RESOLVE 21 · TEMPORAL CADENCE / FRAME HOLD
Stop Motion.
Do not add more frames.
Decide which frames survive.
Resolve FX Stop Motion creates staccato movement by repeating sampled frames. Frame Repeat sets the step size, Reference Frame anchors the skip-pattern phase, Sampling Variation makes that cadence increasingly uneven, and Global Blend only integrates the already-designed temporal result. The craft is not finding a magic number—it is making the cadence line up with action, camera speed, and rhythm.
Frame Repeat · 1–10
Set Reference Frame
Sampling Variation · Blend
In the lab, keep Frame Repeat fixed and click Set Reference Frame at different moments. The amount of stepping stays the same, but the hold boundaries land on different parts of the action—that is the phase problem this page is designed to make visible.
Teaching proxy, not Resolve rendering. The canvas uses a simplified repeated-frame sampler to make hold length, anchor phase, irregular sampling, and source/effect mixing visible. Sampling Variation is represented by a deterministic jitter model and does not claim to reproduce Blackmagic OFX internals or exact sampling math.
Four native Resolve interface views + an explicitly synthetic cadence/phase teaching proxy
4 native views · 5 visible controls · 4 exercises01WHAT STOP MOTION REMOVES
Less temporal updating. More visible cadence.
Motion Blur, Trails, and Smear add or accumulate temporal information. Stop Motion goes the other direction: sampled frames are held in blocks, so smooth motion becomes a sequence of discrete poses.
Stop Motion reduces temporal resolution
Unlike Motion Blur, Motion Trails, and Smear, this FX does not add information between subject positions or accumulate neighboring frames into a trail. It holds sampled frames in repeated blocks, turning a smooth trajectory into discrete positions. The primary visual result is staccato cadence, not blur or echo.
Frame Repeat defines the temporal step size
Blackmagic describes Frame Repeat as the number of frames, from 1 to 10, that are duplicated in the shot. The higher the value, the longer one sampled phase is held and the less often the image updates. On a fast camera move a large repeat creates strong spatial jumps; on a slow gesture the same repeat can read as deliberate handmade animation.
Reference Frame changes phase, not strength
Reference Frame is the frame number used for the skip pattern. Moving the anchor leaves Frame Repeat unchanged, but shifts hold-block boundaries onto different moments of the action. That matters around a hit, step, blink, cut, or musical beat: identical stepping can feel precise or late purely because of phase alignment.
Sampling Variation does not replace Frame Repeat. It makes motion increasingly uneven on top of the chosen cadence. First judge a clean repeat with Variation at zero, then add irregularity if needed. Otherwise it becomes difficult to separate an overly long hold from deliberately varied sampling.
02FIVE VISIBLE CONTROLS · THREE TEMPORAL JOBS
Read the panel as step size → phase → irregularity → final integration.
The screenshots are native Resolve captures from the source archive. Frame Repeat 5, Reference Frame 0, Sampling Variation 0.000, and Blend 1.000 are captured UI states—not recommended values.
ADVANCED OPTIONS · PHASE
Anchor the skip pattern to the right frame
- Set Reference Frame
The button selects the current Viewer frame as the reference frame. Use it where the cadence should gain a meaningful phase: the start of motion, a hit, a step, a pose change, or another timing landmark. It is not automatic best-frame analysis; you choose the anchor moment.
CheckAfter a trim, retime, or meaningful edit change, re-check the anchor because the intended visual moment may have shifted relative to the original media frame numbering.
- Reference Frame
Displays the reference-frame number used by the skip pattern. Blackmagic specifies that the number is counted from the start of the entire original media clip, with the first frame as frame 0. This matters because timeline position and source frame number are not the same thing after trimming or editing.
CheckIf the cadence visually starts on the wrong beat, check phase/reference first instead of immediately reducing Frame Repeat or Blend.
- Sampling Variation
Makes the motion increasingly uneven. At 0.000 sampling stays maximally regular; raising it adds temporal irregularity to the existing skip/repeat pattern. It is a cadence-character control, not the control for the base step size.
CheckToo much Variation turns readable stop-motion cadence into unpredictable judder. Judge it in real-time playback, especially on faces, hands, and camera movement.
GENERAL · STEP SIZE
Frame Repeat defines the core stepping
- Frame Repeat
Selects how many frames, from 1 to 10, are duplicated in the shot. Low values provide a mild reduction in temporal resolution; high values create long holds and pronounced staggered cadence. The project capture shows 5, but that is only an interface state, not a universal preset.
CheckMatch it to source-motion speed and timeline fps. The same repeat feels different at 24 fps versus 60 fps, and on slow versus fast motion.
GLOBAL BLEND · INTEGRATION
Blend only after cadence is correct
- Global Blend / Blend
The final mix between source motion and the calculated Stop Motion result. It is useful for gentler styling, but it does not change the skip-pattern logic. If the pattern lands poorly on the action, holds frames too long, or feels chaotic, fix phase, Frame Repeat, or Sampling Variation first.
CheckDo not use Blend as a universal effect-strength fix. A large mix reduction can merely hide a bad cadence that becomes obvious again elsewhere in the shot.
The diagnostic shortcut is simple: if the size of the jump is wrong, inspect Frame Repeat; if the timing of the jump is wrong, inspect Reference Frame; if the rhythm itself feels too mechanically regular or too chaotic, inspect Sampling Variation. Blend belongs after those decisions.
03A REPEATABLE STOP MOTION WORKFLOW
Action → repeat → phase → variation → mix → QC.
This order keeps phase and cadence errors from being hidden by the final mix.
Find the timing landmark
Loop the gesture, step, title move, or camera section where the stepped cadence must feel intentional. Stop Motion is judged by timing relationships, not by one attractive still.
This is an editorial decision path, not Blackmagic’s internal processing graph. It keeps step size, skip-pattern phase, sampling irregularity, final mixing, and motion QC separate so one control does not hide a problem created by another.
Related reference: Smear ↗ · Motion Trails ↗ · Motion Blur ↗
04FOUR CADENCE DECISIONS
Beat sync, handmade irregularity, camera motion, and graphics need different restraint.
These are decision recipes, not presets. Frame Repeat depends on timeline fps and source speed; phase depends on the actual action; Variation depends on how deliberately imperfect the result should feel.
A gesture or step should land on a musical beat
Make the stepped cadence feel rhythmic rather than accidentally offset from the action.
- 01
Start with Sampling Variation at zero so phase can be judged without extra irregularity.
- 02
Choose Frame Repeat for the desired stepping density and motion speed.
- 03
Place the playhead on the key visual moment, use Set Reference Frame, then play several cycles around the beat.
- 04
Only after phase alignment is correct, add a small amount of Sampling Variation if handmade irregularity is desired.
Handmade stop-motion look without digital metronome regularity
Keep a readable repeat while removing the feel of perfectly regular computer cadence.
- 01
First tune a clean Frame Repeat and confirm that the basic step already fits the shot.
- 02
Add Sampling Variation in small steps and judge real-time playback after each move rather than a still frame.
- 03
Watch faces and hands: irregular sampling should add character without destroying performance readability.
- 04
If rhythm disappears, reduce Variation; do not compensate for chaos by lowering Blend.
A camera move turns into jumps that are too large
Keep the stop-motion feel without turning a pan or handheld move into exhausting judder.
- 01
Judge the fastest section of camera motion at 100% playback speed, not from a still frame.
- 02
Reduce Frame Repeat until the spatial jump between updates stops being the dominant visual event.
- 03
Keep Sampling Variation near zero until the main cadence is comfortable; irregularity on camera movement very quickly reads as an error.
- 04
At the end decide whether a partial Blend helps integration or whether clean stepped motion is stronger.
Titles and graphics as deliberately stepped animation
Create a clear designed cadence without blur or temporal trails.
- 01
Choose Frame Repeat so each shape update reads as a deliberate pose rather than an accidental dropped frame.
- 02
Anchor Reference Frame to the first meaningful pose or the start of a title reveal.
- 03
Keep Sampling Variation at zero for a strict motion-design grid, or raise it slightly for a cutout/handmade character.
- 04
Check the result after a representative delivery encode because short holds and thin moving edges can read differently after compression.
05CHOOSE THE RIGHT TEMPORAL TOOL
Blur, echoes, accumulation, and frame holds are different temporal designs.
Stop Motion is the choice when visible temporal stepping is the design itself. If you actually want trails or shutter-like smoothing, another Temporal FX is a better model.
| FX | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Motion Blur ↗ | When you need to reduce strobing and synthesize directional shutter-like blur using motion estimation. |
| Motion Trails ↗ | When you need distinct temporal copies with Dropoff and successive Pan/Zoom/Rotate transforms. |
| Smear ↗ | When you need multi-frame temporal accumulation with a symmetric window and Luma/Chroma contribution gates. |
| Stop Motion | When you want to remove intermediate smoothness and deliberately hold/repeat sampled frames to create staccato cadence. |
06READ THE CADENCE FAILURE FIRST
Wrong jump size, wrong phase, and wrong irregularity require different fixes.
Stop Motion becomes easy to troubleshoot when step size, phase, irregularity, and mix are not collapsed into one idea of “strength.”
01Cadence lands between beats and feels late+
Likely cause: Frame Repeat may be correct while the skip pattern has the wrong phase relative to the action.
Fix: Move to the intended visual landmark, use Set Reference Frame, and replay. Do not change the step size when the problem is only where the pattern begins.
02Motion is too jerky and spatial jumps are huge+
Likely cause: Frame Repeat is too large for the source-motion speed or timeline fps.
Fix: Reduce Frame Repeat and judge the fastest section in real time. Blend does not fix the distance between sampled positions.
03Rhythm feels chaotic even though repeat is modest+
Likely cause: Sampling Variation is too high and is breaking the readable regularity of the pattern.
Fix: Return Variation to zero, validate the base repeat, then reintroduce irregularity gradually.
04After trimming, the effect feels phase-shifted+
Likely cause: Reference Frame is counted from the start of the original media clip; an edit change can alter the relationship between the desired event and the stored source-frame anchor.
Fix: Go to the new intended anchor moment and set the reference frame again. Then inspect several hold blocks before and after that point.
05The effect looks like dropped frames rather than deliberate stop motion+
Likely cause: The cadence is not tied to action or beat, or Variation was added before choosing a readable Frame Repeat.
Fix: Simplify: set Variation to zero, choose repeat, find a meaningful reference phase, and only then add character back.
06Partial Blend creates double contours or unpleasant semi-smooth motion+
Likely cause: Smooth source motion and held stop-motion positions are both too visible during fast motion.
Fix: First decide whether a partial mix is needed at all. It can be cleaner to use a gentler Frame Repeat with a fully stepped result than to blend two conflicting temporal cadences.
07BEFORE DELIVERY
Approve cadence in playback, then verify the encode.
A held frame says almost nothing about whether the rhythm works. The useful evidence is motion through several repeat blocks, especially around gestures, camera movement, and edit boundaries.
08FAQ
Practical Stop Motion questions.
What should I adjust first in Stop Motion?
Start with Frame Repeat while Sampling Variation is zero. Once the step size fits the shot, anchor phase with Set Reference Frame, add Variation only if needed, and use Global Blend last.
How is Reference Frame different from Frame Repeat?
Frame Repeat sets temporal step size—how many frames are duplicated. Reference Frame sets the phase of the skip pattern—the source frame to which the repeat grid is anchored. They solve different problems.
How is the Reference Frame number counted?
Blackmagic states that the frame number is counted from the start of the entire original media clip, with the first frame as frame 0. It does not necessarily match the timeline frame after trimming.
What does Sampling Variation do?
It makes motion increasingly uneven on top of the chosen repeat pattern. It is an irregularity/character control, not an alternate way to increase Frame Repeat.
Is Stop Motion the same as Smear or Motion Trails?
No. Smear and Motion Trails accumulate temporal information and create trails/copies. Stop Motion does the perceptual opposite: it reduces visible temporal updates by holding sampled frames in repeated blocks.
Can Stop Motion be judged from a still frame?
No. Cadence, phase, uneven sampling, and the spatial jump between updates exist over time. Judge a loop at normal speed and then a representative encode.
Sources and boundaries
Control names and documented behavior are anchored by Blackmagic’s Resolve 21 reference material and four native Resolve screenshots stored in the project. The live hero is an editorial teaching proxy: it simplifies frame repetition, phase anchoring, irregular sampling, and blending so their dependencies are visible; it does not claim to reproduce Blackmagic’s internal OFX sampling algorithm.
Verify exact behavior in the Resolve build and timeline frame rate you use. This page documents visible controls, official parameter intent, and a repeatable evaluation workflow; it does not reverse-engineer the OFX implementation.