Mystery of stuttering frames after render?

[Andy Stokes]

Hi Ray,

I’m having exactly the same problem.. Would love to tell you i’ve found a solution, but alas I just stumbled on your thread since i’m searching for a solution myself… Did you figure it out?

Regards,
Andy

p.s: Have you tried enabling motion blur? It may help a little.

[Ray Hargreaves]

No. Unfortunately, no. I still think about it from time to time, and nothing makes any sense to me. A perfectly clean RAM preview, but saving the RAM preview as a file suddenly involves stuttering? I just don’t get any of this.

I would really appreciate it if you could post the answer here when you find it, and I’ll be sure to do the same. That is, if there is an answer….

Thanks,

Ray

[Bill Russell]

The closest thing I ever had to this — and it is not quite the same thing described here — was a series of After Effects animations in Apple Prores HQ codec at 23.98. All was fine, even in real-time playback in Final Cut Pro, and stepping through frame for frame was perfect.

But then…. rendering these clips within my Final Cut Pro timeline, NOW there were repeat frames, a stutter.

I fixed it by using cinema tools to correct the AE output clips frame rate from 23.98 to the TRUE frame rate of 23.976. And here is the catch — even though the edit box APPEARED to round it back to 23.98, it was not the same. Actually entering 23.976 made all the difference. I had to do this to all of the After Effect results (23.98 -> 23.976). ALSO, if I rendered out of AE at 23.976 to begin with (even though it likewise appeared to round back to two decimal places) it prevented the problem from the start.

23.98 is not a real frame rate. 23.976 is. And this was a reallllly rare circumstance where it actually made the difference. And weird thing is — to reiterate — it ONLY reared its head AFTER final render in Final Cut. At every other stage there was no stutter.

The fix for me? Work in true 23.976, not 23.98 (even if the edit box APPEARS to round back to 23.98).

“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –

And more…

[Yamir Bhatt]

I am having the same issue. i think it has to do with frame rate. the stutter lessens when I render 60fps. but does not go away completely. not sure what is an absolute solution and what is really causing the stutter.

[Jon Zamba]

Hello,
It took me 8 hours from Sat night through most of Sun to solve this dreaded problem, on my system at least (specs below) First off I’m shooting with a Panasonic AG-HMC40 in 1080i, importing AVCHD (that should have been an indication from the beginning with the taxing decomp.) into AE CS4.
I tried exporting a plain clip without any effects from AE just to see if it was the plugins, no go, stuttering. I tried to export in every imaginable format, down conversion etc, no go, stuttering.
I initially was using AE for the BCC Kaleida (kaleilascope effect) and thought it might be that plug in, it was not. So… after all the frustration I decided to convert my ACVHD files into MPEG2- BluRay files.
and low and behold, even thought the MPEG2-BluRay files were larger… IT WORKED! NO STUTTERING ANYMORE! In fact, my preview and RAM pre-renders in AE flow and look great without hesitation.
Long story short? I believe the CPU, even though with 16gigs of RAM, didnt like the conversion from the timeline. So I would recommend some type of conversion “more native” to your system.
I hope this helps.

Jon
https://www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com

Panasonic AG-HMC40 – AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4

[Ron Desi]

Hi Jon,

I’m having a very similar problem. I have my movie in Premiere, key our my green screen in AE, then back to premiere. When I render in premiere I get this (the video is a spoof, I don’t actually think social media is a waste of time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mksLVK4818M

You say that you converted your ACVHD files into MPEG2- BluRay files. How did you do that? Then, after you did that, did you then open them in AE, work your magic, then export?

Thanks for your time.

[Jon Zamba]

I used Adobe Media Encoder CS4. Its pretty straight forward.
I believe iSkysoft iMedia Converter works as well.
I used the highest quality settings Quality of 5 @ 36 Mbps CBR (constant bit rate)
and it looked pretty damn good and geez they play and render FAST! No rendering
the previews on my system! Remember its the MPEG2-BluRay setting.
Good luck

Jon
http://www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com

Panasonic AG-HMC40 – AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4

[Ron Desi]

Thanks for the reply…sorry one last question..

Did you render BluRay in Premiere or After Effects?

Thanks,

[Jon Zamba]

Both. Do your animation in AE then queue and export in MPEG2-BluRay
Open Premier, import that same file (it will be an MPEG2 file (m2v -mpeg.2.video. – no audio)
And do your editing in Premier, at this point you will be able to down convert and export to various formats but if your going HD or HD DVD (BluRay) then export in Premier as same MPEG2-BluRay,
This file will have no audio, but premier will ask you to export your audio in the export/render options.
So if your burning to a DVD disk or BluRay disk in a program like Titanium Toast (version 10 only – For HD/BluRay) it will ask you on import for the files at the burning stage, in Toast it asks if “is your audio file stored in a different location”, search find the audio file , and your ready to burn. and FYI you CAN use standard DVDs (as opposed to expensive BluRay disks to burn HD DVD (BluRay) material, but only like 30minutes to 1 hour depending on your .mbps. The recipient of the burnt disk will require a BluRay player to view. HAVE FUN!

Jon

Jon
http://www.youtube.com/psymeta
http://www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com

Panasonic AG-HMC40 – AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4

[Jon Zamba]

So yes, covert your AVCHD files to MPEG2-bluRay
then import those to AE, do your animation, and export as MPEG2-BluRay, import that into
Premier, and export again as MPEG2-BluRay! =)
Good to go!

Jon
http://www.youtube.com/psymeta
http://www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com

Panasonic AG-HMC40 – AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4