24 fps footage yet every 5th frame is a duplicate

[Walter Soyka]

If you double-click on the footage in the Project panel, you can step through it frame by frame with PgDn and PgUp in the Footage Viewer. If you see duplicated frames here (regardless of what frame rate AE is interpreting), then there are duplicate frames in the render. This might also explain why you were seeing extra duplicated frames when the media was interpreted at 24 fps in a 30 fps sequence.

If you do not see duplicate frames here, then there is still a mismatch somewhere. AE should only be duplicating every fourth frame when your media is 24 fps and your comp is 30 fps.

As a test, if you re-import the footage, interpret it at 24fps, then drop it in a new 24fps sequence, do you still see the duplication?

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

[Dale Hildebrand]

I’ve discovered that the star field was the culprit. It is duplicating the 4th frame = the fifth frame is a duplicate. For some reason it was making the planet move have the same cadence. Planet is now fixed. Unfortunately the star field was built by someone else so don’t have the source. Hopefully I can track it down and get this sorted out soon.

[Chris Wright]

1. you can custom decimate the extra 4th frame then reconstitute a
new pattern using virtualdub’s decimate feature,

2. enable time remapping then use this expression to remove every bad frame. This one is set at removing every 13th frame. I don’t know what your length from one bad frame to the next is, so edit f/12.

f = timeToFrames();
n = Math.floor(f/12);
framesToTime(n+f);

then simply put it in a new comp or re-render out and re-interpret it in AE again tweaking timestretch, compressor, twixtor, timewarp, for furthur use if desired.

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/

[Mike Gottschalk]

Chris Wright, you and your expression are my hero. This saved me such a hassle with some 5th frame duplicate footage. I just changed the 12 to a 5 here:

f = timeToFrames();
n = Math.floor(f/5);
framesToTime(n+f);

But did I simply luck out that it removed the correct frame each time? What if my footage was 1-2-2-3-4-5 etc. ? Can I offset which of the n frames gets removed?

Huge thanks again,
Mike Gottschalk

[Mike Gottschalk]

Well, I just got to another sequence with the same duplicate fifth frame issue—but this time with a different cadence. I added one frame to the expression, and it worked. I think I lucked out again, but I’m guessing you can add one, two, three, four, or five frames until the pattern works when you step through the footage. Here’s the one that worked for me:

f = timeToFrames();
n = Math.floor(f/5);
framesToTime(n+f+1);

Note the added frame at the last line ( “+1” ) to get the cadence right, in this case.

—Mike