Frame Rate

[bliss_infinite]

Standard film animation frame rate is 24 frames per second but when working on Anime Studio how do you determine what frame rate to use? For example, if I'm just going to post my animation on Vimeo what frame rate is that? Video is 30fps (or 32 fps), quicktime is 29fps. If I create at 24 FPS and it goes to video does my animation appear to be sped up?

I'm a bit confused on how creating in a specific frame rate will work in different mediums.

Any thoughts on this?

[heyvern]

Generally you want to make sure you create your animations at the FPS of the delivery format. It's BETTER to go DOWN than UP. So animating at 24 fps that will be shown at 30 fps (29fps on youtube etc) will require some sort of frame blending or something depending on how it's being converted. I am pretty sure that Youtube will convert to the 29fps, which is kind of a standard for 30fps in digital video. You may see some "slippage" possibly when going from 24 to 29. It's not a HUGE difference but it could be visible possibly.

It's always going to better to animate at 30fps and then drop down to 24 if you you need to go to film or some other lower fps. This is probably going to require some other application that can support changing frame rates. Programs like AE or Premiere can reduce the fps without changing the speed or length of the animation by dropping frames. I am pretty sure that if you import a 24fps video into Anime Studio project that is set to 30fps, the 24fps video will play slightly faster. Not 100% certain.

-vern

[macnavi]

I am pretty sure that Youtube will convert to the 29fps, which is kind of a standard for 30fps in digital video. You may see some "slippage" possibly when going from 24 to 29.

29.97 fps is standard in the United States, but not in Europe. We have 25 fps. I find it an easier frame rate to split than working with a frame rate which involves a .97 frame. YouTube doesn't really care which frame rate you use, it will copy what you upload.

On a computer, all frame rates will play. But burning as a movie DVD has to be more precise. If you make an animation for DVD, you have to be aware which frame rate you are going to use. NTSC = 29.97 fps, PAL = 25 fps. If you're going to produce something that is going to be transferred to film for in the cinema, it's 24 fps.

So you really look where you're going to use it for. If it's only for the Internet, it doesn't matter. But if you really have to make a choice, choose the frame rate of your country/continent.

Btw, QuickTime doesn't have a set frame rate. QuickTime is a container for many video compression methods. It can be any frame rate, any compression. Fx .avi can be played by QuickTime, but the moment you create the file in Anime Studio, that's where the frame rate is decided.

You can change the frame rate afterwards in Anime Studio, but it will change the timing of your animation. Ie, 1 second made with 25 frames, will last 1 second and 1 frame if you change it to 24 frames. You won't really notice that, but you will when you change to 29.97 fps.

[Not An Artist]

What codec is best?

Depending on my project, I need to get video to BluRay, DVD or iPad/iPhone.

The manual suggests Sorenson, but that doesn't come up.

I have:
H.264
MPEG-4
Animation
Apple Pixlet
Apple Intermediate
JPEG
PNG

I assume I should use one of the first two. Which one? I then have to combine the movies in Final Cut Pro X and re-export. What settings should I use there?

BTW I'm on a Mac and I work in 30fps or whatever the default setting AS comes up with (HDTV, iPad, etc) in the project settings selection at the start. Iwork in Japan so I'm on NTSC.

[Ronbo]

If you're going to do your editing in Final Cut Pro, which is an excellent idea, then you should export your scenes from Anime Studio in a lossless format, e.g. Animation or a png image sequence. After you finish your editing in FCP just click on "Share" in the menu bar to find presets for your choice of Apple devices, DVD, Blu-ray, Facebook, YouTube, or "Export media," where you would choose H.264 for uploading to the web or just viewing on a computer. The idea is to retain the highest image quality (lossless) until your final compressed export from FCP. This way you're not re-compressing a previously-compressed movie.

[Not An Artist]

Thanks, Ronbo.

Waited to reply until after I had played around with things a little on several ends: Anime Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Compressor. Some of this has been new territory for me.

Works great.

Decided that I will always work in AS at 30fps at whatever screen size the project needs and export using Animation at Maximum. As that can take some time to render, I tried some of the various output settings and settled on half size as a good compromise to get a demo out quickly with good quality. On this end, I gathered quite a bit of data on rendering times for the various screen sizes on my iMac (3.4 i7, SSD, 8GB RAM).

Then combine the clips in FCPX and send to Compressor for output.