stutters in my animation

[digitalx3d]

Hey gang,
So, I've recently wrapped up an animation and no matter what options I chose for encoding couldn't I get rid of stutters, or hiccups, or choppiness... whatever you want to call it. And when I look at other arch-viz animation on youtube I see the same thing all over the place. I feel like I've tried everything, with the exception of rendering out 60 fps and then encoding at 30. Doubling the rendering cost unfortunately wasn't an option. The playback is best playing the mp4 file that resides on my hard drive. It's more noticeable on mobile devices playing off Youtube. Here's a link to the video on Youtube- http://youtu.be/tszrxaFsDR8 Does anyone have any solutions for this? Tips?? Thanks!!

It was rendered at 30 fps, assembled in After Effects using RSMB motion blur, rendered out to uncompressed AVI, then encoded to .mp4 using Handbrake. But it would do this even before encoding... AE Ram preview, 3ds Max Ram Player.... and seemingly never consistent with exactly what frames it occurs. Stumped!!!!

[tashko.zashev]

Hi John,

Why don't you use the native After Effects encoder. In my opinion it should work better then Handbrake.

[Garryclarke]

Hi John,

Looking at it it does look a bit like a frame rate clash.

In Aftereffects check the frame rate of the imported footage, the composition and the output format. They should all be the same. if there's any difference then it will stutter slightly as it tries to squeeze the frames into a different frame per second count. I'm in PAL land where everything is 25 fps, I think with NTSC you have to watch out for 29.97fps matching with 30fps, this may be the problem but I don't work with NTSC so I might be wrong

And as Tashko mentions I use AfterEffects to encode.

[AlexP]

Would echo Garry. Ive only had this problem when all frame rates didnt match up. Sometime I would forget to set the AE composition frame rate to match the 3dsmax frame rate.

[digitalx3d]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the ideas. Unfortunately though neither the framerate or the encoder are the cause. I just double checked that the frame rate is set to 30 in 3ds Max, all the composition and render settings in AE, and the encoding in Handbrake as well. But as I mentioned earlier, I see the stuttering even in both Max's and AE's Ram players when they are set to 30 fps too. I had this thought that maybe various media players as well as Youtube/Vimeo etc playback video at 29.97 by default that maybe that was causing it, but the fact that the Ram players stutter too kind of negates that theory. Right??

As for using Handbrake, I had done quite a bit research online and found a LOT of people claiming the encoder in AE is quite poor and the suggested method is to use either AE or Media Encoder to output an uncompressed video, and then use Handbrake to encode the uncompressed version into .H264. I'm completely satisfied with the video/compression quality. Just not with the stuttering aspect and for the life of me couldn't/still can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Alright, hold on... I do see something. In 3dsMax in the Time Configuration panel, frame rate is set to NTSC (which AFAIK is 29.97). But does that make the difference? Does that affect the space/time between animation keys?? I thought that was just for playback?? I've always been under the impression that, for example, 600 frames is 600 frames and you can determine your frame rate AFTER the frames are rendered, be it 30, 60, 24, 29.97, etc. Oddly, if I change the setting to Custom @ 30 fps, exit the panel, and then go back it is switched back to NTSC!

HMmm.... just pulled out an old relic "Inside 3D Studio Max 2"!!! The book says NTSC is 30 fps, and also says you can adjust the frame rate in the Time Configuration panel at any time (which automatically adjusts your frame count). Totally confused now.

Any other thoughts???

[AlexP]

I've always been under the impression that, for example, 600 frames is 600 frames and you can determine your frame rate AFTER the frames are rendered, be it 30, 60, 24, 29.97, etc.

In my own experience this is not the case

It maybe worth trying to play back the frames at 29.97 for example to see if it has any effect. Try a few different frame rates.

If the stuttering were rendered in to the frames then that would suggest some issue with the camera movement I would think?

[tashko.zashev]

Have you tried another workflow. Rendering animation into separate frames and set the frame rate directly when import it in AE?

[Garryclarke]

Yeah the setting for the frame rate in Max can, in therory, be ignored when you get to the comp stage. Several times I've forgotten to alter the frame rate and just rendered out 250 frames knowing that in the comp it'll last 10 secs (25fps). As long as in afterEffects you right click on the footage and in the interpret footage you set it to the frame rate you want.

If you'd like I'll take a look at the footage for you. just grab 100 frames or so an put them in a drop box or something and I'll see what I can do.

Send me an email at garry(at)garryclarke.com and I'll give it a go.