Figuring out the Slow Motion plugin

NightHawkInLight wrote on 8/7/2019, 1:09 PM

So I've been playing with this plugin all day and don't have it figured out. There are only three things we have control over: Quality of intermediate frames, an optical flow/morph toggle, and the playback rate slider (which for some reason has way more room to increase velocity rather than fine tuning the decrease?). This doesn't seem like nearly enough options to use the tool effectively.

How do you control how many new frames are generated between originals? How do you control framerate of the output? When you use the playback rate slider within the plugin to slow down footage not nearly enough frames are generated to compensate for the decreased velocity. I thought maybe the way to get this working was to use a velocity envelope to decrease playback rate prior to analyzing motion but no such luck. I thought maybe the plugin just defaults to trying to match the number of frames generated to the framerate of the source clip prior to being slowed down, or maybe to the project framerate, but it doesn't seem to match to either.

I don't get it. Is the tool just flat out broken or incomplete? I'm seeing some of you saying you're getting results comparable to Twixtor, but I don't understand how that's possible with the only meaningful setting being a single velocity slider. How is this plugin meant to be used effectively?

Comments

Grazie wrote on 8/7/2019, 1:28 PM

So I've been playing with this plugin all day and don't have it figured out.

@NightHawkInLight All day eh? Only took me 30 minutes to garner my own opinion.

I don't get it. Is the tool just flat out broken or incomplete? I'm seeing some of you saying you're getting results comparable to Twixtor, but I don't understand how that's possible with the only meaningful setting being a single velocity slider. How is this plugin meant to be used effectively?

@NightHawkInLight - Yup, me too. The whole Analysis thing takes a lot of time, time my narratives won’t allow for.

I’ve got TWX7. Maybe those who’ve been able to make comparison will do a step-by-step.

Oh Yeah, did I say I purchased VP17? Oh yeah, I did.

Marco. wrote on 8/7/2019, 6:17 PM

"How do you control how many new frames are generated between originals? How do you control framerate of the output?"

You don't need an extra control for these both as these ones are set by the source/project/render properties.

"When you use the playback rate slider within the plugin to slow down footage not nearly enough frames are generated to compensate for the decreased velocity."

Why? If it wasn't the output would be jerky with doubled frames. But it isn't. It is smooth without any doubling.

The only issue I'm experiencing is when I need to extend the event more then the source clip length.

set wrote on 8/7/2019, 6:21 PM

Tips: Make sure the source media frame rate matched the project frame rate settings.

What I found is, if you put 50p media and apply slow motion ofx in 25p project, the result may look weird.

This also includes the weird 'not standard' 30.xxx frame rate media from Android phones put into 29.97 project.

NightHawkInLight wrote on 8/7/2019, 6:24 PM

You're having more success than I am Marco. When I render a clip using the slow motion plugin I'm lucky for the result to play back at more than 8-10fps when it should be 60.

@set, maybe that's my issue. I'm trying to slow down 30p clips on a 60p timeline. I guess the plugin might not like that? I use a lot of mixed frame rates in my projects. I'll try it on a 60p clip and 30p clip in timelines that match respectively. Kind of a bummer if that's how it has to be done. It'll mean a lot of double rendering for me.

set wrote on 8/7/2019, 6:54 PM

Yeah, currently not an instant process working with slow motion ofx - but if you made 60p media put to 30p timeline already slowed down via media properties>Playback 0.5 - then add another Slow Motion OFX to make it more slow - it works.

NightHawkInLight wrote on 8/7/2019, 8:14 PM

Interesting... I'll have to play with that too then. I'll update after I try your suggestions. Thanks!