Show HN: Steady – Shoot Cinematic Videos | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Steady – Shoot Cinematic Videos

steady.stupeflix.com

213 pointstrueduke110 comments

This is a most brilliant landing page - flashy, but in a way that directly demonstrates what the product does, and the text is readable even against the white waves. Each of the sequences look beautiful and seem like if I just had this app, I would be able to make my videos just as beautiful. Congrats.

I'm not sure, but I believe the beauty lies in the fact that each of these scenes is something I can see myself trying to capture: the beach, a forest, etc.

The videos the app produces (I just bought it) work great as video background for pages. They're blur ready.

Blur appears in low light environment, but outside scene look really impressive

Thank you for your feedback. This is exactly what I wanted to do, I am glad that you understood the purpose of this landing page!

Seriously, this page makes me want to run out and buy an iPhone!

I have some trouble with fonts on Elementary http://i.imgur.com/dYHPbvP.png

Looks the same on Ubuntu.

Looks fine here in Firefox 29/Ubuntu 12.04.

It seems that the Lato webfont (https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Lato) encounters some troubles with the Linux environment, maybe an antialiasing problem.

Videos used as the backdrop:

http://d3eterog612le0.cloudfront.net/steady/videos/homepage/...

Hey ! Just to mention that those video were taken w/ Steady and not post-processed. Give it a shot outside, on a bike or just walking ;)

Do you want the originals? ;) (as they are not post-processed, they are just longer)

Yes please. Also would you publish some technical details about how this video stabilization works?

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bogvv78h5ae010b/AABjUkWizX_eb6G3R... Please note that these were shot with an early version of the app (bizarre aspect ratio + green line at the bottom...)

These seem jittery on a MBPr with 16GB of RAM. What gives?

Interesting, must be your connection! I've seen a few of these background movie sites, and they generally seem okay-ish on my decent connection.

I'm noticing the slightest stutters with 32gb, quad core i7 and a gtx 780 on chrome. I'm assuming it's a connection thing.

Same when I watched the video links directly.

Downloaded the tree one (which is where I noticed it) and played it with VLC twenty times or so on loop; didn't pick up any stuttering then. Must be something with chrome or my network (for me)

Perfectly smooth playback on my 6 year old C2D/4GB RAM (Win8.1 x64)

It's interesting that you can still see the jitter in the second to last video, through the lens flare. The motion stabilization pans the image around, but the lens flare bobs around and can't be fixed.

Just installed it. Seems to work pretty well. This would be useful to real estate agents for doing smooth apartment walk-through videos for listings-- might want to try advertising specifically for that use case.

Stupeflix (the company behind Steady) actually has a tool designed specifically for Real Estate agents : http://studio.stupeflix.com/en/realestate/

I remember seeing this during the 'tape to car wheel' test. That was impressive.

What, if any, details can you reveal about the implementation? How is the tracking/smoothing different than other SOTA approaches?

How tightly coupled are you to the Apple environment? Is an Android port plausible?

I think that was a different app: http://www.horizon.camera

http://blog.evilwindowdog.com/post/88969373226/extreme-car-e...

Thanks everyone for the input. Quick answer to most common questions :

* The video you can see on the landing page (steady.stupeflix.com) were all taken w/ Steady. Try using it outside on a sunny day for best results !

* Steady is not yet compatible with iOS8. Working on it ;)Same for iPad and iTouch.

* We use gyroscope informations to know the attitude of the iPhone while you shoot a video, and uses this information to correct the video.

* The app is not available yet on Android. We're pretty much tied to the iPhone right now, as the algorithm relies on a given gyro / camera pair to work.

If you like the app, a kind review on the App Store would be appreciated ! Thanks for taking the time to try it

From

Trueduke, Olotiar, Madlag, thomas 759 and Kaahne at Stupeflix

Or you just use a chicken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UytSNlHw8J8#t=132

Actually the app codename was "Chicken" :)

I tried it on a bike and then edited the video with replay. I was really impressed with the result https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ynVeMFAQM8

What is impressive about that movie ? To me it's quite the opposite.. it's not impressive at all (too dark, bad fps) and when I watch it there is something in it that causes head aches. It's very hard to watch.

I am biking with one hand and filming with the other. The image doesn't shake, try do film walking or biking and you'll see

I think he's trying to say that it's hard to tell because of the effects and filters added to the video distract from the example of stabilized video. The additional edits are unappealing to some so it's hard to get a feel for how the footage looks.

Sorry but the image seems to shake up and down a bit, although not as much as it would without stabilisation. It's still noticeable.

Shooting while in motion leads to a very shaky video. Being able to shot that steady video while using iPhone on a bike counts as very impressive to me.

To understand more, see this product called MoVI

The final footage:

http://vimeo.com/62917185

Behind the scenes for the same footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDv2OYKICoc

Would you care to post the original as well? It doesn't look very steady to be honest. Anecdotally, i would think iphone's camera is already doing some stabilization because i have filmed from my car using apple's bundled camera app and the video looked impressively steady (but hey, i was in a car).

Does anyone know if there's a similar video capture app for Android devices?

Just spins the loading animation without showing any video in the camera screen. Wondering if there is any server work and it might be under heavy load due to HN and whatnot. Edit: iPhone 5s. Edit2: its working now!

The app does not require any type of connectivity. Try killing it and relaunching.

I'm on a 4S and nothing but spinning...

Are there any recommended Android versions of these apps?

Seems like google auto stabilized my video. They probably did it on the server side though.

Yes, Google has had some pretty good video stabilization on Youtube for 2 years now. I wish it happened in the camera app, though, especially since I once posted some private videos on Youtube, and Google deleted them anyway because there was some music in the background. It even said some company made a claim against them (even though they were private).

So yeah, Google's shitty copyright takedown system makes me not want to put my videos on Google's servers ever again, and I'd prefer them on my phone.

"It even said some company made a claim against them (even though they were private)."

The claim system is automatic based on Shazam-style audio "fingerprints"; companies basically pre-complain about any uploads that match audio sources they supply to Google that the claim copyright on.

On one hand, I can sort of understand Google's position with this proactive system because the alternative would mean they have to manually deal with probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of copyright claims.

On the other hand, it is horribly broken in a lot of ways. In addition to not caring if your video is private, there are basically two classes of people (the ones with lots of subscribers who generate a lot of adwords hits for Google and everyone else), with the former class having a much easier time of disputing bad claims. Also I've run into situations where music that was creative commons licensed was flagged with attempts to unflag it automatically denied (with no legal basis to do so) and most amusingly(?) of all, Google offers a bunch of public domain recordings they suggest you use for your videos, but using them is almost guaranteed to generate a copyright claim from some third party that you then have to manually dispute.

I basically stopped using YouTube for videos because there seems to be like a 80% chance anything you upload will be auto-copyright-flagged, even if there is no recognizable music in it and it isn't worth the hassle to deal with the system.

Looking at the landing page on my iPhone and all I see is a bit of copy and a still image of a forest. Based on the comments in this thread the app seems worth downloading but not so much based just on the landing page. Are other people seeing video on the landing page when viewing on the iPhone?

Sorry about that. The static image turns into a video on desktop, but there's no way to play a video that is not full screen on Mobile Safari.

We'll probably update the landing page soon. In the meantime, visit the landing page on your desktop, or see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mt286dTNFg

I downloaded it and gave it a quick try. Walking around the office at a somewhat fast pace yielded some blur on each step. I slowed down a bit and results were better. We have a lot of windows so there was a lot of light/dark issues which is more the iPhones limitations than the app.

Stability was pretty cool though not convinced it would work well on a bike. If you have some untouched videos you captured from the app itself without any post production editing, that would be cool to see. If you said the videos on your website background were all taken with the app I'd be more impressed.

They were. Blurring happens in low-light environment. Give it a shot outside, i'm sure you'll be impressed !

Yes they are legit :) The originals are only longer... Those in the forest were shot (with an iPhone 5) on a bike, and you can "feel" the footsteps for those on the beach :) (it was last month in the South-West of France...)

On a bike, it might work better than in an office because of the greater distance to the subject.

With apps like these (horizon etc) - if they are any good won't Apple simply build it into their default camera app sooner rather than later? I'm curious, what's the product or business plan here?

I often shoot little snippets (cheeky bit of stock footage for behind credits etc) and usually have to use stabilization in post to make it usable

$1.99? The mere possibility of it working at a later date is worth more than $1.99. I'll give it a test run later on for sure but you guys should re-evaluate that price, if it works well you've way under-priced yourselves

Downloaded, looks good. Though it crashes when trying to do slowmo on my iPhone 5, 16GB AT&T. Also when you view "My Steady Videos" the Navigation bar buttons feel reversed, "Back" buttons are usually on the left in iOS, in that case the three dots should be on the right. Keep up the good work, hope it's successful.

Oh sorry for the crash, I assume you sent a crash report. Will investigate... And thanks for the UI feedback! :)

(if you are using iOS 8, we are currently working on supporting it)

Indeed I submitted a crash report, Yeah sorry I forgot I was on my dev phone, it is iOS 8 and I can't expect it to work. ;-)

iOS 7.1.2 with iPhone 5S here, I haven't had a clean exit from the app yet, seems to crash everytime.. almost consistently after I delete a video I just recorded.

I just bought it and it does not work on iPhone 4. I did not read the description before buying, my bad.

Unfortunately the app does not appear on https://reportaproblem.apple.com/.

[Edit] The app finally showed up on the "Report a problem" page

The one thing that would be great to see is a comparison of video shot with the app and the same video shot without the app.

There is a good comparison video here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mt286dTNFg

The stabilized video looks fuzzier. There's a definite lack of crispness that the unsteady video has.

Could that just be noticeable because they're side by side though?

You're right that it might not be noticeable if they're not side by side. But it's still fuzzier. Maybe it makes a difference for your application and maybe not.

Quick aside to tell that this comparison video was generated a long time ago, when stabilized video were saved at a lower resolution. Since then, we've increased the output resolution and fixed some color correction issues.

That'll explain it! Thanks.

Does this, by any chance, use the 3D deforming based stabilization demonstrated here [1]. That was already an impressive demo when it came out.

[1] http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~fliu/project/3dstab.htm

Yes and no. Going through the paper real quick, we use similar technique, but do not analyze the video to reconstruct the movement of the camera, which allows us to speed up the algorithm significantly.

Hey, great job here! Two questions:

1) Is it at all feasible to do the stabilisation on the fly so that the screen shows already-stabilised video (if not then why)?

2) Do you envisage building an API so that a third-party app can use your technology?

With iOS 8, they could just make an extension that allows other apps to use it.

Hey Ivanlubenko,

On the fly stabilization is not really an option, as smoothing is done by averaging movement from the past and future, up to 5s on both sides.

The API thing might be a good idea, shoot an email at steady@stupeflix.com!

Looks pretty cool from the example videos. Is an Android port planned in the future?

Where are you seeing example videos?

Downloaded, and like it so far (although I did also experience the crash while trying to record slow motion), but am I correct in thinking it only allows you to record square videos?

It looks like that if you turn the device, the recording interface switch to 16/9, so you can do both.

Hey, You can actually record landscape videos by turning your iPhone (make sure that rotation is enabled though).

Are there any plans to add this kind of tech to cameras? I know they already use optical image stabilization but wonder if the benefit would be additive.

How does this compare to Luma? I've been using that app for a few years now and it has been great, though it doesn't work well in low light.

As one of the developer of this app, I'm obviously biased, but we think that we achieve even better results than Luma.

Low light is always an issue (due to intrinsic limitations of the stabilization method), but we added slo-motion and support for the iPhone 5s and iOS7.

Luma was acquired, so it's no longer being developed.

There is another similar app, DollyCam: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dollycam/id449577531

Has been available for quite a while, and works on iPhone 4.

It was kind of odd watching the lens flare dart around the screen while the sun was stationary. I guess that proves the video is legit :-).

Nice see!

The video are legit :-) The best thing to prove it is to try the app (it works better outside) and I'm pretty sure you'll be amazed.

Downloaded and playing with it, seems to work fairly well. However, I can't seem to figure out how to get the app to work in 16:9 mode.

Turn your iPhone to landscape position ;) (and make sure you are not locking the rotation in control center)

Ah, I see. Very nifty!

just rotate the camera view to landscape orientation, it will switch to 16:9 capture

Nice landing page. The use of videos here is really apt and powerful.

Unlike the Paypal homepage, which makes me feel unsecure..

I use "Luma", free. But I think they were acquired by Instagram and shut down.

How does Steady compare to Luma?

Wow fantastic app! I've missed this kind of video processing ever since Luma was acquired by Instagram and shut down.

Maybe add iPod Touch to the not supported list in the app description. Although I know there aren't many of us!

Oups! We'll do that. There is a good chance that iTouch will be supported in the next update.

I'd like that. The iPod Touch makes for a nice video camera.

"and you get award-winning documentary shots right from your phone"

Please tone down the hyperbole.

App is buyable from iPad and checked as compatible with it, however your description paragraph says otherwise.

We can't really exclude iPad from buying the app using only App Store approved methods. We try our hardest to warn users in the description.

You should get together with the people who made horizon and merge the two ideas into a feature.

I just bought it and tried it out. It works great in good lighting. Awesome job.

Trying it out but it crashes each time I end a recording. (iPhone 5S, UK)

Do you still have available space on your phone ? Anyway, send us the crash reports, we'll look into this !

It just throws me out to the home screen, is there somewhere else I need to look for crash reports?

I have plenty of space, it crashes after about 1 seconds of processing the movie.

Damn. We'll look into that. Thanks for the feedback. IN the meantime, try rebooting your phone and quitting all active app. This might be an available memory issue.

How does this video stabilization work?

We record data from the internal sensors in your iPhone while shooting the video (mainly, the gyroscope), which allows us to estimate how your camera moves when taking the video and compensate for that.

That's a neat way to do it, good stuff!

Not available in the Polish App store.

yeah, I wonder, why?

Looks great, going to give this a shot

FYI, this can be done on Android, it's just stupidly difficult.

Sold! Great work!

brilliant one, cant wait to get it in android

I'd never buy this without trying

this is really cool!

I'll try it out when it's out for "the rest of us" who use Android.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com