Motion cadence is the rhythm and spacing of frames that shape how motion feels. In stylized animation (especially anime), cadence is a creative choice as much as a technical one. Lower frame counts emphasize poses and timing; higher frame counts emphasize smoothness and continuous motion. For AI-generated sequences, cadence impacts compute cost, temporal stability, and the final aesthetic.

• 12fps (animating on 2s): Classic anime feel with pose-driven timing. Lower compute, clear key poses, but prone to judder on fast pans. Best for dialogue, character acting, and stylized action with smears. • 24fps: Cinematic baseline. Smoother camera moves and readable action. Higher compute than 12fps but fewer artifacts than heavy interpolation. Good general-purpose target for delivery. • 60fps interpolation: Created by inserting synthetic in-betweens. Maximizes smoothness but risks the “soap-opera” look and ghosting on occlusions. Useful for UI-heavy scenes, slow-motion, or tech demo reels—apply selectively.

• Dialogue close-ups: 12fps with held poses; tighten lip-sync and eye blinks. Duplicate or hold frames intentionally. • Medium shots with gentle camera moves: 24fps native or 12→24 interpolation if budget is tight. • Fast action: 24fps native for clarity; if 12fps, add smears, multiples, or hold backgrounds to avoid strobing. • Long pans/tilts: Favor 24fps; limit pan speed at 12fps to reduce judder. • Effects/UI overlays: Consider 60fps interpolation on overlays only; keep characters at 24fps to preserve style.

• Plan cadence at storyboard/animatic: mark scenes as 12, 24, or 12→24. • Generate at the delivery cadence or an integer divisor: e.g., render 12fps then cleanly retime to 24fps. • Stabilize before retiming: enforce consistent seeds, guidance, and motion controls to reduce flicker. • Interpolation pass: use optical-flow-based methods with occlusion handling; limit to 2x where possible. • Retime audio last: conform edits to a constant frame rate timeline to avoid drift. • Add selective motion blur only for pans; avoid global blur that softens linework.

• Judder at 12fps on camera moves: Slow the move, switch to 24fps, or use stepped holds. Keep strong key poses. • Soap-opera effect at 60fps: Keep characters at 24fps and interpolate backgrounds/effects only. Add slight hold frames or micro-stutters for stylization. • Ghosting/double edges from interpolation: Use occlusion-aware settings, mask high-contrast edges, or interpolate per-layer. • Lip-sync drift after retime: Recut phoneme beats to the final cadence; avoid variable frame rate exports. • Flicker across frames: Lock noise schedules and denoise strength; use temporal consistency or deflicker passes before interpolation.

• Deliver at constant frame rate (CFR) to match edit cadence. • Common targets: 24fps (cinematic), 30fps (broadcast/web), 60fps (tech demo/gameplay-style). For anime style, 24fps is a safe default. • If originating at 12fps, export at 24fps by duplicating frames or clean 2x interpolation. • Use mezzanine codecs during edit (ProRes/DNx) and compress to H.264/HEVC/AV1 for delivery. Keep audio at 48 kHz to avoid drift.