HELP! This flickering is driving me nuts!

[Andrew Yoole]

You are seeing interlace flicker, which can be caused in a number of ways. How is you’re footage captured? I suspect it’s from an interlaced camera source, possibly a DV camera. The mismatch of interlaced source and non-interlaced output is tricky, and the best way to overcome it is to deinterlace the source footage. The best way to deinterlace your footage is with Magic Bullet (at a hefty price)

https://www.redgiantsoftware.com

but you can also use the free plugins on offer from Pete Warden

https://www.petewarden.com

You can also deinterlace footage in a NLE like Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.

Don’t confuse deinterlacing with field interpretation. If you interpret field order and render frames, you’ll actually just remove one field from the source footage (which is harsh deinterlacing). If you interpret source footage as frames, you’ll end up with flickering like what you’re seeing now.

[Steve Roberts]

[Andrew Yoole] “If you interpret field order and render frames, you’ll actually just remove one field from the source footage (which is harsh deinterlacing).”

Technically, AE only does that if the layer is set to draft quality. At high quality, AE interpolates between the frames. Admittedly, it isn’t smart enough to avoid doing this in areas where there is no motion. RevisionFx’s Fieldskit plugin is supposed to do this intelligently.

Note: sometimes a 1-pixel vertical blur (directional blur or fast blur) can soften fine lines to avoid flickering … but you need to interpret the footage as fields to make that work.

Why 24 fps?
What was your final frame size?
What was your final goal? DVD?
Did you render to fields? Why? (You don’t have to, but if you do, get the field order right.)

You should also get Trish & Chris Meyer’s books, Creating Motion Graphics. They’re must-haves.

Steve

[Tee]

Thanks guys,

The reason for 24p is because I shot in 24 on the DVX100. The dropdown will change and final output is 29.97. But the DVX100 24p emulates the look I want. Also, I failed to mention, I had already deinterlaced the footage in Premiere Pro, but to no avail. I will fiddle around with the blur remedy and see if that works. Thanks!

[Tee]

I fixed it! I applied Field Interpolation. No need to de-interlace since the footage was already progressive. I also added the Broadcast Colors filter and it cleaned things up a bit too.