Warp Stabilizer settings

Last updated on Jun 23, 2025

Learn how to adjust Warp Stabilizer settings for motion analysis, stabilization methods, and border handling in Premiere Pro.

The Analyze and Cancel options are highlighted under Warp Stabilizer in the Effect Controls panel.
To smooth shaky footage, apply the Warp Stabilizer effect.

Analyze: You do not need to manually select this button when you first apply Warp Stabilizer—it is automatically selected for you. The Analyze button remains inactive until a change occurs, such as adjusting a layer’s In or Out points or making an upstream modification to the layer source. To reanalyze the footage after such changes, select the button.

Analysis does not take into account any effects that are applied directly to the same clip.

Cancel: Cancels an analysis in progress. During analysis, status information appears next to the Cancel button.

Stabilization

UI option

Function

Result

Controls the intended result for the footage (Smooth Motion or No Motion).

  • Smooth Motion (default): Retains the original camera movement but makes it smoother. When selected, Smoothness is enabled to control how smooth the camera movement becomes.
  • No Motion: Attempts to remove all camera motion from the shot. When selected, the Crop Less <-> Smooth More function is disabled in the Advanced section. This setting is used for footage where at least a portion of the main subject remains within the frame for the entire range being analyzed.

Smoothness

Chooses how much the camera’s original motion is stabilized. Lower values are closer to the camera’s original motion, while higher values are smoother. Values above 100 require more cropping of the image. Enabled when the Result is set to Smooth Motion.

Method

Specify the most complex operation the Warp Stabilizer performs on the footage to stabilize it:

  • PositionStabilization is based on position data only and is the most basic way footage can be stabilized.
  • Position, Scale, Rotation: Stabilization is based upon position, scale, and rotation data. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer chooses the previous type (Position).
  • Perspective: Uses a type of stabilization in which the entire frame is effectively corner-pinned. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer chooses the previous type (Position, Scale, Rotation).
  • Subspace Warp (default): Attempts to warp various parts of the frame differently to stabilize the entire frame. If there are not enough areas to track, Warp Stabilizer chooses the previous type (Perspective). The method in use on any given frame can change across the course of the clip based on the tracking accuracy.

Preserve Scale

Prevents changes to the clip’s scale when selected.

Note:

In some cases, Subspace Warp can introduce unwanted warping, and Perspective can introduce unwanted keystoning. You can prevent anomalies by choosing a simpler method.

Borders

Borders settings adjust how borders (the moving edges) are treated for footage that is stabilized.

UI option

Function

Framing

Controls how the edges appear in a stabilizing result. Framing can be set to one of the following:

  • Stabilize Only: Displays the entire frame, including the moving edges. Stabilize Only shows how much work is being done to stabilize the image. Using Stabilize Only allows you to crop the footage using other methods. When selected, the Auto-scale section and Crop Less <-> Smooth More property are disabled.
  • Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling. Stabilize, Crop is identical to using Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale, and setting Maximum Scale to 100%. With this option enabled, the Auto-scale section is disabled, but the Crop Less <-> Smooth More property is enabled.
  • Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale (default): Crops the moving edges and scales up the image to refill the frame. The automatic scaling is controlled by various properties in the Auto-scale section.
  • Stabilize, Synthesize Edges: Fills in the blank space created by the moving edges with content from frames earlier and later in time (controlled by Synthesis Input Range in the Advanced section). With this option, the Auto-scale section and Crop Less <-> Smooth More are disabled.
Note:

Note: It is possible for artifacts to appear when there is movement at the edge of the frame, not related to camera movement

Auto-scale

Displays the current auto-scale amount and allows you to set limits on the amount of auto-scaling. Enable Auto-scale by setting framing to Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale.

  • Maximum Scale: Limits the maximum amount a clip is scaled up for stabilization.
  • Action-Safe Margin: When non-zero, specifies a border around the edge of the image that you don’t expect to be visible. Thus, Auto-scale does not try to fill it.

Additional Scale

Scales up the clip with the same result as scaling using the Scale property under Transform but avoids an extra resampling of the image.

Advanced

UI option

Function

Detailed Analysis

Makes the next analysis phase do extra work to find elements to track (when set to on). The resulting data (stored in the project as part of the effect) is much larger and slower with this option enabled.

Fast Analysis

Improves the time Premiere Pro takes to analyze shaky footage while leaving the actual stabilization process unchanged. This option is selected by default. You can deselect the checkbox if you want.

Rolling Shutter Ripple

Automatically removes the rippling associated with stabilized rolling shutter footage. Automatic Reduction is the default. Select Enhanced Reduction if the footage contains larger ripples. To select either method, set the Method to Subspace Warp or Perspective.

Crop Less <-> Smooth More

Controls the trade-off between smoothness and scaling of the cropping rectangle as it moves over the stabilized image. Lower values are smooth; however, more of the image is viewed. At 100%, the result is the same as the Stabilize Only option with manual cropping.

Synthesis Input Range (seconds)

Controls how far backward and forward in time the synthesis process goes to fill in any missing pixels. It is used by Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing.

Synthesis Edge Feather

Selects the amount of feather for the synthesized pieces. It is enabled only when using the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing. Use the feather control to smooth over edges where the synthesized pixels join up with the original frame.

Synthesis Edge Cropping

Trims off the edges of each frame before it is used to combine with other frames when using the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges framing option. Use the cropping controls to crop off bad edges that are common in analog video capture or low-quality optics. By default, all edges are set to zero pixels.

Hide Warning Banner

Used when you don’t want to reanalyze footage, even though there is a warning banner indicating that it must be reanalyzed.