Frame Rates?

[bradon]

I would like to know better how the Maya's fps playback is integrated into the playback of other compositing software. Does anyone have standards or applications that they use when they animate from maya and then merge into another software package. Right now the way maya is set up it renders out 24 fps. when importing into another software package such as AE I could interpret the footage so that it was played back at 24 fps, But in working for NTSC the frame rate must be 29.97 so that would mean a few frames are repeated in the 1 second duration well 5.97 frames (29.97 - 24) to be exact. Possibly this would lead to jerky motion as I sometimes notice in animations. I could playback the maya sequence to 29.97 fps within the compositing package so that it was not repeating or holding frames, but then would end up with a shorter animation. say my maya animation was 3 sec.; 3 X 24 = 72 (frames), this only gives aprox 2.4 sec. of animation in NTSC. as a rule of thumb I could aim to make my animations slightly longer knowing that they would be up converted to NTSC frame rate, but is that the best rule of thumb to use? also I could change the render by frame # in the render options. If set this to be .8 insted of the default 1 It would be simmilar to rendering at a NTSC frame rate? Maybe I just answered my question, but was wondering if this was correct or if anyone uses some different method when compositing.

[failure]

It's rather simple: set the ntsc frame rate in both; maya and compositor

[bradon]

QUOTE(failure @ 01/08/06, 10:19 PM)
It's rather simple: set the ntsc frame rate in both; maya and compositor
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right well I see this option within the software render settings, but no where do I see it within the MR settings? Further more what if I wanted to set my frame rate to 60 fps? how would one do that if it does not fall under the specified NTSC pulldown menu options? What is the render by frame # normally used for then, so you could say for example render every fourth frame? why would you not just speed up your animation 4 times?

[failure]

Renderer doesn't care about the frame rate.

It's in preferences

[bradon]

QUOTE(failure @ 01/09/06, 09:46 AM)
Renderer doesn't care about the frame rate.

It's in preferences
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you mean the timeline animation and playback preferences?

because when I swich this to 29.97, 30, or 60 fps or 120 for that matter, I still get playback at 24fps.
I know this because at frame 24 the timecode rolls arond to one second. so my origional statement about frame rates still seems more correct to me. Unless you can explain what you mean better.

thanks,
Bradon

[joojaa]

the renderre does not tag any framerate info in your footage, the final app may interpret this to some default tough.

In ae just say the conbformed sopeed is.

MAya renderers do not carry over any info of playback speed, an dooffourcse you never should render out movoe files anyway.

[bradon]

Thank you Joojaa, thats just what I am doing, I was just wondering if that was "the correct way". as a side note to this information, I've found that by doubling your frame render and interpreting it withing a post application as an interlaced video at 29.97fps, it in fact does give a smoother animation previed on an NTSC monitor. there is no difference on a computer monitor though. this of course doubles render times

[failure]

phew. Why are you complicating such a simple thing.

1) Set framerate in maya prefs to ntsc (that's in "Settings/Working units" section, not "Timeline"). This is used solely within maya to correctly preview the timing during animating process and to get right feedback on what happens on which frame.
If you switch the framerate while already having some animation keys then it's important to note the "Keep Keys at Current Frames" checkbox. If this is not enabled the anim keys will be scaled so one second in previous framerate will match one second in new framerate (normally that's what you want). On the other hand, if this is enabled maya will force keys to stay on exactly the same frame numbers regardless of actual framerate - resulting in slower or faster animation.

2) Render into image sequence. No timecode or framerate info whatsoever is sotred with the sequence, though each rendered image will correspond to one tick in the maya timeline and consequently to one ntsc frame.

3) Set the timebase/framerate in compositor to ntsc. Import the rendered sequence and tell the compositor to interpret the footage to be at same framerate you've set in maya - in this case ntsc.

Done. Everything matches. ntsc in maya viewport and playblast, ntsc in compositor

[bradon]

I do finally get what you mean, because I was adjusting playback in the timeline settings and not in the working units settings. At least by switching the working units, the frames match up. for my working process, the same logic applies either way though, a rendered frame is just a frame and can be played back at whatever designated speed. the only difference is the maya preview would not match the final output, however, I had in the past never worked this way, I usually disregaurd maya preview because maya preview is at best unreliable for playing back realtime and I usually render out to playblast to be played back at NTSC to see if my animation runs long enough.

[failure]

Playblast framerate depends on working units as well. And maya preview is reliable if you tell it to play realtime (verus trying to catch every frame). You may have some dropouts on heavy scenes this way but the timing of playback would be correct.

[bradon]

QUOTE(failure @ 01/10/06, 01:39 PM)
Playblast framerate depends on working units as well. And maya preview is reliable if you tell it to play realtime (verus trying to catch every frame). You may have some dropouts on heavy scenes this way but the timing of playback would be correct.
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again, I am conforming the playblast to playback at NTSC frame rate. I know the process is wierd and confusing, up until now I did not know of another way. now that I know of a different way I won't go that route. most of the time if I dont want to preview realtime, i'll get bothersome large dropouts, maybe my computer is just slow though.

[joojaa]

Your deck is too slow use some comression sheme on teh animation file. Unless you realy have a scsi raid in place dont expect to se big uncompressed avis in realtime.