Time Shaper Frequently Asked Questions
“What frame rate and shutter angle do I need to shoot at for use with Time Shaper?”
For best results, shoot at a frame rate that is an integer multiple of the frame rate you ultimately want out of Time Shaper. For instance, if you want a 24 fps output, you may want to shoot at 120 fps (5x). Likewise, if you want a 23.976 fps output, shoot at 119.88 fps (exactly 5x). Time Shaper can "slip" input frames to achieve your desired frame rate if it's not an exact integer multiple by introducing slight offsets into the movement.
The shutter angle needs to be as near to 360° as possible. Time Shaper synthesizes new shutter waveforms from the input frames, and it depends on the frames exposing with no gap between them.
For more information on shooting footage for use with Time Shaper, see our full explanation here.
“Isn’t there light loss by shooting at high-frame-rate to make the input footage?”
It is true that the exposure time for each frame of the input high-frame-rate (HFR) imagery is shorter than the exposure time for a standard frame rate image, but because Time Shaper combines the frames together to create the output footage, the overall exposure time is maintained. In fact, compared with a standard 180-degree shutter, 24fps output footage produced through Time Shaper has a higher signal-to-noise ratio. In effect, using Time Shaper as you normally would actually gains about a stop in exposure. The recommended way to compensate for exposure for Time Shaper is to adjust the ISO of the camera to compensate for the light loss for HFR. In effect, Time Shaper reduces ISO when processing the footage together.