It is impossible to do genuine time lapse using video tape. If you have access to a solid-state camera, it's a whole different story.

hook said camera up to a laptop via firewire & capture near foreverrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRR! :D

or, #2, maybe your camera takes stills to? I found out mine does, every 1, 5, 10 or 15 minutes! :D

For DV, the answer is simple:

Scenalyzer

You just hook up the camera to a computer (laptop, whatever), set the rate at which you want to capture (1 frame every "n" frames) and let it go. You can capture the entire construction of a building (i.e., years) if you want. And, it is true timelapse.

Another possibility is to use the timelapse feature on your camera. Most of these "timelapse" functions actually take several frames each time the camera fires up. This isn't true timelapse, which is what I think Jay was referring to. However, I wrote a script years ago which will take one frame from each series of frames, thus giving you real timelapse. This assumes that you can capture the video so that you get a new event each time the camera starts/stops. The script used to be posted at VASST, and you might still be able to find it here:

Time Lapse Script

I don't have an answer for HD timelapse because I don't know of a good HD capture application.

Some of you might be interested in this that I did a few months ago:



Need to do some more work on the rig, need some serious ND filters too.

Bob.

farss was that a solid state camera, scenalyzer, sneaker net

Stop motion is a first cousin to time lapse. Check out this site for links to various Stop Motion programs, some of which can be used with various HD cameras:

Stop Motion Works Software Links

EX1 at 1 fps with 18 frames of frame accumulation. Camera mounted on Mizar Optics motorised pan/tilt head which is incredibly cheap for what it is, under $200. At slow speed the head takes 30 minutes to pan 180deg.

Bob.

Then how would I take my 8 hour long avis and scrink them to 2 minutes?

Use Velocity Envelope...?

How would you get an 8-hour avi on the time line?

Jay,

Is there a time limit on the timeline in Vegas?

Dave T2

Dave, I really don't know. I just couldn't image one avi file that's 8 hours long!

No, I mistyped-there are 8 hour-long events. I found a way that worked, but not necessarily te best. I sped up the playbackrate to 4 and then used excalibur to make the velocity 300, created a new veg and dropped the original and ctrl dragged to speed it up, no multiple renders and looks great, like the blur that is the default.

Ahhh... okay, eight one-hour events, that makes more sense.

Glad to hear you got it worked out.

For one long form project I put just under 8 hours of footage on the time line.

Vegas had no problem whatsoever with it.

The question wasn't could Vegas handle eight hours of footage.

The question was how would you load one file that was eight hours long.

The question wasn't could Vegas handle eight hours of footage.

I'll go fall on my sword immediately.


The question was how would you load one file that was eight hours long.

My last note to the world (so to speak):

Vegas can handle any length video file, as long as you have the disk space (and are running NTFS).

How to load it? Drop it on the time line in the usual way.

Let me know if I need to fall on my sword again...