dvx time lapse test

antomic

antomic

Well-known member
this clip features 28 seconds of time lapse playback from 10 minutes of rolling time on tape, sped up 2000% in final cut pro hd.

i posted this to ask the question if anyone has had smooth results like this using the "interval rec" setting on the dvx.

so far i have not seen any interval footage appear as smooth as just letting the camera run. i know that makes a lot of you cringe to think of running your dvx that long to get these shots, but if i can see some footage that isn't intervally "jumpy" (bad stop motion), you can make a believer out of me.

apologies for a smear in the compression just out of the opening fade. i tried 3 times and this was the best i could get out of sorenson3.

http://homepage.mac.com/antomic/timelapse.html

btw - this was perched over a cliff at the grand canyon aiming back uphill.
 
Re: dvx time lapse test

That was very smooth, indeed. I have not tried the interval rec feature on camera yet, though. But wouldnt it stand to reason that the interval rec would be jumpier because you have actual gaps in the footage, whereas manipulating the time in post affords you continuous footage?

How do these processes work and differ from each other? If the results are very different, then there could be times when you would want to use one method over the other.

Nice clip! And now ya got me wondering about all this and I am five minutes out of bed.
 
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dude! I love the composition! It looked pretty smooth as well. I've never done timelapse before, well only because I don't have much patience. Good Work antomic! ;D
 
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man....spidey and antomic never sleep...and thartley up so early...i wasnt expecting responses so soon.

and you two with the matching avatars is just freaking me out!

so T, your theory is correct that with interval you get gaps in real time, but i guess my question is, if anyone has successfully manipulated the settings to get smooth results. because honestly, i havent seen anything from interval settings worth a hill.
 
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Great stuff! Really cool effect. Heck, I loved it purely for the Chemical Brothers song you chose. I was going to do a video with that song. Damn you antOmic, always 100 steps ahead of me!

I have used the interval feature and it's not worth the effort. Unless you're recording for numerous hours on like a construction project or grass growing then just record straight to tape and speed up in post.
 
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10 points to pk for nailing the song!

dont do a video with the chem bros Asleep From Day either then, cuz i beat you to that too...

well, technically i figured the smoothest way was to just roll tape. i was just wondering if it was the only way. and i guess for me, the answer is yes, that is the only way...so picky, am i...
 
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Rolling a full tape is just going to add unwanted hours on your DVX heads. That's another reason why I don't do timelapse. Now if one of you lended me your DVX, sure no problem. ;D
 
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but sometimes, that sacrifice is worth it. i am really happy with that shot, and it took just as long to grab it. (time wise, not head-wear wise) i'm sure by the time i wear out my dvx100a, i'll be ready to buy the HD panny that's not even born yet. :D

i snagged another time lapse of clouds casting shadows across the basin of the canyon. i can try to capture and post if y'all are interested.
 
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dude, anything you post I'll view! ;D

I think its about time I go to bed. Those darn infomercials are on.
 
Re: dvx time lapse test

I've always been disappointed with the intervalometer they build into video cameras.  The time settings they have never seem very useful.

However I think you can get smooth footage if you manipulate it correctly.  If you set the camera to record 5 seconds every 2 minutes for example, then speed up that footage 20x, you get jerkyness.  Each 5 second shot has been shortened to 6 frames (correct me if my math is wrong).  So your footage will go 6 frames, jump, 6 frames, jump, etc.  If you sped the same footage up 120x, each 5 second shot would be 1 frame.  Then the product would appear smooth.  The problem that results is a 15 minute sunset only lasting 7.5 seconds.  Maybe thats what you want, but if not it seems on video you're out of luck.  If your speeding up an 8 hour set construction to 2 minutes, then your fine.

Another drawback is that a lot of things sped up to 120x as fast (like people or traffic) are going so fast that it won't 'feel' smooth.  Like this:  http://www.exfilms.com/downloads/greenscreen.mov

On a film camera the intervalometers are much more handy.  On some you can set the interval from 1 second to 60 hours, and the shot all the way down to 1 frame at a time.  Smooth footage no matter how fast or slow you want your sunset to look.

This is just the way I think it works, it just makes sense to me.  I could be wrong (I'm by no means an expert on the subject).  If anyone can shed more light on this or correct me if I'm off on something then please do.  This is an interesting topic to me.
 
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one way is to use the interval record on the dvx with the shortest setting(5frames every 30sec, i think) capture, then grab 1 frame from every interval and place in timeline.  they've worked great for me, however, it is very time consuming.  film cameras take 1 frame every whenever, so it'll be the same since you take 1 frame from each interval. try it. 
 
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yeah john, that all sounds like too much work for me. my time is more valuable than splicing every 5th frame together. sorry DVX, i'm gonna wear your heads down.

EX - i like your idea of speeding things up 120x to get one frame per, so that's worth testing, however...i think i'm getting the answer to the question. no doubt, smooth time lapse = real time capture.

cool green screen setup EX. fast people make me laugh.
 
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PK,

You might have seen a few posts here by DigitalAsylum.  He is a great visual effects guy (among other things) and helped me create that huge green screen room from scratch to shoot the dance sequences of a music video.
 
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ExFilms - Very impressive setup. Did you get good results?

antOmic - Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you ;D
 
Re: dvx time lapse test

From what I have found on the DVX100a, the intervolometer works like this. The shortest amount of frames that you can capture in one burst is 15, ie .5 seconds. 30fps / 2 =15. So what you want to do is make it so that you are playing only one of those 15 frames at every interval. This can be accomplished by using a capture program such as scenalyzer. In scenalyzer you can set it to capture 1 out of every n frames. Set n to 15 and your set. The other way you can do it is to capture all of the footage. You then have to speed up your footage and turn off frame blending so that it is playing only 1 out of every 15 frames. This will give you super smooth playback of your timelaps footage. Otherwise, as it is set up, it plays 15frames, then jumps ahead in time say 2 min then plays another 1/2 second of footage. This is what makes it jumpy. Why can't they just make it so that the camera can capture only 1 frame at a time? is that not possible with the DV codec?
 
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