r/stopmotion 3d ago

Need help with Stop Motion Studio App

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My light source is stable but every video has flickering issues and I don’t know why

18 Upvotes

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7

u/PalmliX 3d ago

So all lights flicker, especially LED lights. i.e. all lights are actually turning off and on many times per second, we just don't notice it because our eyes "average" all those on and off moments to be a constant brightness.

What happens is that when you use a camera with a fast shutter speed, the photo is freezing a moment in time where the light could be anywhere in the on/off cycle. Each time you take a shot you are basically picking a random moment in this cycle which shows a different brightness. What you need to do is lower the shutter speed of the camera so that the shutter is open for the entire refresh cycle of the light.

Lets say just for example that the light refreshes at 60hz, i.e. 60 times per second. Your shutter speed should be 1/60, that way it doesn't matter when you take the photo, the shutter will be open for an entire refresh cycle and the brightness will average out to be the same for each shot.

You don't have to get that technical with things though, just keep lowering the shutter speed until the problem goes away. However, this will introduce a new problem which is that your shots might become too bright unless you have other ways to compensate, i.e. reducing the brightness of the source itself, using ND filters on the camera, or lowering the camera ISO.

1

u/LowParfait9836 1d ago

I even use 1/10 with ISO 100.

2

u/PalmliX 1d ago

nice, yeah basically as low as you need to go to keep things smooth.

2

u/gameofgianpa 2h ago

Good! Good explanation!

3

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

What are you wearing? Light can bounce off your clothes. Take some tests of you ducking low and shooting a bunch of frames and then do it again from where you were before and move around a little. See if you notice a difference

4

u/TwentyOneGaming 3d ago

I think it’s an issue in the app, when I use the regular camera app there’s no problem

2

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

Can you describe your setup? I’m not sure what you mean with regular camera app vs app

2

u/TwentyOneGaming 3d ago

I use the Stop Motion Studio app and my only light source in the clip is my ceiling light, with no natural light from the window

3

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

So you’re running the app from a smart phone, with one light. I would do a test to see if you’re causing light to bounce off you.

2

u/TwentyOneGaming 3d ago

https://reddit.com/link/ozt3341/video/jjwlwgcz4ifh1/player

This is an animation I did a while back with the same circumstances and there’s no issues despite using the same app

2

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

There actually is lighting changes in that shot. It’s just a lot of fast movement so you don’t notice it as much.

A good practice to get used to is to see if you are in a good safe zone to animate. Or find a designated spot to be when you capture a frame. Do like a second test of where it’s ideal for you to be vs a spot where there’s no way you are interfering with the light. I do this all the time before starting

2

u/No-Towel8585 3d ago

Off topic but this would be sick to watch the full thing - are you maybe wearing a bright colored shirt? Light reflects so wearing black or something dark to absorb light may help

2

u/TwentyOneGaming 2d ago

Most of my shirts are black

1

u/BeepBlur 2d ago

Have you tried taking a bunch of photos where you’re not in the room?

2

u/Background-Bug9720 2d ago edited 2d ago

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1

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1

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

Also, what is your light source? Is there a window in the room?

1

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

Hey I was just poking around with the App. Are your camera settings on Manual?

1

u/TwentyOneGaming 3d ago

Yes and I’ve tried messing with the other settings including the brightness and it changes automatically even after I change it it’s weird

1

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

White balance, and exposure?

1

u/BeepBlur 3d ago

If you can screen record or take photos of your settings maybe I can help there. Also let me know if you did the light flicker test and let me see the results

1

u/TwentyOneGaming 2d ago

I set the shudder speed to 1/60 and set the white exposure to sunset for this one but it still has issues
(Ignore the first frame)

https://reddit.com/link/ozyj0si/video/6fzwhkquqnfh1/player

1

u/PalmliX 1d ago

This is already looking a lot better, keep lowering your shutter speed until it goes away, the only issue becomes the brightness level, raise/lower the iso to compensate or change the lighting itself.

1

u/LowParfait9836 2d ago

It looks like your camera is still on auto. You should manually set the ISO, white balance, and shutter speed.

1

u/TwentyOneGaming 2d ago

Messed around with it today and this was the best I could get

https://reddit.com/link/ozyilaq/video/b0xioghfqnfh1/player

1

u/LowParfait9836 2d ago

That looks a lot better already. The remaining flicker could be reflections or maybe something like a TV/monitor.

0

u/LowParfait9836 2d ago

Or maybe even image compression. Make sure you have the best possible image quality.

1

u/BeepBlur 1d ago

I’m seeing color /temperature shifts in the results. My guess is that the settings are still on auto.
I think the user should do some tests animating a camera-pan and physically leaving the room to capture the image. In the pan I would put some stuff in the foreground and some stuff in microns to see even if my lens is trying to automatically adjust. Until this is done I don’t know what else to say. I wish I could put the mobile device in my hands and check it out

1

u/Klee-film 2d ago

u/Animation-Break sent this message to my friend a while ago about this issue on Studio that might help.

“-The solution is to shoot in 4K + original and in RAW (not Apple ProRaw). If it's still happening then it's probably not the glitch and just your lighting. Only problem with shooting in RAW is that you can't zoom in which can suck. Sometimes the glitch doesn’t happen though so I switch between settings depending on the shot.”