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About Fractional Frame Rates
About Fractional Frame Rates -
Originally posted on Apple Support Communities Aug. 2, 2020
[Ascending soap box]
I’d like to take this opportunity to make a few comments (RANT) about frame rates:
FRACTIONAL FRAME RATES ARE OBSOLETE!!! Do not use them! "NTSC" stands for **NOT THE SMARTEST CHOICE**
If your camera shoots fractional, conform it to the nearest whole frame rate project! Cameras are made for idiots that like to conform to “convention”. As soon as everyone pulls their heads out ……….. cameras will be made to shoot whole frame rate footage.
There are no reasons left, whatsoever, to use fractional frame rates. NTSC is dead. The only stations left that are allowed to broadcast analog (NTSC) signals are LPTV (low power television) stations and by next July 13 (2021), they will no longer be allowed to broadcast analog. They must be digital or cease broadcasting. “The last of the buggy whips have been made.” Even if you have an analog television set, you must now also have a digital converter to receive all regular/commercial broadcast stations. There is no legacy!
Unless you are preparing media for an LPTV station, don’t use fractional frame rates. It’s time this dinosaur becomes extinct. It’s been more than 10 years!
People are hanging on to 23.98, 29.97 and 59.94 because they don’t know it’s not needed; they never understood the reason for it and how it came to be in the first place (it was a “hack” people!); other people are still using it and “they must know what they’re doing” or “it’s the conventional frame rate” (really? — grow a pair!); etc. “The devil made me do it” is a better reason.
No reasons left!! Not for broadcast. Not for DVD (also dead – just hasn’t fallen down yet). Not for BD (should be dead.)
PS – we should be done with interlacing too!
Thank you!
[Descending soap box]
Disclaimer: I make precision effects for Final Cut Pro X that will not work correctly in fractional frame rates *without a hack* to fix the hack (like this project: VT Clock). I no longer support fractional frame rates — period. It’s time to get over it. Move on. Don’t worry. Be happy!
I cringe every time I watch a video where somebody selects a fractional frame rate for a Motion project — what a • stupid • thing to do! They don’t know very much about Motion or it’s relationship with FCPX and they’re just mimicking somebody else’s work who also doesn’t understand the relationship. (Sadly, that includes almost everybody). They think frame rate means something in Motion… it really doesn’t. It’s a convenience.
Everybody has to get over the notion that there is some kind of mystical importance to a fractional frame rate — there isn’t. Look it up. The original engineers only had a limited bandwidth to cram all the analog signals into. When all TV sets were B&W, their system was *perfect*. Using the frequency of household current (60Hz) for a clock was ***brilliant***. Adding Color (Chroma) balled everything up. The only reason why 29.97 ever came into being is so the American people who already owned B&W TV sets wouldn’t have to go out an buy another one when color was introduced [back in the late 40s/early 50s, a TV set was considered a piece of furniture and costing hundreds of $, which would be considered *thousands* of $ in today’s currency — think: high end iMac price tag for an analog B&W television set. Nowadays you can get a 720/60p LED set for under $110 … in *today’s* currency or about 11-12 bucks in 1950 currency.]
Here’s an excellent video that explains the NTSC system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GJUM6pCpew
Fox Mahoney
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Four Corners - Alt
The original is not vertical video friendly. It’s not even all that adaptable in Motion, so I rebuilt this title from scratch. OSC for position and several other features make it more useful for any aspect ratio. Starts off as a “kind of” lower third.
Basic Text Effect
Almost like a Basic Title, only it’s added to clips as an Effect. Supports on-screen positioning (but text must be edited in the Inspector), Rotation, Character Rotation, Scale, Shear, Font, Size, Alignment, Line Spacing, Tracking, Baseline, Face Color/Opacity, Outline/Opacity, and Drop Shadows. More importantly: there are built in Shape Masks and a Color Mask.
Film Roll - SC
Added a Drop Zone to the Film effect. Media can be played or still. Stretching the generator out in time will slow down the film strip animation (but media will play correctly). *Aug 24, 8:30pm ct: added option to change background color.
Speech Bubbles - SC
Adds Aspect Adjust control for use with vertical and square videos.
Fixes a few other issues concerning Bubble Width and Bubble Height.
Remove Newlines
Unzip and install in /Home folder/Library/Services.
Removes newline/return characters from text and if necessary, repairs multiple sequential spaces into one space. Select Text in FCP Text Inspector, right click, select Services > Remove Newlines.
Sensor Dust Spot Remover
A more simplified solution to *disguise* sensor dust spots. Line up the Spot Target and make adjustments to the parameters (less is more!)
Custom - SC (Title)
Changes In and Out Durations to values in % of length of clip. In and Out animations can now overlap. Out animations always end on the last frame of the title.
Custom Paragraph - SC (Title)
Exactly the same as Custom – SC except the text is in Paragraph Format providing an OnScreen Control for multiline texts. Includes Auto-Shrink options.
Disabled Clip (Title)
Can be used to disable visibility of clips and easily mark where the disabled clips are in the storyline without disabling the audio.
Graduated Mask - repaired
Fixes an issue with the original Graduated Mask effect where it is limited to an aspect ratio of 2:1. This fix will handle any aspect ratio, but is best suited for aspect ratios of 5:1 or less.
Fade - SC
This is a fundamental redesign of the Fade method whereby the In and Out Durations are now set to % of length of title and Out is guaranteed to finish on the last frame.
Color Panels - Repaired
Repairs a problem with the original Color Panels where the original source clips are offset by 3 px for outgoing and 2 px for incoming clips.
Flashback Transition Repaired
Fixed a couple of problems with the original (a “jerkiness” at the start and end and black regions appearing at the edges).
Instant Replay - SC
The original is extremely limited. This version allows positions, scaling, colors, glow/glint options and animation timing options.