys creating media-marketing social networking campaign for personalities such as 13-time world boxing champion Tori Nelson, Netflix's "Narcos" personalities Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, and renowned landscape photographer Frank Lee Ruggles. Jeff is eager to attack any project head-on. Jeff's Motto: think beyond convention...and consider it done!