[Jesse Mcallister]

Correction: “Instead of playing 3600 frames over 120 seconds, we’ll play 450 frames over 30 seconds, skipping every 8th frame”

Should read: “Instead of playing 3600 frames over 120 seconds, we’ll play 450 frames over 15 seconds, skipping every 8th frame”

I accidentally typed 30 instead of 15, it doesn’t alter the point, just incorrect math.

[Jesse Mcallister]

The process for After Effects has been described in a number of posts, use the Posterize Time effect.

For a step by step guide, here is a video demonstrating the process: https://vimeo.com/44574403#at=82. The narrator describes this incorrectly as a stop motion effect, again the effects are technically different but can easily be confused.

The sample material used in the video doesn’t demonstrate the effect perfectly, but it is the common way to skip frames in a video giving you the time lapse effect.

[Jesse Mcallister]

This thread is too complicated.

I will *try* to simplify.

Let’s clarify some things:
1) Time-lapse and stop-motion are not the same, although they are similar in effect.
2) Time-lapse is combining a set of frames taken at an interval into a video, when played at normal speed it gives the effect of time passing quickly. Events between frames will appear to be skipped.
3) The primary concern of this thread is to provide the effect of time-lapse using a video as a source.

The confusion:
Many replies have included the suggestion of time remapping, or a similar effect. This is the correct answer, although if you are not aware of how this works, it can seem confusing or even provide an undesired effect if done incorrectly. The undesired effect is that the original video will be sped up, you will still see all of the original frames and will not get a time-lapse (appearance of time skipped between frames).

Let’s explain the confusion:
A 2 minute video recorded at 30 frames per second (FPS) has 3600 frames (2 minutes * 60 seconds * 30 frames per second).

If you remap time incorrectly, it’s possible you will play 3600 frames over 1 minute, this would result in a 60 second video played at 60 frames per second (60 seconds * 60 frames per second = 3600 frames). The video will still display all of the frames from the original video at a faster speed, which is not the desired effect.

If you remap time correctly, you will play less frames at the same frame rate. This means you will skip frames, action between frames will be missing and you will get the desired effect. If you remap time from 120 seconds at 30 frames per second, to 60 seconds at 30 frames per second, the resulting video will skip every other frame. This may not be as aggressive as you want, so let’s remap time from 120 seconds at 30 frames per second to 15 seconds at 30 frames per second. Instead of playing 3600 frames over 120 seconds, we’ll play 450 frames over 30 seconds, skipping every 8th frame. (Note that the software removes the frames for you, so you just need to use some basic math if you want a specific interval)

Most editing software allows you to re-map time, you must pay attention to the options and ensure the frame rate (frames per second) remains the same before and after remapping time. You will also want to ensure any form frame blending is disabled, or you will get time-lapse with a weird transition between frames.

Thanks to Michael Szalapski, Alan Johnston, Dave LaRonde, Darby Edelen, Dmitry Pavlovsky, Bella Gavelin, Khursheed Fateh, Alyssa Barrett and Steve Kasian for providing the right answers.