Mystery of stuttering frames after render?
by Ray Hargreaves
on
Mar 26, 2009 at 4:57:30 pm
Although my AE project is built entirely out of Illustrator and Photoshop assets, and and every composition uses the same standard DV settings, and the RAM preview can play the entire file perfectly clean and smooth, my renders always come out with a slight framerate stutter during different moments. Here's a link to the video so you can understand what I'm looking at:
Although this is an FLV, the appearance of dropped/stuttering frames from time to time is visible in every type of file I'm exporting. Any tips on how to solve this problem?
Here's the information about my project settings: NTSC DV | 720x480 | D1/DV NTSC (0.91) | 29.97 fps
(there are quite a few comps within comps that all share these same project settings, if that amounts to anything)
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ray Hargreaves on Mar 26, 2009 at 11:27:56 pm
Premiere Pro's exported version still has the jittery look at the same sort of moments, and included interlacing. Any ideas what it will take to remove the jittery stuff? Thanks for your time...
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Bill Russell on Mar 28, 2009 at 12:22:07 am
If you step through the export frame-by-frame, is there a pattern to the stuttering? Like every fourth frame repeated, or once every second? (It's hard for me to tell looking at the web movie on this side.)
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ray Hargreaves on Mar 31, 2009 at 3:14:40 pm
There doesn't appear to be, no. I'm not seeing anything in the frame-by-frame that would be throwing it off. I think my next step is to burn it on a DVD and watch how it plays back on a television.
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ray Hargreaves on Mar 31, 2009 at 4:20:42 pm
I would also like to add that if I put the exported file into iTunes and have it converted to a different format, such as iPhone or AppleTV versions, it also carries the stuttering with it. Which is a reason why I believe it is embedded in the file, although going through frame-by-frame doesn't show any signs of it....
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Bill Russell on Apr 4, 2009 at 9:08:05 am
Now then I'm stumped, if the stuttering is only on playback no matter how encoded, but frame-by-frame movement smooth. I'd almost have to look at a Quicktime clip to give my .02 (flash is too uncontrollable). Anyway, I'll keep a mind out for what this might be! Cheers...
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ray Hargreaves on Apr 8, 2009 at 10:27:23 pm
A recent development that's most curious to me is when I tried pre-rendering the project. The Pre-render appeared on my desktop (as expected) as well as in my library (also expected). The stuttering is still obvious when I play the file on my desktop through Quicktime - but completely smooth within After Effects when simply previewing that same file from my library.
VLC, iTunes, etc all play it with inconsistent stuttering, and iTunes and YouTube both keep the stuttering when converting it for its own purposes, but somehow After Effects is able to play it flawlessly when its inside the program. As soon as it leaves the doors it seems to go bonkers.
Very odd, and thanks for keeping it in your thoughts, by the way.
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Andy Stokes on Apr 29, 2009 at 10:54:53 pm
Hi Ray,
I'm having exactly the same problem.. Would love to tell you i've found a solution, but alas I just stumbled on your thread since i'm searching for a solution myself... Did you figure it out?
Regards,
Andy
p.s: Have you tried enabling motion blur? It may help a little.
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ray Hargreaves on Apr 29, 2009 at 11:14:37 pm
No. Unfortunately, no. I still think about it from time to time, and nothing makes any sense to me. A perfectly clean RAM preview, but saving the RAM preview as a file suddenly involves stuttering? I just don't get any of this.
I would really appreciate it if you could post the answer here when you find it, and I'll be sure to do the same. That is, if there is an answer....
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Bill Russell on Apr 30, 2009 at 12:47:26 am
The closest thing I ever had to this -- and it is not quite the same thing described here -- was a series of After Effects animations in Apple Prores HQ codec at 23.98. All was fine, even in real-time playback in Final Cut Pro, and stepping through frame for frame was perfect.
But then.... rendering these clips within my Final Cut Pro timeline, NOW there were repeat frames, a stutter.
I fixed it by using cinema tools to correct the AE output clips frame rate from 23.98 to the TRUE frame rate of 23.976. And here is the catch -- even though the edit box APPEARED to round it back to 23.98, it was not the same. Actually entering 23.976 made all the difference. I had to do this to all of the After Effect results (23.98 -> 23.976). ALSO, if I rendered out of AE at 23.976 to begin with (even though it likewise appeared to round back to two decimal places) it prevented the problem from the start.
23.98 is not a real frame rate. 23.976 is. And this was a reallllly rare circumstance where it actually made the difference. And weird thing is -- to reiterate -- it ONLY reared its head AFTER final render in Final Cut. At every other stage there was no stutter.
The fix for me? Work in true 23.976, not 23.98 (even if the edit box APPEARS to round back to 23.98).
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Jon Zamba on Mar 15, 2010 at 8:11:58 pm
Hello,
It took me 8 hours from Sat night through most of Sun to solve this dreaded problem, on my system at least (specs below) First off I'm shooting with a Panasonic AG-HMC40 in 1080i, importing AVCHD (that should have been an indication from the beginning with the taxing decomp.) into AE CS4.
I tried exporting a plain clip without any effects from AE just to see if it was the plugins, no go, stuttering. I tried to export in every imaginable format, down conversion etc, no go, stuttering.
I initially was using AE for the BCC Kaleida (kaleilascope effect) and thought it might be that plug in, it was not. So... after all the frustration I decided to convert my ACVHD files into MPEG2- BluRay files.
and low and behold, even thought the MPEG2-BluRay files were larger... IT WORKED! NO STUTTERING ANYMORE! In fact, my preview and RAM pre-renders in AE flow and look great without hesitation.
Long story short? I believe the CPU, even though with 16gigs of RAM, didnt like the conversion from the timeline. So I would recommend some type of conversion "more native" to your system.
I hope this helps.
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Ron Desi on Mar 17, 2010 at 8:02:41 pm
Hi Jon,
I'm having a very similar problem. I have my movie in Premiere, key our my green screen in AE, then back to premiere. When I render in premiere I get this (the video is a spoof, I don't actually think social media is a waste of time):
You say that you converted your ACVHD files into MPEG2- BluRay files. How did you do that? Then, after you did that, did you then open them in AE, work your magic, then export?
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Jon Zamba on Mar 17, 2010 at 9:38:27 pm
I used Adobe Media Encoder CS4. Its pretty straight forward.
I believe iSkysoft iMedia Converter works as well.
I used the highest quality settings Quality of 5 @ 36 Mbps CBR (constant bit rate)
and it looked pretty damn good and geez they play and render FAST! No rendering
the previews on my system! Remember its the MPEG2-BluRay setting.
Good luck
Jon
www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com
Panasonic AG-HMC40 - AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Jon Zamba on Mar 19, 2010 at 4:54:13 pm
Both. Do your animation in AE then queue and export in MPEG2-BluRay Open Premier, import that same file (it will be an MPEG2 file (m2v -mpeg.2.video. - no audio)
And do your editing in Premier, at this point you will be able to down convert and export to various formats but if your going HD or HD DVD (BluRay) then export in Premier as same MPEG2-BluRay,
This file will have no audio, but premier will ask you to export your audio in the export/render options.
So if your burning to a DVD disk or BluRay disk in a program like Titanium Toast (version 10 only - For HD/BluRay) it will ask you on import for the files at the burning stage, in Toast it asks if "is your audio file stored in a different location", search find the audio file , and your ready to burn. and FYI you CAN use standard DVDs (as opposed to expensive BluRay disks to burn HD DVD (BluRay) material, but only like 30minutes to 1 hour depending on your .mbps. The recipient of the burnt disk will require a BluRay player to view. HAVE FUN!
Jon
Jon
www.youtube.com/psymeta
www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com
Panasonic AG-HMC40 - AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by Jon Zamba on Mar 19, 2010 at 4:57:37 pm
So yes, covert your AVCHD files to MPEG2-bluRay
then import those to AE, do your animation, and export as MPEG2-BluRay, import that into
Premier, and export again as MPEG2-BluRay! =)
Good to go!
Jon
www.youtube.com/psymeta
www.DreamSequenceVisuals.com
Panasonic AG-HMC40 - AVCHD
MAC Pro Xeon x 2 16gig RAM
CS4
Re: Mystery of stuttering frames after render? by yamir bhatt on Jul 14, 2009 at 5:21:59 pm
I am having the same issue. i think it has to do with frame rate. the stutter lessens when I render 60fps. but does not go away completely. not sure what is an absolute solution and what is really causing the stutter.
