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Picking the best framerate
Hello everyone!
We are building a graphics toolkit for video editors for a major company. Most of the videos will be produced for the web, very few will be done for any broadcast/DVD/Blu-Ray etc output.
The videos will be put together all over the world, from stills and footage of all possibilities – from old SD to specially shot.
We are debating on the best frame rates to use (oh, all is HD 1920×1080)
Some of the animations are really quick and play best at 60 or 59.94fpsSo I would love to pose a question for the editors out there who are using FCP and dealing with this kind of work.
What would you say is the safest all around bet?
– please keep in mind that there are two major considerations here, how to deal with the “master” overall rate – 30? 29.97? 24? (though I think the lower framerates would be way “choppy” playing on a monitor)
– and – for the quick clips – do we render the higher framerate and annotate? Drop down to lower? Interlace and hope for the best?Many thanks in advance to all who chime in!
Maria
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5 Replies
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It’s really about finding the best compromise, for a given data rate you’ll get better picture quality for a lower frame rate, but a low frame rate is indeed flickery. I’ve been using 25fps because I’m in the UK and that’s what we broadcast over here, so that’s what most stuff is originated on, but I’d be equally happy at 24fps, anything below about 20fps gets a bit too steppy IMO.
A couple of rules-of-thumb; material for the internet should be progressive (not interlaced), and if you’re changing the frame rate only do it once because material quickly goes to mush if you change the frame rate more than once.
I wonder about the animations which work best for you at 60fps – are you looking at that frame rate after the material has been encoded for the web or at full quality? Just because things that benefit from a high frame rate also tend to react badly to the kind of data compression that’s needed for the web, so you really ought to watch it compressed before making a firm decision.
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Thanks Andrew! Would you say then that it may be problematic for you to get materials that are let’s say a uniform standard 29.97? Would you prefer 30fps?
Or is it more a matter of so long as you get a standard rate that is progressive you are fine? (yes, agree 100% – we only considered interlacing the 60fps stuff instead of just down converting)
This is all coming out of after effects so we can retime until the cows come home without damage. Just a matter of agreeing on final rate!
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TBH I’d accept stuff in any of the “standard” frame rates. Most footage will stand having it’s frame rate converted once, if you need to do that.
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At 1920×1080 the standard progressive rates are 30p and 24p, so pick between those two.
The real question I have is why not just ask the editors who are working with the media?
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