Can I drop frames during digitizing to create time lapse?

[Emma Mcneill]

No you can’t, and time lapse that isn’t done in camera isn’t time lapse as you have just pointed out so this sentence has served as nothing more than positive re-enforcement for your own position on this situation!

;o)

Emma

[Mark Raudonis]

When trying to do this drastic of a time lapse, you should create a separate QT movie. That should play just fine.

Mark

[David Bogie]

Here is my usual list links for timelapse questions.
Your producer has only a vague idea of what he wants and no idea what the best way to do it could be. The BEST way to do the most flexible and beautifully elegant timelapse is to shoot competent stills.

https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_set.php?categoryID=2363
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/time_lapse_article/time_lapse.html
https://www.gethincoles.com/
https://www.creativepro.com/story/howto/24670.html
https://www.haworth-village.org.uk/nature/time-lapse/thumbs.asp
https://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/07/timelapsemov/index.php
https://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2005/05/18/timelapse.html
https://www.timelapsedigital.com/

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Tom Matthies]

Sony’s XDCam HD has a time lapse feature built into it. Might be worth a try looking at it to see if it will do what you want.
My 2¢ worth.
Tom

[Bret Williams]

EditDV used to have this exact feature. Capture every _th frame. But of course that was back in 1998 on a 604e processor. I’m sure we can’t expect anything today to have this functionality today. 🙂

EditDV morphed into something else after a few years. I’m sure that app probably still has the function. Of course, you realize that it would still be an 8 hour capture. And then if you don’t like the result, it would be another 8 hour capture. So, how does this give you more options in post? If you have the drive space, capture the 8 hours and run tests on small portions to see if you like the look by doing a speed change.

[Jeremy Garchow]

First of all, if you render the 14,000% speed change, it should work. Second of all if you set up an interval record, check out Nattress big Box o Tricks in which he has a interval record feature that assembles the frames together for a smoother time lapse.

https://www.nattress.com/Products/BigBox/TimeTools/GTimeLapse.htm

[David Bogie]

Let’s start over:
Time lapse of what, exactly?
What’s the end result supposed to be, exactly?

The techniques required to accomplish any particular time compression assignment are dependent upon budget, desired results, time for the even to occur, and time compression factor. Shooting stills, using a still camera or the still feature on a video camera, provides radically different results than shooting video. But the results may not be what the client is expecting.
You’ll do some tests, yes?

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Justin Toops]

[david bogie] “Let’s start over:
Time lapse of what, exactly?
What’s the end result supposed to be, exactly? “

The spot is one where a woman is assembling something in a completely empty room. She is building a rather complicated piece, so while we see 8 hours of time lapse footage in 30 seconds we’ll watch her dart all over the place while this object is formed.

For the idea, as nuts and uncreative as it is now, the plug in from Nattress that was suggested seems to fit our need. (thanks Jeremy) I made a sample of it for the producer… hopefully it will persuade him to take an alternative technique for the spot.

Can anyone explain this: even rendered in the timeline, a 8 min dvcprohd clip set to play at 14,000% speed (resulting in a 5 second clip) would stumble, stop, and quit. Is that because the processor isn’t able to handle the amount of data in the HD?

Justin
Editor/Chess Player, Washington DC
2×3 GHz Intel Mac, 4 gigs RAM
FCP 6, DVDSP4, Motion3
KONA 3 capture

[Jeremy Garchow]

Are you sure it’s rendered and not just at Full rt? Go to your Sequence > Render Selection and Sequence > Render All menus and make sure every option is checked, including ‘full’. Then hit option-r to render all.

If that doesn’t work, have you tried exporting it as a self contained Quicktime and reimporting?

Jeremy