Just a short note rather than a guide, but if you have any shaky footage and wish to sort it out (stabilise it) there is a plugin for Virtual Dub v 1.8.8 called DeShaker 2.2. I think it's been talked about on here before but just in case it hasn't and for new members, I'll put it up again. Both are freeware and widely available for download. You'll need to download the user instructions for DeShaker aswell, as it can be a bit intimidating at first, certain values need changing, boxes ticked and sliders moved, the usual guff.

Indeed. Well worth mentioning again, Nikosony.
I use the plug-in that some kind souls developed for Vegas and it works a treat. Whilst it's a tad slower (still quick) I find the results preferable in many cases to ProDad Mercalli.

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Tim

Thanks Tim, it does a half decent job on shaky video within limits I must say, but the interface can take a while to get used to. There seems to be lots of info on the internet about DeShaker so I guess after some trial and error you should be able to find out what settings work best for you. And the fact that it's free makes it more appealing.

I was just over at Video Copilot a few hours ago looking for tutorials on this very same subject and found a very good one. They of course are using After Effects along with Stabilising Motion using the inbuilt Tracker controls. When the guy got to near the end of the tutorial he talked about the black borders that appear around the video as it needs to be moved. He suggested you zoom in slightly (up to 110% in his example) and that got rid of the black borders. And something struck me, the footage still looked good but it was high definition video and I assume you can zoom in on it and not see too much pixellation?

I would suggest another way around this, haven't looked yet but I'm sure someone has done it. Instead of zooming in, not a good idea on standard def video, use the following settings. Check the Anchor Point settings to see if they are set to 360 and 288 (PAL video standard def). If they aren't at 360 and 288, set a key frame at the start of the clip to 360 and 288 and another keyframe at the end of the clip again to 360 and 288.

You may get a lot of keyframes on this line already that AE put in itself, highlight those and delete them. So you just end up with the two you inserted yourself in the above paragraph. That should lock the clip into position and there is no need for zooming.