How do I Choose my Frame Rate?

Some answers to a frequently asked technical question. I hope you find it useful.
Linked frame rate tutorial: • Become a Motion Grandm...

[@GameSack]

Surprised PAL regions still use 25fps in the HDTV era. All of your TVs over there now can do 60Hz no problem. Do the documentarty filmmakers over there not want their stuff to be seen outside PAL regions? Perplexing. They should just use 24. I'm under the opinion that 25fps should no longer exist. While we're at it, let's get rid of 23.98 and 59.94 as well. As for me, I do a YT channel based on videogames, so it's 60fps. However with graphics and also the camera, I choose 30fps. Looks much less like video, but I'm not trying to fool anyone into thinking it's a movie either, because it's not. But it gives a great look with slightly less judder than 24fps and higher temporal resolution. Just like the original Todd-AO format from the 50's... looks like film temporally, not fast enough to look like video.

[@SimonUbsdell]

Ah, I'm afraid you will have to a lot of persuading of countless broadcast TV operators in every territory of the world if you are going to achieve your ideal world. Delivery standards change very slowly and we just have to put up with what they are now. It is indeed frustrating and daft.

[@joshgreenwalt508]

Good discussion. I've always gone back and forth on whether I should shoot 24 or 23.98 cuz my main camera can shoot both (I just shoot for KZbin so in the end it doesn't even really matter). But I've settle on 23.98 simply cuz my secondary camera has no true 24fps option. Made the decision for me.

[@SimonUbsdell]

That makes sense, certainly.

[@SWExplore]

Simon, that was quite helpful in understanding how you select your frame rates. I am an amateur video producer and typically record my videos at 4K 60fps. When preparing a basic Motion animation, I will typically select 30fps for my project, which is in line with what you had shared in this video.

[@яотвечаюзавсеЮ.ГерманПетров]

Многим это понравится!!

[@JasonRamasami]

If I told you that I was working on a 2D hand drawn animation that was trying to get away with only drawing 8 frames a second I think you’d probably be okay with it but you might pause briefly and clear your throat before leaving the room.

[@SimonUbsdell]

In actual fact, you are not far off 'animating on doubles' which is the classic cell animation method ... which means 12fps (each frame holds for two frames). 8fps is a great look for drawn animation, I reckon!

[@Elslawoy]

What about the American or European 50 or 60 hertz electrical power and fleshing lighting?

[@SimonUbsdell]

I was not attempting an exhaustive survey of this very complex topic. Apologies for that.

[@JohnnyMarksVideos]

Thanks for this video! I've always wanted to understand this concept better

[@GarrettBM]

I appreciate the exploration of frame rates. I always thought it was just my machine when it comes to rendering, I did not know frame rates make a difference. Do you have a video in the archives about when to raster or vector, or when to go with fixed resolution versus scaleable? I am primarily referring to apple motion. I get that a vector is supposedly the way to go if you want to zoom through and not get the jaggies (as you refer to them), but even when I tried it I could not get it to work as intended (not that I have the expertise to know what I was missing in execution lol). And I am very much enjoying the exploration of your plug in super glow, thank you.

[@SimonUbsdell]

I think this tutorial on Fixed Resolution should answer your questions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6ewhoiphqdofNk But please let me know if you are still unclear about any of it.

[@GarrettBM]

@@SimonUbsdell , Apologies, I do not mean to waste your time, I will check the videos resources in the future before asking a question about if you have a video on x,y or z. I did go watch the video just now. Actually I had before, but it now made more sense with more experience since I last watched it. The take away for me at this point is to use fixed resolution for the most part. Also, if I know I need to zoom in at some point, then to try making the fixed resolution a larger than canvas size so as to maintain quality when zooming (to say 150% for example). I suppose just make the fixed resolution 150% of the frame size.... If you have any tips I am certainly listening. And thank you for taking the time to reply.

[@SimonUbsdell]

I think I might have misled you in the way that I explained all of this. In general you want to avoid using Fixed Resolution unless it's necessary, especially from the point of view of scaling vector graphics. It is especially important to turn off fixed resolution for imported vectors in the Media tab - which is a separate consideration to the Fixed Resolution of a group. The bottom line is that Fixed Resolution rasterises your imported media on the one hand, and a Motion group on the other hand. Rasterised media/groups will exhibit jaggies (pixelated edges) when scaling above 100% is applied and the larger you scale the worse the problem becomes. However, there are plenty of cases where it is important and necessary to set a group to fixed resolution in order for many commonly used filters to work properly and/or efficiently. I hope that makes it a bit clearer.

[@GarrettBM]

@@SimonUbsdell I do not see any shortfall with how you explained it and thank you VERY much for taking the time. It is just that my skill level is novice, so I am having to narrow the focus to hit targets. So, for where I am at fixed res is a good option for now. I will learn through that some shortfalls of it etc. Not to bore you with details, but for context I had a real life product .ai design file I vectorised to use for tutorial (hundreds and hundreds of layers and strokes, paths and masks) and it was a really big mess in motion (imported as motion project through pixelmator-which worked good), through which I learned a lot, but it cost me huge amounts of time. Great experience of course. Now I will try some aspects of projects the other way. And I am watching all your material I can squeeze in and every bit helps.

[@SimonUbsdell]

I hesitate to lay down explicit rules but even then I do it too often, because there will always be a thousand special case exceptions. In your case, are you sure that the Pixelmator Motion export was preserving the imported vectors? I have no idea if that's a meaningful question but I thought I would ask it anyway. Vectors by their very nature should (in principle) never be resource-hungry ...

[@toddlask]

great info!