Framerate

[doodledude]

Hi guys,

I am making a cartoon movie for NTSC.

Should I animate the movie at 24 fps or 30fps ?

If I animate it at 24 fps ... will it play faster and speed up all the sounds when converted to NTSC which plays at 29.97?

Also what sample rate should I record my sounds for video / DVD

Thanks heaps in advance!

[cribble]

Idealy you should animate at 20FPS and use a video editing software to convert it down to 29.97 (so there is very little loss in frame rate).

No it shouldn't speed up, but, from past experience, it makes the animation more jolty and not as smooth.

You should save audio as 48,000Hz .WAV (Uncompressed) for DVD and i think its standard to use 44,000Hz .WAV (Uncompressed) for TV.

[Hiddicop]

Idealy you should animate at 20FPS and use a video editing software to convert it down to 29.97 (so there is very little loss in frame rate).

I suppose it should say 30 and not 20 FPS.

[cribble]

sorry my mistake, wasn't paying attention to what i was typing.

[Lost Marble]

I would say, don't worry about the final frame rate of NTSC. Worry instead about the frame rate you want to animate at.

A 12 fps animation will have a totally different "look" from a 30 fps animation. Animated shows for TV are not actually animated at 29.97 fps (or 30 fps). Typically, they're done at 12 fps or maybe 24 fps. You need to decide what frame rate looks right for your project.

(30 fps with interpolation between keyframes may end up looking too smooth. 12 fps can actually give more "life" to your animation by breaking up the computer interpolation a bit. But that's all up to you.)

Exporting to DVD or tape is the final step. At that stage, whatever video editing software you're using should be able to up-sample your 12 fps animation to display it on a 29.97 NTSC monitor without you having to worry about anything. The video editor should take care of getting the audio and video to all look right at 29.97 fps.

[rylleman]

I would say, don't worry about the final frame rate of NTSC. Worry instead about the frame rate you want to animate at.

A 12 fps animation will have a totally different "look" from a 30 fps animation. Animated shows for TV are not actually animated at 29.97 fps (or 30 fps). Typically, they're done at 12 fps or maybe 24 fps. You need to decide what frame rate looks right for your project.

(30 fps with interpolation between keyframes may end up looking too smooth. 12 fps can actually give more "life" to your animation by breaking up the computer interpolation a bit. But that's all up to you.)

Exporting to DVD or tape is the final step. At that stage, whatever video editing software you're using should be able to up-sample your 12 fps animation to display it on a 29.97 NTSC monitor without you having to worry about anything. The video editor should take care of getting the audio and video to all look right at 29.97 fps.

I dont think that's a good advise LM, animating at 12fps will give a very staggering look and limits your animation enormously.
More or less all productions uses the correct framerates (30 for NTSC, 25 for PAL) but animates on 2s. If you got faster motion you have to switch to animation on 1s else you will get an ugly result. And think about lipsync, if animating at 12fps you only got every other frame to put your phonemes on, not very accurate.
As for breaking up computer interpolation my advise would be to have everything on stepped keys and do your own inbetweens.

[Lost Marble]

I dont think that's a good advise LM, animating at 12fps will give a very staggering look and limits your animation enormously.

Sorry if that's how it came across, but that wasn't the advice I was trying to give. My advice was to pick the frame rate you want to use, based on the style of your animation, not on the physical specs of a TV monitor. If that means 12, 24, or 30 fps, then use that number, not the 29.97 of NTSC. (Unless you want 29.97, then go ahead and use that number in your Moho project settings.)

You're right - 12 fps can give a very staggered look. But, whether that's bad or not depends on your own personal "artistic vision". I've seen a lot of hand-drawn 12 fps animation that I personally think looks great. Then again, there's a lot of 24 fps animation that looks great. Neither framerate matches up with NTSC TV standards, so just don't worry about that part until later.

[Banterfield]

Whatever frame rate you do decide to work in, remember that Moho features a "rescale keyframes" tool. Using this in conjunction with changing the frame rate under "Project Settings" will allow you to adjust the frame rate, even if you've already animated a scene.

I've had success converting lipsynch at 24 frames/sec up to 30 with no noticeable problem in synching, even on long shots.

Rest easy in the knowledge that if you second guess yourself on fps you'll have the option of changing at any time.

Regards,

[doodledude]

Thanks you for all the help guys