Time Lapse Simulation

[directedition]

Okay, I want to shoot something in Timelapse on video. Problem being that while you can just up the speed on the clip, it will still only give you individual frames. What makes time lapse really work is the motion blur you get from leaving the gate open (in film) but video doesn't have a gate and CCDs aren't friendly to long exposures. The only way I can see to do this is by combining frames instead of discarding them, but I can't find a way to do this in Final Cut. I'm not going to go through 5000 frames chopping each one up and layering with combine overlays, there has to be another way to do it. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[BenB]

Do you mean the motion blur in time lapse shots that show streaking tail lights and such? CHV I think has a plug-in that does that sort of motion blur.

 

[directedition]

I'm thinking more along the lines of combining frames to simulate a sort of motion blur. Like, If I compress time by a 5:1 ratio. Then I want to have five frames layered into one, each with equal oppacity for each new incriment of time.

Ideal would be to use a camera that can "keep the shutter open" for prolonged periods, but I don't think anything like that exists for video.

 

[BenB]

Check CHV and Nattress plug-ins, one of them have an FCP plug-in that does this. Not at my FCP sation, so I can't check at the moment, but it's one of those two that have one. Do a quick web search for, FCP CHV Nattress, you should find them.

And some of those guys, Joes Filters, too, I think, have motion blur filters that are pretty nice.

Have you experimented with the Motion Blur settings in the Viewer's Motion tab?

 

[LeZombi]

time lapse

time lapse

Yes video can be a pain but time lapse is possible and easy. All you do is get a tripod and pick a location and record 2 or 3 seconds every 30 to 60 seconds depending how fast you want the motion to be. Then speed it up in post. A lot of 3ccd cameras come with time interval features and all you have to do is tell them when to record. Go out and experiment.

 

[BenB]

Re: time lapse

Re: time lapse

Yes video can be a pain but time lapse is possible and easy.

I think the point is not the time lapse itself, but getting the motion blur that you get out of a still camera. Video cameras don't allow for shutter speeds slow enough to do that smearing type effect.

 

[element80]

also, if you really wanted to, you could take a stopwatch and a still camera and take long exposure shots every few minutes, and then add them frame by frame in post. It would still be time consuming, but not as much as trying to layer multiple frames into one.

 

[BenB]

Actually, using an SLR is a very common method to capture time lapse with. The long exposure times allow it do capture the smeared motion. Wish I had the URL, but I've recently seen some super impressive time lapse done around L.A. recently like this.