Cel Animation Post-Production for Film Festivals

[melistenenbaum]

Hello,

We have been working on a cel animation film project for a while and we are planning to submit our work to film festivals. When I was looking for the festival guidelines, I have noticed that 24 or 30 FPS films are required. We were drawing 16 frames per second. I tried to export the 16 fps project to 24 FPS video and it seems like nothing has changed. Do you think this would be a problem for future screenings? Do we have to add more between frames to reach 24 fps? Do anybody have any idea about this technical issue?

Thank you!
Melis

[Paul Fierlinger]

there are several ways to go about this. First, what have yo been trying that has failed you, and what OS are you working with? BTW, why not go for 30 fps which will require you to just almost double your frames. Have you been drawing in singles or doubles?

[melistenenbaum]

Hello Paul,

Actually yesterday I tried to export 16 fps composition into a 24 fps movie clip and they look the same. So nothing has failed me but I think my concern is both artistic and technical. I am not sure if 16 fps animation would look good on the big screens. We are worried that multiplied in-between frames might look weird on the big screen. Or 16 frames would be jumping? Maybe we should draw 20 frames per second and export is as 30 FPS movie clip? Can this kind of export cause problems for the film festival procedures? Should we really draw as many frames as our film requires, or is it OK to do these kinds of hacks? I mean I just want to make sure that if every animator draw 24 or 30 frames or is it ok to go with weird numbers like 20 or 16? By the way I couldn't understand the "drawing singles or doubles" part?

Thank you Paul!

[Paul Fierlinger]

Most animators draw at 12 fps when they want to make 24fps movies, the industry standard. 30fps is the NTSC TV standard. Essentially any animated film you see on TV, YouTube or film festivals has been drawn in two's, which means each frame is repeated twice, which the human eye recognizes as fluid motion. There are exceptions when you must draw every frame but let's not get into that.

But TVP can convert any amount of frames into another amount to play back. So go to Project>Modify Project and where you see Frame Rate 12.000, change it to 24.000, check: Lock Aspect and Stretch to New Frame Rate, make sure everything else is unchecked and hit "Modify" This will create a new project for you (it won't destruct your original). Now see how it plays back. It should look like your original 16fps. BTW the last time that rate was used was in the silent film era. Don't use it.

This is why I told you that with a 16fps original you will be better off converting to 30 fps because you will not loose any drawings (well, except one, but not even that). This is a difficult concept to explain to a beginner but a good start for you to experiment with.

Good luck with your film festival entries.

[schwarzgrau]

Maybe just as a tip for future projects: My projects are all 24fps, most of the time I'm animating only on every second frame (12fps), but I have the possibility to draw on every frame (24fps) during fast motions. 24fps is a common standard and you can easily convert it to PAL (25fps) if needed.

[Paul Fierlinger]

it's all a matter of personal preferences. I prefer to go in the opposite direction because it makes for smaller files and only in those few cases where I need to make something move very fast, or very slow, or from slow to fast etc. do I convert that clip into 24fps, which of course places it outside of the current project and must be saved as a new project -- the disadvantage of my approach.

EDIT:

But I should explain that the conversions we are discussing here have in the end no influence on the sound tracks or camera moves (the simple camera in the Main Panel, that is.) These will adapt to whatever changes in clip length or frame rate you will make.