How to stabilize a video
- Add the clip and select it on the timeline.
- Set Stabilise strength in the Camera section of AI effects · selected clip. 60% suits most handheld footage; go higher for walking shots, lower if you want to keep some natural movement.
- Press Stabilise. The clip is analysed once (it plays through quickly in the background); after that the correction is applied live as you preview.
- Check and export. Remove stabilisation takes it off again at any time.
What happens behind the button
Stabilisation is a three-step process, and knowing it helps you get better results:
- Measure. Every frame is compared with the one before at low resolution to find how far the picture shifted left, right, up or down, with sub-pixel precision.
- Smooth. Those shifts add up to the path your camera took. That path is smoothed — the strength slider controls how much, from about a fifth of a second up to around one and a half seconds — so slow pans survive and jitters disappear.
- Correct and crop. Each frame is moved by the difference between the real and smoothed path. Moving a frame exposes its edges, so the clip is zoomed in slightly (never more than 25%) to hide them.
Tip: the stronger the shake, the more zoom is needed. If your framing is tight, lower the strength so the crop doesn't cut into the subject.
Good to know
- It corrects up-down and side-to-side shake, which is most of what makes handheld video look shaky. It doesn't correct rotation or the "jelly" wobble of a phone's rolling shutter.
- Motion blur baked into a frame can't be removed — a stabilised clip filmed in low light may show smeared frames that now stand still. Shoot in good light, or at a higher frame rate, when you know you'll stabilise.
- Stabilise first, then use Smart reframe or zoom keyframes, so each effect works on steady footage.
Frequently asked questions
Does stabilisation reduce quality?
It crops in slightly to hide the moving edges, so a little resolution is lost — the stronger the correction, the more. At 60% on normal handheld footage the zoom is usually a few percent.
Can I stabilise 4K footage?
Yes. The analysis runs at a small size regardless of resolution, and the export keeps full quality. For smooth previews of 4K, make a light preview copy in the Clip tab first.
Is my video uploaded?
No. Analysis and correction happen in your browser.