As we continue exploring ways to stabilize footage, we’re going to take a look at a plugin for VirtualDub called DeShaker. I’m betting you never heard of VirtualDub, right? Unfortunately, it’s Windows only, but maybe it will run in a Windows emulator for Linux or Mac. I started using VirtualDub years ago for converting raw data from DVDs for my demo reel. If you look at the data on a DVD, the movie files are all .vob files. VirtualDub reads these just fine.
VirtualDub started in a dorm room by a guy named Avery Lee who just wanted to capture a Sailor Moon video to his computer. It’s very small and basic, and its main purpose it to capture footage and save it as an uncompressed AVI video file. The Wikipedia page says development stopped in 2013, and even the forums were shut down in 2015, so grab it now and hang on to it!
It can do basic editing/trimming, and people have written lots of plugins for it. The best of them, in my opinion, is DeShaker, which does exactly what the name says – deshakes your footage. Download assets from the links below, then check out the video to see how to get working in VirtualDub. The best thing about it is that it is fully automatic! Just choose a couple of settings and let it work its magic!
Before & After comparison:
Links to stabilize in VirtualDub: