frame blending option for video clips

[Zoltán]

I miss a simple and fast to use method to have slowed down video clips play smoothly.
I know and use the trails effect, but it is very hard to set up to affect only a few frames, and it needs readjustment on every playback speed (pitch) change.
Could it be made very simple, like a checkbox in the transport area?

[DayVeeJay]

+1

[drazkers]

Frame blending normally takes alittle render time in after effects, I wonder how much CPU or GPU this would eat up.

[DayVeeJay]

There was an effect like this in the resolume 2.x days. Does anyone remember the name of it?

[Joris]

You can get a very cheap frame blend by showing previous frames at lower opacity when playing at speeds lower than 100%. So for instance, when playing at 30% speed, you would see the current frame at full opacity, the frame before that at 66%, and the frame before that at 33%. This is what FCP7 and Premiere do as well.

Personally I think it looks horrible, and I always turned it off during editing. You can get proper motion predictive frame interpolation in some editing packages these days, in which the software actually predicts how the frames in between should look based on pixel movement. But those type of effects are crazy CPU intensive.

If enough people want the cheapo blend, we could probably put it in.

[cosmowe]

+1 for a cheapo blend option

[drazkers]

So I render all my content at 60 or 90fps, it's simple in that you can slow things and still look smooth. Most people want it for bought content I assume tho.

[DayVeeJay]

If a 25fps clip was converted to 30 or 60fps would it be smoother?

[mfo]

I maybe a few years too late, but: +1!

(I agree Joris, it sometimes looks stupid and does no good, but there are other situations where it makes a lot of sense. Like slowing down things that are moving soft anyways, e.g. cloud formations.)

[visions]

If a 25fps clip was converted to 30 or 60fps would it be smoother?

Yes! You have to render it using "optical flow" option as frame interpolation mode in Premiere. In After Effects you have a similar interpolation option. And there are some plugins to do that even better (Twixtor Pro is one of them). And also there are some standalone tools (Topaz Video Enhace AI has a methtod to that do this job).
Of course it is not the same that a NATIVE 60fps video, but when you play it at half speed it is a huge difference, compared with the original 30fps one.