Expert: Andre Hickman - 12/3/2008

Question
I'm planning to import an image sequence into After Effects to make an animation. I'd like to set the frame rate to 12 frames per second. Is that OK?

I'm new to animation and don't want to make hundreds of drawings and end up with a glitch. I'd appreciate any advice!

Answer
Hey Jim,

Sure that is fine, depending on what effect your are trying to get.
If you animated at 12 frames per second, then your footage should be "real-time" if you set the frame rate to 12fps.  Keep in mind however, that NTSC video runs at 29.97fps (30fps drop frame), so if you are rendering for video, You need to keep the frame rate of the comp at 29.97 and interpret the framerate of the animated sequence that you import to be at 12fps.  

You will then want to check the frame blending box on the layer (the box that looks like a film strip) to reveal a jagged line, or click it again to reveal a smooth line, which is called pixel motion.  What pixel motion will do is actually interpolate new frames between the ones you have.  So if you are stretching 12fps footage to run real-time in a 30fps comp, it will create intermediate frames to make the motion look as smooth as possible.  

If you are hand drawing, then I can see why you are going to 12fps, but if you have some automated way of animating, it would probably be best to simply start at 30fps if you intend to use it for video, unless you are going for some sort of effect. If you are animating for something like a flash movie, then 12fps for the comp is ok.

If you run into any problems, just shoot me another question.  Good luck!

Cheers,
Andre