choppiness

Choppiness is a perceptual quality of motion in video, animation, and other time-varying media characterized by jerky, abrupt changes rather than smooth, continuous movement. It typically results from insufficient temporal sampling: when the frame rate or sampling rate is too low to capture the actual motion, the sequence appears stuttery.

Common causes include a frame rate that is too low for the speed of motion, large motion between consecutive frames, and irregular frame pacing or dropped frames. Compression artifacts and predictive video encoding can reuse reference frames, producing visible jumps in motion. Interlaced scanning, aliasing, and mismatched display versus source frame rates can also contribute. In interactive contexts such as video games or virtual reality, fluctuating frame times and latency produce variable motion, which is perceived as choppiness even if average frame rate seems adequate.

In film and animation, choppiness has different implications. At conventional film rates around 24 frames per second, fast pans or rapid action can appear choppy; in hand-drawn animation or stop-motion at low frame counts (for example 12–15 fps), choppiness may be intentional or stylistic. Conversely, higher frame rates or motion blur can reduce perceived choppiness.

Perception of choppiness is largely subjective, but objective measures exist, such as temporal difference metrics, frame-to-frame motion consistency, and estimates of temporal aliasing. Frame pacing studies and user evaluations are commonly used to assess perceived smoothness.

Mitigation techniques include increasing frame rate, maintaining consistent frame pacing, adding motion blur, using temporal anti-aliasing or motion-compensated frame interpolation, and addressing encoding or rendering bottlenecks to avoid dropped frames. In some cases, deliberate choppiness is used for stylistic effect, notably in retro or minimalist animation.