How to make smooth slow-mo?

your Project is set to 24/25/30 fps …

select the 60fps clip in the timeline

in the Retime pop-up menu in the toolbar choose 'conform speed'

After confirming the speed you'll have to set the "VIDEO QUALITY to 'optical flow' "!

Also try the twixtor pro plugin (REVISION EFFECTS). Its also helpful at times.

Filmbarber wrote:

After confirming the speed you'll have to set the "VIDEO QUALITY to 'optical flow' "!

hu? no.-

adding a 60fps source to a 24/25/30fps Project doesn't need any OF.

it just disperse the 60 frames into the 24/25/30 scheme = 'natural' slowmo.

OF is needed, in case the computer has to create 'artificial' inbetween frames, which don't exist in the cording, such as retiming a 30fps recording to 10% = '300fps'. then, and only then, a blending or vectorized calculation of flowing pixels is needed.

and Twixtor is a plugin costing more than its host. .... the usage of it is no beginners task.

There's no difference between "conforming" a 60fps clip to a 30fps storyline and Retiming a clip. FCPX just does the "work" for you when you conform.

FCPX's retiming is really very good. You have four choices for the Video Inspector > Rate Conform : Floor (default); Nearest Neighbor; Frame Blending; and Optical Flow.

Despite what you might have heard about optical flow, it's really pretty gimmicky -- don't get me wrong, it's a cool effect... but it comes off like a "special effect" more than a practical solution. It works really well when there is one thing moving against everything else being still in a shot. Otherwise, it's more like "morphing".

I find Nearest Neighbor works well enough; but mostly it's a toss up and a personal preference between floor, nearest neighbor and frame blending.

Select a clip, type Command-R and from the disclosure triangle in the middle of the green bar select Slow > 10%. [Other options is go to the Retiming menu (2nd icon from the left under the inspector -- the curved arrow and a "spedometer needle") or simply grab the 2 vertical hash marks on the right side of the retiming control and drag out to the percentage you want the clip slowed down (or sped up as the case may be.) It helps to render the clip after retiming to get a true sense of how well the speed change is working.

But I found at times OF is helpful.

For eg, after confirming a 60fps clip to a 25/24/30 fps timeline, if we still need to make it slow.

Twixtor pro is really cool, eventhough its costly.

The below given video is completely slowed down using the "twixtor pro" plugin.

https://vimeo.com/50607052

fox_m wrote:

… optical flow, it's really pretty gimmicky -- don't get me wrong, it's a cool effect... … It works really well when there is one thing moving against everything else being still in a shot. Otherwise, it's more like "morphing".

I find Nearest Neighbor works well enough; …

Hi fox_m,

i'm a huge fan of your advices on Motion5 - learning everyday, appreciate your efforts here on the board!

a) doing tons of sports-videos for my lil' football kickers, I'm for years desperately in search for the 'ESPN-like' super slowmo - on a shoestring budget, a Phantom-cam is no option 😁

what I noticed with OF in FCPX - it does a wonderful job, under certain circumstances (made a test, click here): this is 60p in a 25p project:

it becomes obvious - rotation is poison (notice the ball in foreground) and too high angle-speed doesn't perform too (compare legs of player in foreground vs. players in background)

recording from a tripod, 'far away' or action straight in axis of cam plus short shutter speed gives good results - and are mostly the ones shown with Twixtor!

Had the priviledge, playing around with it for 20min on a friends Mac (AE as host) - I was completely lost in its zillions of options - I do understand the concept to tell Twixtor 'background' and 'object', but the interface was way beyond my horizon ... 😁

b) Next Neighbor? Wot? Did I miss something? 'new' to me, will test today immediately! thanks for input! 🙂