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FCP Workflow for Time Lapse Videos
I currently use this workflow for my Time Lapse videos: I capture still images on a Canon 7D at either 1, 2, 3, or 6 sec intervals, Medium Res. I then import the series of photos into a FCP project, which come in as 3456×2304, 23.98 fps, Photo-JPEG, 1 frame duration.
I then import them into a Sequence with similar settings – 3456×2304, 30fps, Photo-JPEG compression. Then I output this file as a Quicktime, at the same settings.
What this does is allow me to import the Quicktime into a standard 1920×1080, 30p, ProRes 422 project, and ride the frame to make nice Ken Burn’s effects throughout my time lapse video. My final output is always 1920×1080, 30p, ProRes 422.
As far as I can tell, this is the best way to streamline the process while minimizing render times and maintaining the highest quality output possible.
Would you agree? Or are there better ways to do this sort of work? I question the fact that my high-res quicktime files, which come out at 3456×2304, are massive. A :50 file is 8GB, with a bit-rate of 1.13 Gbit/s. Overkill? Or good “future-proofing”?
Thanks in advance.
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4 Replies
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I think I saw that QT pro has an ability to deal with timelapse directly; might want to check that out for the import/conversion to .mov
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Dave, I considered the framerate difference, but here’s what I don’t understand… I’ve imported these files as JPEG images into my project, with a default duration of 1 frame. What I don’t understand is how to modify that from the default import of 23.98 to 30fps… or how that even matters in the equation if they’re only a single frame in duration? Maybe you can shed some light… thanks.
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I’ll take a look at it, but it sounds like if I am unable to export at a higher frame size than 1920×1080 (ie. the native 3456×2046), than this will not work for my purposes. Thanks for the input, I’ll let you know.
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I understand your explanation of framerate. What I don’t get, is that if I import a still image as 1 frame duration, 1/1, how does that translate to a 23.98 “framerate”? It’s a single frame, of a non-moving image. If you Make Still Image from a video clip, it imports it into your project as a single frame – and does not even assign a framerate. I would think FCP should do the same for my imported stills, but it does not. Maybe there is a way to do this, but I havent been able to find it anywhere on the web.
Regardless, Quicktime Pro is able to pull the Image Sequence into a nice quicktime, which I can then export at the images native resolution – making this the perfect workflow for my work. Thanks for your help everybody.
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