Frame rate conversion assistance pls!!!

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Paddy Uglow] “I could remake all the sequences and interpret the movies as 25fps, but there HAS to be a better way than that!”

Have you tried just exporting a sequence out as 25fps? Or make a 25fps sequence and drop a sequence in it and render it out.

[Paddy Uglow]

Hi Tero,
Thanks for the suggestion. Exporting non-25fps sequences to 25fps is an option, but I suspect there will be visual problems, even if I don’t see them on my screen. I’m something of a perfectionist, and I figure that keeping every frame is worth doing when it’s only 24 to 25fps, because the audio pitch change won’t be particularly large. I did try exporting the 29.97fps one at 25fps (with frame blending turned on in AME) and it looked OK, but it’s hard to tell on my computer and screen whether it’ll appear jumpy on a massive outdoor screen (which is where it’s ending up)
Thanks again.

Paddy, CreativeMedia.org.uk

[Keith Slavin]

Hi Paddy,

If you do not want to distort audio in any way, the best option is to use a high quality frame-rate conversion tool to convert your footage to one common frame-rate (29.976p definitely needs proper frame rate conversion). It is best to choose a frame-rate that is your final deliverable frame-rate (25p in your case).

We offer high quality standards conversion/transcoding services https://isovideo.com/services.php, based on our Game-Changer Award-winning Viarte server. If you are interested in trying out our service, you could send email to keith@isovideo.com. We could run a quick test and see if it works for you. By the way, Viarte was used for footage conversion (59.94i ->24p) in Academy-award winning director Ron Howard’s concert documentary “Made in America”.

[David Rehm]

Here’s the Premiere workflow for frame rate conversion
In Premiere Pro…
Nest your original footage into a sequence of the frame rate you desire. This is essentially a reverse pulldown – frames are being added. This is a typical process but it can look a little abrupt.

Other options to use…
Same scenario as above but right-click the footage in the timeline and choose Frame Blend (this will create smoother motion in the clip)

This is as good as it gets in Premiere Pro

Do you have After Effects?
Use AE to morph between frames (and not just dissolve between frames like in Premiere)
>send footage to After Effects
The comp settings should be the intended frame rate
The clip should be the original frame rate that you want to change.
>(globally) enable Frame Blending
>check the Draft switch too (for the layer)
This does a very good job at blending the frames

But for the maximum quality
>check the switch again and this will give the best results. Every frame will be a whole frame.
Of course render time will be much longer

Hope this helps,
David

[Paddy Uglow]

Thanks David!
Yes, I’ve got AFX, and also the curse of wanting to do everything as perfectly as possible! 😉
I did it in after effects – first time I accidentally used Pixel Motion, which looked very odd, particularly on the cuts! But the Frame Mix looks good and, presumably, is better than exporting a 29.97 seq to 25fps from Premiere or from QuickTime Pro.
Pixel Motion blending worked really well a while for turning a 30fps animation to 24 – it had continuous sideways motion, but fortunately no cuts.
Interestingly, for pixel motion frame blends in AFX, can I just cut up the sequence somehow at scene changes to prevent it trying to blend them? Or put each scene on a new layer?
Thanks again!
– Paddy

[David Rehm]

I would do what has the best results. If you have multiple clips in a Premiere timeline you can select them all and send them to AE and AE will place each cut on its own layer.

So if you cut up your sequence – just select all the clips and right-click and send it to AE.

Hope this helps,
David