User profile for user: geofffromdowney
geofffromdowney Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

How to increase playback speed of 8fps stop motion footage in Final Cut Pro?

Hi all


I have some stop motion footage that I'd like to play back faster. Natively, it's 8fps, as is the whole project.


I'm considering bumping everything up, including the whole project, to 12fps. I may want to just bump up some of the clips though; i need to play around and see.


Two questions.

  1. I can't seem to edit the fps in the project info panel, the only drop down option available is 23.98fps. Which i guess is ok, since both 8 and 12 are evenly divisible by 24 anyway, so in this case it might not matter.
  2. If i choose the appropriate ratios for the re-time tool (150% in this case) will the clips play back properly, or will the re-time tool drop frames or do anything else weird?


Thanks

Geoff


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.3

Posted on Apr 22, 2025 10:24 AM

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User profile for user: Luis Sequeira1
Luis Sequeira1
User level: Level 9
69,918 points

Apr 22, 2025 1:17 PM in response to geofffromdowney

Don’t use frsctional frame rates. There is no reason to use unless required by your client. Use 24 jnstead of 23.98.


Putting an 8fps in a 24fps project will not by itself make it faster or slower. You should be able to set the retime to “automatic speed” and that would play all frames, resulting in a 300% speed.

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User profile for user: geofffromdowney
geofffromdowney Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Apr 22, 2025 2:45 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Well, my "client" is myself lol, so I've created another 24fps project and moved everything over there, since apparently you can't modify a project's frame rate once you've started working on it.


So the retime function sounds like it will work the way I describe, if I use the right ratios? (ie, 150% for 12fps from 8fps, 300% for 24fps from 8fps, or also set to automatic speed as you said to get 300%.)

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User profile for user: Joe Redifer
Joe Redifer
User level: Level 1
88 points

Apr 22, 2025 3:59 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi Luis! I wish cameras, like the Panasonic Lumix GH-series... would stop offering ONLY fractional framerates.


Anyway, onto the question at hand. Assuming the 8fps file is a single video file, just use the retiming feature (command R). 200% will give approximately 16 frames per second. 150% would be 12 frames per second. I usually shoot my stop motion at 30fps and slow it down to 15fps because otherwise it moves way too fast.

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How to increase playback speed of 8fps stop motion footage in Final Cut Pro?

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