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3dsmax + After Effects frame rate problem
Hello,
I have a little problem.
I have created a small animation (moving silhouette of electric pole with wires) in the 3dsmax (3dsmax version 9) at NTSC 30 fps (standard settings) at 1920by1080. rendered it out as PNG sequence with Alpha channel. Then I added it to AE CS4 and created a new comp 1920by1080 30fps. I added some vector elements (like trees passing by and grass) and rendered it out as QuickTime with PNG for the codec (actually I tried different codecs but result is the same). The problem is vector elements added and animated inside AE move smoothly but animation from 3dsmax (elecric pole with wires) moves a bit jumpy. I have a notebook with 1GB Ram (weak machine) so I tried to render at 720 x 480 and the result still stays the same. Maybe it’s playback problem? I am using k-lite mega codec pack with the Media Player Classic. Playing it back via QuickTime itself gave the same result. I am using the latest version of QuickTime. Operating system is Windows XP SP2.If anyone could help me out I would be very grateful. My purpose with this video is to create seamless video that can reapet forever.
Thank you in advance.
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5 Replies
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NTSC video is really 29.97 frames per second, not 30. AE’s NTSC-based composition presets use 29.97 fps, but the default frame rate for image sequence imports is 30 fps. Can you verify that your footage and composition frame rates match?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Yes, beyond doubt. I checked it twice. I even created 1080p 27,97 fps composition and then changed the sequence fps from 30 to 27,97, ut the result is the same. I also thought that maybe my notebook is too weak even for 960by540 QuickTime so I compressed it using mp4 and h.264 codecs but still the playback was perfect except for the animation imported from 3dsmax (it is still a bit jumpy).
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How does it look in realtime RAM preview in AE? If it’s smooth there, then perhaps it is a playback problem. If it’s jumpy in RAM preview, then I’d think the render from Max is suspect.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Well, in RAM preview it looks good. So I suppose it is playback problem. I have downloaded the latest drivers for the video card and will update the K-Lite codecs pack. Hope it helps. I will write back.
Thank you for your attention and help.One more question. I read a lot that AE built-in video compression is terrible. And ewveryone says that it’s better to render from AE without compression and than use another program to compress. I wanted to ask if Adobe Media Encoder a good tool for this? Should I render from AE in QuickTime (Animation codec) and then use Adobe Media Encoder to compress it to let’s say QuickTime H.264?
Thanks in advance. -
Dima –
I have had the best luck with Max rendering out my animations at 60fps. After Effects has always brought them in at the correct speed, and I have no interlacing problems (when I output from Max interlaced, lower field first, there always seems to be a problem).
You are correct with thinking that you should render out of AE uncompressed (I use Quicktime Animation, millions of colors), and then encode with a third party package. I am currently using Adobe Media Encoder, and, other than the pain of setting up presets (which you’ll get with any encoder), it does the job very well. I’m sending stuff out for the web, for the Ipod Touch, for DVDs, and have had no problems. The time consuming part is reading up on which encoding is optimized for which medium (but there is lots of free information out there on that issue). All the projects I’ve done are 1080P, and the file size is huge for the uncompressed master, but it gives me a file I can use for any purpose, and I can queue it up for multiple versions with Media Encoder.
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com
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