iMovie 11 Time Lapse Transitions

[BetaNumeric]

Hi

I just got back from Iceland and took a series of shots of the Northern Lights. I want to sting these together in iMovie and create a bit of a time lapse video. Generally okay, but I want to amend the transitions so that, basically, the pictures are always changing. iMovie seems to set the transitions in such a way that I still get a static picture between them. I've tried messing with the timings of the transitions and images but I can't seem to get it so that the pictures are in a constant state of morphing from one to the next.

Basically I want each picture to show in total for, say, one second but for the transition itself to also last a second, taking half a second from each image either side before immediately moving to the next transition.

Can anyone help me sort this annoying thing out?

Many thanks

Matt

 

[daybreak]

make each video clip 2 second and then add transition.

 

[BetaNumeric]

Yes we'll funnily enough I'd already tried that. But just to allow justification to your rolly eyes I'll try it again

 

[daybreak]

Reading you post again it sounds if you did not take any video. Why not try the effect in iPhoto?

 

[MrXiro]

Hi

I just got back from Iceland and took a series of shots of the Northern Lights. I want to sting these together in iMovie and create a bit of a time lapse video. Generally okay, but I want to amend the transitions so that, basically, the pictures are always changing. iMovie seems to set the transitions in such a way that I still get a static picture between them. I've tried messing with the timings of the transitions and images but I can't seem to get it so that the pictures are in a constant state of morphing from one to the next.

Basically I want each picture to show in total for, say, one second but for the transition itself to also last a second, taking half a second from each image either side before immediately moving to the next transition.

Can anyone help me sort this annoying thing out?

Many thanks

Matt

http://www.howcast.com/videos/358063-How-to-Make-a-TimeLapse-Movie-Using-iMovie

 

[BetaNumeric]

daybreak - in iPhoto? What like a slideshow? Can you output this to a video file then?

MrXiro - thanks for the link. I've made time lapse videos like this before and they've worked okay because I've taken a shot every two or three seconds and you can just stack these into iMovie with no transitions and all is well. However, in this case I was taking pictures of the aurora borealis, and as such had to do long exposures of 15 to 30 seconds each. This means that I don't get enough photos per minute to do a good traditional time lapse movie. So what I need to do is show each photo for, say, a second, but for them to be continually morphing from one picture to the next to give the illusion of movement. At the moment, when I set the length of each photo to 1 second and add a transition of one second between photos, I still get a static section between each transition. I basically want to have the start of each transition beginning as soon as the previous one has ended, and not have any static periods between them. This is what I'm struggling with - I can't seem to get the start of one transition to line up immediately after the end of the preceding one. If I can find a way to do this I'll be sorted!!

Many thanks

Matt

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I think that the issue I have is that the "maintain project length" option on my transitions won't let me change the default setting. I don't want to maintain the project length by adding time to each individual picture for the transition (therefore making a 1 second shot 1.5 seconds long with a 1 second transition - ie, the original 1 second for the picture plus half the one second transition). If I can get this to NOT maintain project duration then I think my transitions will line up as I want them to, but I can't change this setting - it's ghosted out

 

[BetaNumeric]

...and even when I select the "maintain clip range" from Edit>Transition Overlap, it still keeps the transition as the "Half - Maintain Project Duration" option (and still ghosted out) on the actual transition.

This is driving me NUTS!!!!

 

[MrXiro]

daybreak - in iPhoto? What like a slideshow? Can you output this to a video file then?

MrXiro - thanks for the link. I've made time lapse videos like this before and they've worked okay because I've taken a shot every two or three seconds and you can just stack these into iMovie with no transitions and all is well. However, in this case I was taking pictures of the aurora borealis, and as such had to do long exposures of 15 to 30 seconds each. This means that I don't get enough photos per minute to do a good traditional time lapse movie. So what I need to do is show each photo for, say, a second, but for them to be continually morphing from one picture to the next to give the illusion of movement. At the moment, when I set the length of each photo to 1 second and add a transition of one second between photos, I still get a static section between each transition. I basically want to have the start of each transition beginning as soon as the previous one has ended, and not have any static periods between them. This is what I'm struggling with - I can't seem to get the start of one transition to line up immediately after the end of the preceding one. If I can find a way to do this I'll be sorted!!

Many thanks

Matt

----------

I think that the issue I have is that the "maintain project length" option on my transitions won't let me change the default setting. I don't want to maintain the project length by adding time to each individual picture for the transition (therefore making a 1 second shot 1.5 seconds long with a 1 second transition - ie, the original 1 second for the picture plus half the one second transition). If I can get this to NOT maintain project duration then I think my transitions will line up as I want them to, but I can't change this setting - it's ghosted out

Ah... I get it... wouldn't know how to do that... maybe there is a morph transition you can get. I stick to FCP7 and FCPX myself. But I've also never fully done timelapse.

 

[Borntorun]

What you want to do is use a technique called "frame blending". this technique is typically used to smoothen super slow motion footage. for example, if you have shot at 60fps and want to slow it down to 240fps (but still play at 60fps to simulate smooth slow motion) you need to insert three frames in between each frame in your footage. There is an add-on to Final Cut Pro x called "Twixtor" which does exactly that. Google it.

I would frame blend your time lapse as follows:

Create a movie sequence, use a low frame rate such as 25/30 fps, with each photo a frame. Use Twistor to slow this down, and experiment with the various frame blending options and settings to get the best results.

But you'd need to upgrade to FCPX, this wont work on iMovie.