time-lapse — zooming across multple still images

[Matt Crowley]

You can handle large numbers of still images as an image sequence. This turns time-lapse or stop-frame sequences into a video clip in Vegas, and you can then apply all the usual video effects easily.

Instead of dragging all your stills onto the timeline, just go Project>Import Media and select the first image in your sequence. The “Open Still Image Sequence” option at the bottom of the Import dialog will become active and you can enable it type the number of the last image you want in the sequence. The images must be sequentially numbered (eg IMG4567, IMG4568…) and Vegas will automatically identify the available range. Just click OK to import the whole sequence and you’ll get a single video event.

[Nigel O’neill]

Matt

I think Lars question was about doing a mass pan/crop of the images before the images are imported. I think Vasst Ultimate S Pro can do this BUT I think it is a static/fixed zoom or pan. I am not at my editing station at the moment.

I believe what Lars is asking is whether it is possible to do a gradual zoom or pan, with the next image zooming/panning in slightly than the previous.

If in doubt, you can always trial Ultimate S Pro from Vaast for free.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

Oops, made a typo:

I think Lars question was about doing a mass pan/crop of the images.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

Lars

After re-reading your post, I suggest importing your stills and then render them out to a lossless intermediary file. Bring that file back into Vegas and THEN do your pan and crop effects.

You could also import the images and then nest the Veg file in a new project and then do your pan and crops, but you may find your system performance will become an issue, hence my recommendation to render it out instead.

I recently did a project that had several thousand time lapse images of a duration of 00:00:00.01 each, and scrubbing on the timeline was painfully slow, even on my i7 system.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Mike Kujbida]

Nigel, have you tried Matt’s suggestion?
I’ve used the image sequence method on several hundred (admittedly not several thousand) images and it’s been very smooth on my old quad core box.

[Nigel O’neill]

No, but good to know.

I did it the way I did because I used Ultimate S photo montage to set the image properties, durations and transitions en masse. I then ended up rendering it out and then crtl dragging the event shorter as I was looking for a duration shorter than 00.01!

It was a time lapse of a theatre bump-in over several weeks which I crunched down to about 30 seconds. Come to think of it, I think it was 4,000+ images.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Mike Kujbida]

Nigel, all I can say is that you’re certifiably insane taking on a project like that 🙂

[Nigel O’neill]

And I didn’t get paid for it either, so I am definitely a funny farm candidate. It was volunteer work for the Brisbane Scouts .

[Mike Kujbida]

I hope you got a merit badge for all your hard work 🙂

[Lars Hansen]

This is the first chance I’ve had to get back to this post. Thanks so much for your responses!

I used your method Matt and was successful in completing the sequence like I had wanted.

I did have one issue though that I was not able to sort out… sometimes vegas would recognize the still series, other times it didn’t. Trial and error allowed me to find a combination that worked, however I’m not entirely sure why vegas recognized some and not others…? Suspect it had something to do with the file name as image size and file type were not limiting factors (i.e. jpeg and tiffs up to 5m worked). Ideas anyone?

Nigel, also interested in your approach though haven’t tried it yet. A couple of questions: 1) do you know how much detail is retained when rendering stills to a lossless video file, and 2) in your second example what is a “Veg file” (not sure I understand what the process is here)?

Thanks again all for you help.