24, 25 or 30 FPS

[Pantro]

Hi everybody, as you may be able to see, I am a new member in this forum.
I am an animation student, my main focus has always been 3D, although I have always loved 2d animation, so I have decided to create a 2D short animation (1:35). But I have some questions about starting this project.

At what frame rate should I be animating. In 3D I have always animated in 24 seconds, thogh, I have been lurking in this forums for a while and seen that many people animate at 25 or even 30 frames per second. Would it be a problem if I wanted to participate at a festival with a 24 fps.

Another question that I have is what are the best settings (resolution, field, etc.) should I make my files so that they have a good quality in any medium I decide to project it.

I know this must sound like some simple questions, but I am worried that I put a lot of time in one project and then realised that it was all wrong from the beginning.

For your patience and help, thank you

[Animark]

Hi Pantro,

yes, it's better to ask your questions before you start with a project.

The answers depends on your targeted final product. Do you want to make a video (Pal, NTSC, HD) or do you want your frames exposured on real film material (35mm, 70mm). Are you working for PAL or NTSC countries? That's where it became difficult.

For 35mm film I would suggest: 24 fps, 2048 pixel width.
For PAL Video (16:9 ): 25fps, 1920 x 1080 pixel (you will downscale it later to 1024 x 576 pixel)
For blueray HD: 1920 x 1080 pixel, but I am not sure about the framerate (24, 25, 30?)

Maybe this helps a little bit.

[Pantro]

Thank you for the answer Animark , the final target is a contest that a local movie theatre has organized, the winners will be projected on the screen,so I would think the final one would be 35 mm, I am currently living at a NTSC country. So maybe I'll stick with 24 fps.

Do you know of anything else I should be aware of before starting this production, maybe some tips or something, I have made some animation tests and assignments for school and home, but never for something that could be called professional.

Thanks.

[slowtiger]

If it's a contest the movie theatre should provide you with some technical specs to meet, especially resolution and framerate.

[Animark]

Hmh? It is very expensive to bring your frames to 35mm. You should ask your contest organizer about that - maybe he will screen (beam) it as a 29,97 fps NTSC video.

For the other things - just start and ask here.
Maybe one suggestion for the workflow: Start to make a storyboard (if needed) in one TVP Project. Than cut it to little TVP-Projects (every shot is one project), resize them to the right size (if needed) and start to animate ....

[Pantro]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I was thinking about making the whole animation on one project, but what you said makes alot of sense.

Sadly I have read the convocatory and there is nothing about resolution or frame rate, they just mention what type of file the rendered and the maximum size (GB) the movie needs to be in. I concluded they were going to show the winners on screen because in one part of the convocatory they state that the winners will be proyected on the movie theatres through the country.

[Paul Fierlinger]

In my view you should do fine by drawing on a 1080p project at 24 fps and submit as a QT. At any time after that, if you become a winner, you should be able to expect the theater chain to pay for the expense of converting your film to 35 mm. This is done by converting your 1080p from an AVI file (if you are working on a PC) or a QT (perhaps for both PC and Mac) to a continuous image sequence of PNGs, which TVP happens to do extremely well. And finally in a filmout facility your image sequence will be scanned frame by frame onto 35 mm negative from which an internagative has to be struck to create an internegative positive for making multiple copies for multiple theaters -- as you can easily imagine, this is a cost that goes into the thousands and I haven't even brought up sound.

On the other hand, I suspect that the theater chain has digital tape projectors for which all you need to do is deliver a 1080p AVI. So right now you should not worry about the final product as long as you animate 1080p at 24 fps. Theoretically you can do all this within your TVP Pro project, including several clips and several sound tracks -- but then you need a pretty good computer. I would recommend that you consider exporting your clips out to an NLE, which doesn't have to be a top-of-the line one at all.

[Pantro]

Wow, that was quite an insightfull response, Thanks Paul. I think that the movie chain will take on all those expenses because it is the biggest one in the country, although I really dont think I'll actually win lol, I am just using this contest as an excuse to actually having a real deadline to finish an animation .

[Paul Fierlinger]

I thought this might be the case and am glad for you; it's the right way to go about getting started. I hope you'll let us see what you end up with so we can all turn around and stare at you.