strobing/flickering end credits in After Effects

[Kevin Camp]

i made a preset that you can download at http://www.mercuryjones.com/aepresets.html. it is essentially just an expression that will generate y movement of your credit layer that is limited to whole pixels (or whole fields if interlacing) with a few expression controls for padding and switching between field friendly movement or just anti-alias friendly movement.

just download the preset (.zip file), unzip if necessary and drop into your ae presets folder. then apply the preset to your credit layer (removing existing keyframes), position the first frame as needed, set ther few expression controls as needed (uncheck the field friendly box in your case), and that’s it.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Matthew Tully]

You could try turning on continuous rasterization option for the AI file. This might help. Are you able to see the strobing on your machine or client monitor? Or were you only able to see it at the finishing studio?

[Kevin Camp]

in addition there is a link to a post made here at the cow by dave laronde, who gave a very thorough explanation of how to create a flicker free credit roll and what i based the expression on.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Patrick Doan]

Hi Kevin

I just tested your preset, but it seems to shorten the length/speed the up the credits i have. is this normal? my credits run to 1min42sec, and after applying your preset/effects to my layer, it is now running at 1min19sec. is there a way to control the speed of the scrolling, and have the last frame of the end credits remain on screen?

if you would like to see my current version of the end credits, it’s available here:

https://www.defasten.com/files/LILI_A_GILLES/CREDITS_FINAL_2.mov
(1 min42sec, 45 MB)

thanks alot for the response!
patrick

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[Patrick Doan]

oh, i was also wondering if the flickering issue would also apply to horizontal, x-axis movement? in the opening credits of the same project im working on, i have slow moving horizontal text movement. i have a 16MB demo here:

https://www.defasten.com/files/LILI_A_GILLES/LILI_OPEN_2K_1_POST.mov

thanks again for any info

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[Patrick Doan]

i just read david laronde’s post on flickering – great stuff! i think i will try this out instead since it sounds alot like what the lab guys said about subsample pixeling, and it will give me control over the speed of the scrolling.

thanks

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[Kevin Camp]

the expression was designed to move the credit layer completely off the screen at the end. i may try to rewrite it soon to change that so you could hold at the end.

it was also designed to create a move that would that would be flicker free but remain within the duration of the comp, so the duration of the move (on screen) will be shorter than it was originally, due to the fact that the y increment is forced to whole pixels… so that is normal. if you need to lengthen the move, you would need to length the comp duration.

another method to generate whole pixel movement is this little expression:

[Math.round(position[0]),Math.round(position[1])]

just paste it into your postion field, and key frame start and end positions. the expression will limit the movement to whole pixels. it will also work for x movement as well (the other was limited to y). a slight flaw with this rounding method is there is potential for slightly uneven movement, depending on numbers getting rounded up or down.

good luck

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Patrick Doan]

i will try out the math expression and see how it works, thanks.

continuous rasterize is on.. in fact, i thought this might be a problem, since after effects is recalculating pixels for antialiasing, so the pixels are not “fixed”?

i am working through the film director, so i do not see it on the client monitor, which is a bummer. i get the information through him.

thanks

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[Patrick Doan]

ok, i have been doing some testing, and i found David Laronde’s method to be most useful.

I also did a test in After Effects with the sequence rendered with Continuous Rasterize ON, and Continuous Rasterize OFF – i’ve notice there is less flickering (or subsampling) while rasterize was OFF. I realised this when i zoomed in at 800% on each frame of the sequence, and noticed less fading around the edges of the letters – rather, they seemed to be more solid and consistent.

i hope that may help some people.

🙂

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[Kevin Camp]

i completely rewrote the flickerfree credit roll preset… now you can apply it as before, and it will automaticly create the move based on credit length (height), comp size and comp duration, with control for field friendly movement. plus, you can a keyframe for start postion (which will also act as a start postion for the animation), and/or a keyframe for end postion.

i posted the preset at MercuryJones.com/aeprests.html.

patrick, if you come across this post again, try the preset and let me know how it works out this time… the main advantage of the preset is that if the credit list changes (or duration of the roll changes) the expresion will automaticly adjust the movement without needing to manually recalculate the end keyframe (although, if you had postion keyframes using the preset, you may need to make adjustments to them, but it should be easier than recalculating manually)

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW