Should I convert my project to 60 fps, or just set it to 60 fps when I do my final render?

[Shaun5FC3]

Hi

I'm noticing a big difference between 24 fps and 60 for my animated video. However, my machine struggles working in 60fps.

Is it ok just to set the main comp to 60 fps when exporting a render, then back to 24 for working, or is there something to be gained (or a negative to be avoided) by permanently switching to 60?

Thank you

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

Of course you're missing out on all the fine tweaks at higher framerates that may result in smoother motion. That's the same old thing why conventional film stock looks "cinematic" due to those tiny quantization errors and traditional animated comics have this specific look because they were done at 12 or 15 FPS. That said, of course you can get away with just cranking up the framerate for final output many times. It realyl depends on the project, however. And in doing so also do not be surprised if stuff looks differently, as higher framerates naturalyl expose any flaws in animation timing, even just a bad ease keyframe in AE... Knowing more about your project might help to advise on how to best proceed.

Mylenium

[Shaun5FC3]

Thank you Mylenium.

I was mainly concerned as to whether continually switching between framerates would degrade image/project quality over time - like when making an mp3 of an mp3 of an mp3 - quality progressively degrades, but it seems this is not the case with frame rates.

Yeah re timing issues - in my experiment, any fine timeline placements I made in 60fps were snapped to the nearest frame when converting to 24. So I  think I'll stick to 60 - it's a music video, and it's amazing to me how much of a difference the finer layer placements make to the tightness of images syncing with sound at 60 fps - I didn't think it would be as noticable as it is!

[Andrew Yoole]

Everything Mylenium says is correct.  There's no technical reason why increasing the output frame rate won't work, but depending on the content there may be issues with timing or subtleties.

What I'd suggest is that, at the very least, work to an even multiple of your output format - so if you're outputting at 60fps, design in 30fps.  (Half the output frame rate).  This will eliminate a lot of mathematical conversions.

And saying that, there's no real reason why you can't design at 60fps and simply generate previews at half the frame rate (render every second frame when you preview.)

[Shaun5FC3]

Thank you Andrew. Is that what the "Full/Half/Third/Quarter" drop down menu below the preview window is doing? I thought it still rendered every frame, but just at a lower image bitrate or something. Or is there a totally different setting for previewing every second frame at full frame quality?

[Andrew Yoole]

Setting your preview resolution is not the same as setting the preview frame rate (though equally useful at speeding up preview times).  

If you open the Preview pane you'll see you can set a specific preview frame rate, or a number of frames to skip, ie skip 1 frame per frame (reducing 60fps to 30fps). skip 2 frames per frame (reducing 60fps to 20fps) or skip 5 frames (reducing 60fps to 12fps).

 

[Shaun5FC3]

Oh wow! That's a great hack!! Instant productivity boost for me. Thank you Andrew!