Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Motion & Video => Topic started by: OldRoy on August 29, 2010, 04:54:58 am

Title: Time-lapse capture and animation
Post by: OldRoy on August 29, 2010, 04:54:58 am

Apologies if this is not precisely the forum for my question.

I have been asked to produce time lapse sequences for construction projects. These don't need to be particularly high quality as they will appear as Flash  on a website. Depending on the time-scale of the acquisition I could use either a DSLR or (more likely) a dedicated CCTV camera. I'd like to transmit wirelessly to a remotely located PC (same building or adjacent) rather than wire the connection. Obviously if I used a DSLR (Nikon in my case) I could use the remote intervalometer to trigger captures (power supply questions depending on duration) but my feeling is that it would be better to use a CCTV camera and grab frames on the PC with a software process.

Can anyone suggest the software that I'd need to do this? Ie both capture and edit the sequence. I'm assuming that I can calculate the intervals to give a final result of about the required length, providing the project sequence goes to plan, but it might well be necessary to edit or reassemble to meet unforseen eventualities. I have access to a copy of the basic Pinnacle video editing software but clearly don't want to manually assemble frame by frame. I also have Pano2VR which I use for generating VR panos which might enable me to create the  .swf files.

And last but by no means least, this is very price-sensitive, so I can't afford to buy high end items without losing the job. Any suggestions appreciated.

Roy

Title: Re: Time-lapse capture and animation
Post by: retro987 on September 14, 2010, 08:50:39 am

Hi, as you have received no replies I wonder if this site may be able to help you.

http://timescapes.org/phpBB3/index.php

Regards MikeA.

Title: Re: Time-lapse capture and animation
Post by: richreid on November 30, 2010, 11:29:26 am

Hello Roy,

I just purchased an all weather time-lapse camera for $80 at http://www.wingscapes.com/timelapse-cameras

My plan is to do long term construction time-lapses with minimum effort and investment.

If your familiar with Final Cut Pro, I suggest using this software over all others. Lots of flexibility but a steep learning curve.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Rich Reid

richreidphotography.com (http://www.richreidphotography.com)

Title: Re: Time-lapse capture and animation
Post by: fike on December 23, 2010, 02:39:37 pm

Have you thought of using an inexpensive canon consumer digicam with the CHDK (Canon Hacked Development Kit)? It offers scripted intervalometer functions.  I've used it with a WLAN Eye-Fi card to upload files to the network.