You can now stabilize your shaky footage without having to leave Adobe Premiere Pro. Here’s how you can best use the Warp Stabilizer effect.

Cover image via Shutterstock.

Whether you shot your footage handheld, on a shoulder rig, or with some accidental movement using a Steadicam or gimbal, Warp Stabilizer is more than capable of stabilizing your video. Several years ago, if you wanted to reduce camera shake, you would have to jump over to Adobe After Effects to stabilize your footage. Now, you can just stay inside of Premiere Pro without disrupting your workflow.

Let’s get started.

How to Stabilize Your Footage with Warp Stabilizer

1. Apply the Warp Stabilizer effect from the effects window under the distort tab.
2. Allow Warp Stabilizer to analyze your footage. You can continue to work on your edit during this process.
3. Adjust the Smoothness parameter to the best setting for your footage. Keep in mind that you may not need a high percentage value. Something as low as 5-10% may be sufficient.
4. Adjust the Crop Less <-> Smooth More parameter to bring back any unwanted crop or to smooth out your footage even more.

For more details and a full overview on how to stabilize your footage, check out our tutorial.

Issues to Look for When Using Warp Stabilizer

Noticeable Warping 

When Warp Stabilizer is finished stabilizing, your clip may look smooth, but there may be noticeable warping in the background areas of your shot. Be sure to pull back on the smoothness parameter and adjust the crop settings within Warp Stabilizer.

Too Much Cropping

Sometimes, in order to get a clean stabilized shot, Warp Stabilizer may crop your clip too much and cut out essential parts of your shot. To help fix this issue, adjust the Crop Less <-> Smooth More parameter.