Time-lapse video for newbies

Ethan Winer wrote on 7/15/2010, 1:07 PM

I know this is old news to the veterans here, but I found the info useful so I'm passing it along to others. I wanted to find a "free" way to create time-lapse video, and I came across a post in another forum by John Rofrano. He said you can export a sequence of spaced frames as stills, then import the sequence as a new clip. So I created a brief demo, and wrote up the process with enough detail that even a rank beginner can easily follow:

--Ethan

Comments

richard-amirault wrote on 7/15/2010, 6:54 PM

Thanks for the tip. I hope it help folks.

I may even try it if I want some time lapse of a shoot .. but, to me, this method has a drawback.

You need to shoot continuous video, in real time, for the duration. For instance a one hour tape (yes, card and HD based camcorders can shoot longer)

If I want time lapse I'll use a digital still camera with either a built-in or an external intervalometer.

That way I can get HD time lapse instead of SD with your method and my camcorders.

MSmart wrote on 7/15/2010, 7:42 PM

Here's a really neat time lapse video from a Canon 550/T2i using an intervalometer:

http://www.camcorderuser.net/film-making/budapest-timelapse-canon-t2i-550d/msg5400/#msg5400

Ethan Winer wrote on 7/16/2010, 10:53 AM

> to me, this method has a drawback. You need to shoot continuous video,
> in real time, for the duration.

Agreed, though my Sony HD camcorder doesn't have a way to shoot stills at timed intervals, so this was the only way I could do it. As I mention in the accompanying text, once the footage is sped up you can discard the original huge file. Also, in one of the other time-lapse clips I shot, some birds flew by overhead and I wanted to keep that at normal speed along with the sped-up part.

--Ethan