Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
Ad
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Simple question: is there a way to successfully remove flicker? I've made a bit of a check-up on my current film...
There’s many causes and many treatments to light flicker. The first step is identifying what’s causing it. The two main causes are:
Daylight
Automatic camera settings
If your flicker is caused by the ever changing light of the sun, the solution is pretty obvious. Either get some shades (or any method of blocking out the light), or only work at night. If camera settings are causing your problems, things can get tricky. If you’re using a webcam, go into your camera setting through your driver software and make sure exposure, as well as every other setting, is set to manual. If you’re using a DSLR, go into your settings and insure that your aperture and shutter speed, and everything else for good measure, is set to manual. Use automatic settings for photography, and manual for brickfilming.
-Brickman
Brickman has written a great post, so rather than repeat what he said I'll add some of my own advice.
You might still encounter light flicker problems even if you made sure that there's no weirdness going on in terms of automatic settings or on-set light shenanigans. Especially if you're using older equipment (like an old webcam/camera or even an old light bulb) you might run into trouble. Sometimes a very fast shutter speed (think 1/200 or faster) can cause light flicker. This is usually solved by slowing down the shutter speed. Note that this will change the overall brightness of the scene, so readjust your lighting setup and other camera settings accordingly.
Another problem I've run across with my old webcam is that whenever something new enters the scene (like a brightly coloured minifig walking into frame), for some reason the whole brightness is changed. Something that may help out with that is the Deflicker filter for VirtualDub. VirtualDub is a nice lightweight program that allows you to import video clips or image sequences and do some basic processing to them. It's best used early in the stage of editing: I usually import the raw image sequence (directly from the animation program), and export it as a video clip that I can then import into my editing software.
I think the VirtualDub solution is pretty old school/outdated, though, as I've been using this filter from time to time for over 10 years at this point. But who knows, it might be just the thing for you!
No sorry, my bad - I should've been more specific...
It's my fault entirely. The flicker is coming from my stupidly knocking the lights on my set. I've used a string of leds to light the set, and to get to some of the figs I've had to reach under them. This has caused some flicker.
I think I may be able to darken the lighter frames, to make them match the darker ones (or vice versa). Or perhaps I may be able to drop the most suspect frames...
That's the current plan anyway. Either that, or reshoot the bad parts. I was more just curious if there was some way that others use to fix flicker after it's already been shot.
Thanks for the replies anyway!
Ah, yes. Thank you. Sony Vegas is my NLE of choice, so that makes me wonder if there is a filter/effect built into there that I might be able to use.
Back in 2014, END Films made a tutorial on how to remove light flicker using VirtualDub. I've been using this method since i watched it several years ago, and it's worked fine for me. He gives some links in the description to download VirtualDub and the MSU Deflicker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV09Jzt1tTU
Watch it on YouTube!
Hi! If you are still looking for a solution to the problem, then maybe this will help you:
Try setting the shutter speed according to the voltage standard in your country, for example:
I have 50 Hz, Europe.
USA 60 Hz
I hope this will help you without using additional programs.
Simple question: is there a way to successfully remove flicker? I've made a bit of a check-up on my current film...
Sometimes your camera doesn't have any manual settings. When your hand moves your characters, it creates a shadow over your set. The auto settings then raise the iso to make the image brighter, and when move your hand away and snap a picture, the image is overexposed because it hasn't had time to make the image darker again. If you can't turn off automatic settings, you need to wait 5 seconds after your hand comes out to take a photo.
If you can, turn off EVERYTHING that is on auto.
In my brickfilms I used black boards surrounding the set to block flicker, but recently I have been noticing flicker that goes down in the shot (like in this Brickfilm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruOAdw5T4nM ) and I’m wondering, does anyone know what it is or how I can fix it?
Last edited by JuiceBoxStudios (July 21, 2020 (09:18am))
In my brickfilms I used black boards surrounding the set to block flicker, but recently I have been noticing flicker that goes down in the shot (like in this Brickfilm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruOAdw5T4nM ) and I’m wondering, does anyone know what it is or how I can fix it?
I’m pretty sure it was the exposure, which was on auto. I switched to manual
Posts [ 12 ]
