Reducing artifiacts - x264

[ProVision]

Hi,

I am trying to encode anime at a low bitrate, but I can't manage to swipe off these artifacts (On the outline of the fingers, for example):

http://s21.postimg.org/ibsjggt7b/Untitled.png

If there are any special settings that I should enable/disable, please let me know. I know increasing the bitrate will solve, but I would like to find a better solution.

My settings are:

cabac=1 / ref=9 / deblock=1:1:1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=0.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=3 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=12 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=2 / keyint=2000 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=25 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=55 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=31.7 / qcomp=0.65 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=2 / ip_ratio=1.40 /

[Asmodian]

Try disabling fast_pskip (--no-fast-pskip) but it will have a large speed cost. Have you tried the --tune animation preset? crf=31.7! ouch :eek:

[Dark Shikari]

Those are ringing artifacts caused by the incredibly high quantizer; fast pskip is not really related.

[vivan]

This is just horrible no matter how you look at it. What the point of such bitrate starved encode? Downscaling to 396p or even 360p should increase quality a lot. And switching to 10-bit x264 too (if it's possible, of course).

[ProVision]

Okay, thanks you guys! I just bit-starved it too much because I was afraid you guys couldn't see the artifact because on lots of other posts I couldn't see said artifact. Thanks Asmodian, DS, and Vivian!