Bricks in Motion
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I am writing a screenplay for a film of mine and was thinking of doing it 24fps, because, in order to create a dramatic feeling, I want to use a lot of slow-motionlike slower than usual movements. so - in this case, which is better - 15fps or 24fps? thanks.
I am writing a screenplay for a film of mine and was thinking of doing it 24fps, because, in order to create a dramatic feeling, I want to use a lot of slow-motionlike slower than usual movements. so - in this case, which is better - 15fps or 24fps? thanks.
Good question. Well 24 will definitely look smoother than 15, but to really sell the slow motion as being slow motion, it's important to establish what normal speed looks like, then slow motion will create a contrast. It's the contrast that really sells it. How about doing the whole thing at normal speed at 24 frames, and then in post the normal speed segments can be on ones, and for the slow motion parts play it back on twos, doubling each frame, thus playing it back at half speed. You might even get away with doing it on threes. This "afterthought" slow motion was used in the "cave" scene in Empire Strikes Back. When Darth Vader appears, the footage is slow, but also choppy, because they simply doubled the frames. It works well because it's an eerie scene to begin with. Of course if you want the slow motion to be super smooth too, you'll have to actually animate it at 24fps, which is going to mean VERY small movements. Do a few tests and report your findings. It'd be great if you could post a video of your tests so we could all see what the different results look like.
I will probably use 24 fps because my goal is not super slow motion, just a bit slower than usual movements. Anyway, thanks!
um... 24 would make it faster actually.
Just use what you're used to. To make slow motion, you have to make SMALLER movements. 24fps with small movements would still be fast since there are so many frames going by. But, say, if you made especially small movements on 12fps, it would be slow-mo.
So it doesn't matter what FPS you use, it's all about the smallness of the movements that you're making when animating. So the higher FPS means that you'll have to make exponentially smaller movements.
If you animated for 24 fps, but played back at 12 fps, things indeed would look a bit slower. You just have to be careful, since, at it's core, slow-motion really just looks like slow (very, very slow) movements. - Regardless of what frame rate you're animating at/playing back at.
If you film video at 60 fps and play back at 60 fps, things won't look "slower," although things like motion blur will be noticeably absent. Filming video at 60 fps and playing back at 12 fps, on the other hand - would look a lot slower, since you're playing back at less that you filmed.
It sounds a bit backwards, but then again, so is the process of animation when you think about it.
Yeah, it's one of those confusing relativity things. Alternately, you could animate the whole thing using as small of movements as possible, then time it so it feels right, although you will probably get some really choppy sections. What are you animating with? Is there a way to play back what you have while you're animating? If so, that's probably your best bet, is just watch it as you go and see if it looks how you want it to.
I really do not recommend animating at 24fps. As Rioforce said, you wouldn't get a smooth, slow-motion feel with 24fps. In general, I think it's hard enough to do regular motion in 24fps with Lego, without making it look almost sped up. I know we had this debate in the frame100 podcast, and I stand by that idea that you should stick with what ever you are used to, but in general I've found that some of the best animated brickfilms are either 12 or 15fps. It comes down to the fact that Lego is naturally blockier than most forms of stop motion, so it makes no sense to use high frame rates.
As someone who recently animated a slow-motion scene, a higher frame rate is not necessary. You just need to make your movements between frames smaller so the whole thing moves slower. And keep playing the footage back so you know it's going at the speed you want.
As others have said, the only reason to animate at a higher frame rate would be so you can slow it down later, but as the end result is still going to be 12-15fps, is there really much point?
Yeah. I'd think that if you were animating at 24fps, intending to slow it down to a lower frame rate, it wouldn't make enough difference to actually be slow-motion.
Thanks for the advice. As I think of it more, maybe the normal 15 fps will be the best. 
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