On Frames Per Second, Hyperreality, and the Dangers of Perfectionism

“The Machine” is the latest of a handful of brick animations that blur the line between stop-motion and live action. According to the animator, it was filmed at 25 frames per second (FPS), and had motion blur added in post-production to make it ever smoother. The short is worth a quick watch for the great cinematography and the inspired animation of the eponymous machine, but I’m mostly using it to launch into a larger discussion of FPS.

Choosing an FPS is an important part of making an animation, there is a constant balancing act between the smoothness of the animation and time required to make it. An animation set at 5 FPS is bound to look jumpy, but it can still be engaging (this is the frame rate I recommend for beginners). As the FPS increases (10, 12, 15, 20, 24, 30), the animation gets smoother, but the time investment to create it rises steeply. Many brick animators settle at 15 FPS as a good balance between smoothness and amount of time invested, but there are a few that venture into those high ranges.

The best cautionary tale in this respect is “Dr. Jobs and his Scary Laboratory.” While the single completed episode of this series features some of the smoothest animation I’ve ever seen in a brick animation, the incompleteness of the remaining segments stands as a testament to the dangers of independent animators pursuing hyper-real frame rates. But let’s pretend for a minute that time is not an obstacle, what would the optimal frame rate for brick animations be? Is super-smooth, life-like animation the end-all be-all?

Personally, I think very high frame rate animations can feel sterile, and I find attempts to perfectly simulate real motion in animation to be uncanny. I am reminded of Jean Baudrillard’s essay on Simulacra and Science Fiction:

There is no more fiction… it is the real which has become our true utopia… presented with transparent precision, but totally lacking substance, having been derealized and hyperrealized.

What do you think? The more frames per second the better? Or is the charm and art of animation precisely in the frames an animator chooses to include (and which to exclude)?

“The Machine” on Youtube

“Dr. Jobs and his Scary Laboratory” on YouTube

7 Responses to "On Frames Per Second, Hyperreality, and the Dangers of Perfectionism"

Double-R Picture Productions says:

October 7, 2012 at 8:48 am

I think that higher framerates can look really great, but it highly depends on the animator. The two films featured in this article are a great example – while I was really amazed by the smoothness of the first one, I got rather distracted by some of the animation in the second one which seemed really unnatural.
The first film executes the 25 fps almost perfectly, it adds really much to the film and makes it stand out with the love for the detail it shows in the animation. I animate at 15 fps because I know that with my resources I can’t make the film look as good in 25 fps, in fact, it will look worse.
Not to devaluate the work btpro has put into his animation (it still is a great animation hands down!), but I think the same might apply to his video, some parts of it might have looked better in 15 fps.
1. David Pickett says:
  
  October 7, 2012 at 12:04 pm
  
  That’s a great point. Any FPS can be good if it used well. I should also mention that I have once ventured into 30 FPS for an animation that I felt needed it, so I’m definitely not against high frame rates, I just think there should be really good justification for venturing into that realm.
David Pagano says:

October 7, 2012 at 3:44 pm

This is a good discussion to have! “How many frames per second did you use?” is probably one of the top 3 questions I get asked about my videos (the other two being “what camera do you use?” and “did you make this?”).

The question people should be asking is, “what frame rate should I use on this particular film?”, and I think the answer there is closely tied to another question: “why am I making animated films?” If your films are an outlet for you to experiment with super-slick graphics, then animating at 25+ fps might make sense. It’s another way for you to attempt to improve the visual aspect of your craft.

However, I think most successful filmmakers and animators make films because they want to tell memorable, compelling stories. In that sense, visuals are only one part of the language of cinema, and making sure all aspects of your film are on the same level as the picture is a balancing act in itself.

“The Machine” has sharp visuals, but is not terribly noteworthy or memorable otherwise. Does the fact that the main character has an animated face make it easier to tell what he’s thinking or doing? In this case, not really. His physical motion is smooth, but his movements are robotic; he walks in a straight line, turns, and then walks in a straight line again. Does that make his walk animation better or “more realistic” than a 12 fps walk cycle that bends and flows with human feeling? I would say no.

Honestly, the thing I found most impressive about “The Machine” was the animation of the alarm clock being shut off; the offset plate that is hit and becomes a tile for a frame or two was a brilliant little touch. That alone was more interesting to me than coffee that looked like real fluid… which the guy then drank with stiff movements that didn’t look anything like a living character drinking something.

“Good” vs. “realistic” in the world of animation is a whole other conversation — perhaps one that warrants its own post. 🙂
1. Double-R Picture Productions says:
  
  October 7, 2012 at 5:59 pm
  
  Very well said! Looking forward to that “Good vs. realistic” blog post 😉
  I have to admit though that I really loved the main character raising his eyebrow just a tad, but maybe that’s just me 😀
bodville says:

October 9, 2012 at 10:42 pm

What has been suggested above is that high frame rates = smooth and therefor better animation. More life like, hyper real. I totally disagree with this premise. Record nature movement with a video camera and lots of actions are very fast often occurring over only a few frames. Good animation does not equal high frame rates (imo).
1. David Pickett says:
  
  October 10, 2012 at 2:43 pm
  
  You make a great point. One tendency that is common in high-FPS brick animations is to animate too many frames per action. This causes the characters in Dr. Jobs to seem “floaty” to me at certain times.
  
  My point in singling out these animations was precisely to draw attention to the way that pursuing “realism” with a higher FPS can lead to sacrifices in animation quality. There are some high-FPS brick animations that do it well. “The Magic Portal” immediately springs to mind.
mrJirue says:

August 13, 2013 at 4:01 pm

I love the look of stop motion and I personally feel like letting your frames jump and show a little bit just ads to the overall artform.

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