movie-export

Movie Export

Movie Export / Offline Rendering (zero dropped frames)

Recording a movie with a Movie File Out TOP is a heavy build. Monitor for drops DURING the render (not only after), and treat ANY dropped frame as a failed render. "Done" requires proof that every frame is unique -- a file can be the right length and still be full of duplicates.

The Realtime trap (the #1 cause of juddered exports)

The Realtime flag (timeline bar; Python project.realTime, a read/write bool) is ON by default in TD (the default cooking mode skips frames to keep wall-clock pace; the Project Class page documents the read/write semantics, not the default). With it ON, TD skips any frame it cannot cook within the project.cookRate budget (default 60) -- Project Class: "When True, frames may be skipped in order to maintain the cookRate. When False, all frames are processed sequentially regardless of duration." When a frame is skipped during recording, the Movie File Out replicates the previous image so the file stays the right length (its Info CHOP describes last_frames_written as possibly "multiple repeats of the same image if TouchDesigner dropped frames"). Net: the file has the correct frame COUNT but contains duplicated frames -- visible judder.

Rule: before any movie render, capture the prior flag, then go non-realtime:

prior = project.realTime          # CAPTURE first -- never assume it was True
project.realTime = False          # cook every frame regardless of duration

TD now cooks every frame completely regardless of how long it takes -- nothing is skipped (Movie File Out TOP: "Recording a movie without frame drops can be done in non-realtime by turning off the Realtime flag.").