Frame rate and motion blur are important aspects of video quality. This demo helps to show the visual differences between various frame rates and motion blur.

A few presets to try out:

• 15 vs. 25 vs. 48 vs. 60 frames per second   (with motion blur exaggeration)
• 25 frames per second with and without motion blur
• 60 frames per second with and without motion blur

Motion blur is a natural effect when you film the world in discrete time intervals. When a film is recorded at 25 frames per second, each frame has an exposure time of up to 40 milliseconds (1/25 seconds). All the changes in the scene over that entire 40 milliseconds will blend into the final frame. Without motion blur, animation will appear to jump and will not look fluid.

When the frame rate of a movie is too low, your mind will no longer be convinced that the contents of the movie are continuous, and the movie will appear to jump (also called strobing).

More information:

• Wikipedia's frame rate article includes information about the history of frame rates, frame rates in video games, etc.
• Wikipedia's rotary disk shutter article includes information about the shutters used in motion picture cameras.
• RED Digital Cinema has an excellent article on the benefits of high frame rates (HFR), including sample videos and discussion.

Peter Jackson said the following about switching to 48 frames per second for the filming of The Hobbit (2011/04/11):

Film purists will criticize the lack of blur and strobing artifacts, but all of our crew--many of whom are film purists--are now converts. You get used to this new look very quickly and it becomes a much more lifelike and comfortable viewing experience. It's similar to the moment when vinyl records were supplanted by digital CDs. There's no doubt in my mind that we're heading towards movies being shot and projected at higher frame rates.