What is the best program to make time lapse videos?
December 30, 2009 10:01 AM   Subscribe

What is the best program to make time lapse videos? (preferably free)

I've recently shot a 72 hour time lapse photo compilation of an ant farm (nerdy, I know) and I was wondering if there was any software out there that would make it easier to piece it all together in video form?

I currently use Sony Vegas Pro 8 but I haven't found a way to easily add 10,000 photos and the task seems so daunting. Perhaps there is a specific time lapse photo program out there? If not, something just as good?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help. =)
posted by Nixie Pixel to Media & Arts (9 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
http://www.google.com/search?q=convert+images+to+video

top link looks good
posted by rhizome at 10:05 AM on December 30, 2009


Avisynth + ImageSource (allows filename range input) -> Video encoder of your choice. x264 is your best bet for maximizing image quality; if you're going for redistribution, you can probably do OK making a simple Blu-ray or AVCHD structure using x264+TSMuxer+BDedit.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:07 AM on December 30, 2009


I used PhotoLapse (free) with the Microsoft Windows Media Video compressor setting and 1280x720 images (that's HD resolution) to create this video.
posted by exhilaration at 10:41 AM on December 30, 2009


Oh, and if you need to crop/resize dozens or thousands of images, use Multiple Image Resizer (free). I used the previous version for the above video.
posted by exhilaration at 10:45 AM on December 30, 2009


VirtualDub can do this easily. I can't recall the exact way now, but I think it was just as easy as opening the folder the jpgs were in, selecting them, setting the speed and exporting into an avi. Takes literally seconds.
posted by sanka at 10:52 AM on December 30, 2009


On a mac (perhaps a PC too, but not familiar with Quicktime abilities under windows), just use Quicktime Player 7. Put all of the files together in one folder with some sort of numerically ascending filename scheme, then File -> Open Image Sequence. The newer version of Quicktime under Snow Leopard (Quicktime X) does not have this ability, but you should still have Quicktime 7 installed in the utilities folder.
posted by taubman at 11:09 AM on December 30, 2009


the following article has detailed instructions on how to create a stop motion animation using virtualdub.
posted by phil at 11:13 AM on December 30, 2009


This might help:

http://www.diyphotography.net/how-to-create-time-lapse-movies-with-lots-of-open-source-software
posted by gergtreble at 5:00 PM on December 30, 2009




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