Camera panning looks jerky

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negroclarito
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Camera panning looks jerky

Post by negroclarito »

when I do a panning camera movement is not smooth ... it looks jerky, stutter
I tried with different computers but always that happen.
I usually avoid to make camera movements in Anime Studio because that, but now I'm working on a scene and need to move the camera.


Here's the scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnLdaKD ... e=youtu.be

Any advice to correct this? :(
AnnieMashon
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by AnnieMashon »

What is your frame rate? 12? Try 24 and see if that is better.
AnnieMashon
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by AnnieMashon »

Are your camera keys linear? or stepped?
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negroclarito
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by negroclarito »

The frame rate is 24.

I've tried everything and the movement is still no smooth.... different kind of frames, different imagen files (PNG interlaced and no interlaced, JPGs....), move all in a group instead of the camera, render in different computers...

Your Anime Studio camera movements are smooth?

There's also some jitter in the small images
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Maestral
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by Maestral »

Sometimes it depends on the speed of the camera movement.

In many occasions, slower camera movements are untameable since at the end it would be shown in pixels and transitions from one pixel to a neighboring one is not always that smooth as desired. It`s pretty much the same with the quicker ones, so if you`ve already tried so many times - try with adjusting the speed as well. Might give you a better result.
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slowtiger
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by slowtiger »

I think I've found the culprit.

I downloaded the movie to check in Quicktime, thus eliminating any playback errors from youtube. Looked normal to me, but just to make sure I imported the clip into TVPaint and marked the same spot in some consecutive frames:
Image
As you can see, the image advances the exact same amount in every frame, so AS did its job perfectly.

What you should notice as well is that the pink doorframe is of exactly the same width as the pan increment! And the vertical lines of the cars are the same or even smaller. What happens is that such a small line will blink. It's there in one position in only one frame, then vanished in the next. There is no overlap. You created a perfect example of "shatter".

What can you do about it? Change the pan speed, or change the artwork. You need to create overlap of at least the brightest elements, or make increments large enough that shatter doesn't happen.

In general, any pan artwork should avoid too many vertical lines. The corners of a house are OK, the picket fence is not. To reduce shatter, reduce contrast in BG elements.

If you can't change the artwork, change the pan. Make it so fast that it moves half a car's length between frames. Or make it so slow that it moves less than half a line width between frames. Experiment with settings: avoid linear interpolation, use a slow out, or combine pan and zoom in one movement - anything which will change the increments over time.

If you're not going to expose your movie on film stock, don't use 24 FPS. Use 25 or 30 FPS, as by the requirements of your broadcaster, and thus avoid further deterioration from frame rate conversion.
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negroclarito
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by negroclarito »

I changed to 30fps and move the camera slower... and it improved a lot. Is much smother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-sbTg ... e=youtu.be

I've been using 24 or 25 fps and with 30 looks much better. I can't avoid vertical lines in this scene because is a city.... and using vertical or horizontal panning would have the same problem.

Thank you for the tips. :D
kitzeldikatz
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by kitzeldikatz »

I'm shopping around for a new monitor and read that some monitors can't handle other framerates than 60fps (or integer fractions thereof) without stuttering. So this might also be something to consider.

When playing back on yt I saw that the frame rate isn't constant and sometimes frames are being dropped. I still see some stuttering so it might be a youtube problem or my slow computer.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by Greenlaw »

Alternatively, you can add motion blur or directional blur to the pan. Using MB in a 2D cartoon is an aesthetic choice though--some purists will refuse to use it while others will embrace it. Either way, the effect will smooth out this artifact, just as it would in live action or cgi footage with similar motion.

FWIW, I'll use motion blur if I find that not using it is too visually distracting. It also depends on the style of animation though. We avoided using MB in Scareplane but we're using it all over the place in our current ASP production. The new production has many and frequent quick pans and rapid zooms, and I felt that in this situation not having MB might become seizure inducing. :)

G.
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negroclarito
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by negroclarito »

I like to add motion blur only in some dinamic animations but I can try.
Thank you for all tips :D
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Greenlaw
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Re: Camera panning looks jerky

Post by Greenlaw »

On the subject of motion blur in 2D cartoons, my supervisor told me last week that a director told him "I want to feel it, not see it." Meaning, it's okay to use it, just don't make it obviously stand out.

G.
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