you’re describing a very specific Premiere Pro behavior:
Transform effect → animating position → stutters / jitter
Motion property → animating position → smooth
Windows 11, Nvidia GPU, latest Studio drivers
Has persisted across multiple Premiere versions (so not a one-off bug).
This is actually a known quirk with the Transform effect renderer vs. native Motion renderer. A few points to help you:
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Why it happens
1. Different render pipelines
The Motion controls are GPU-accelerated and tied directly to Premiere’s internal renderer.
The Transform effect often forces frames into the effects pipeline, which can introduce rounding errors or uneven frame sampling, especially at non-integer pixel values.
2. Frame sampling / sub-pixel rendering
Transform doesn’t interpolate sub-pixels the same way as Motion.
This can cause a visible "stepping" effect at certain playback speeds.
3. Shutter Angle setting
If Use Composition’s Shutter Angle is enabled (or Shutter Angle ≠ 0), Premiere tries to create motion blur. That changes how frames are blended, and can look like stuttering.
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Things to Try
Set Shutter Angle to 0 in the Transform effect (removes motion blur sampling that can cause stutter).
Enable High Quality Playback (wrench menu in the Program Monitor).
Render & Replace (timeline preview can sometimes be jerky even if the final export is smooth).
Check scaling/resolution mismatches (footage resolution vs. sequence). Transform is more sensitive than Motion in these cases.
Switch to Motion whenever possible if you don’t specifically need Transform’s extra options (e.g. for motion blur).
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If you really need Transform (for motion blur etc.)
Nest the clip first → then apply Transform on the nested sequence. This sometimes smooths out the interpolation.
Try using After Effects via Dynamic Link if you need buttery-smooth sub-pixel transforms with motion blur.
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