Well I finally got it to work. My time lapse video works! Windows Movie Maker was painful to work with - but it did work. I shouldn't complain about a free tool - but I am going to. My computer crashed three times while trying to make the movie. Converting the photos into a video in the program was actually quite easy (read about how to do it here). Title and credits were easy to add. However I almost gave up when I tried to save the video. I could save the project quite easily but had problems trying to save it in a format that could be played in any other player. Turns out that I am not alone in having this problem. I think that the problem was that my computer did not have enough memory. I finally got it to work by lowering the output video quality. Thanks to the people who gave me any help getting Windows Movie Maker to work.
I took the pictures with a little Logitech webcamera that my school division bought for me. It did not handle the low light in my living room very well (as you can see). I think that it would work fine in a brighter room. I used the Microsoft Powertoys program Webcam Timershot to take a picture every two seconds. This guide pointed me to the tools I needed. It also showed some other methods that also looked good (both Mac and PC). Next time I try this I will use another camera - maybe a hacked Cannon camera like in this post.
I guess that I should also point to Dean Shareski's post Supper's Ready in 80 Seconds that originally gave me the idea.
My next step is to try to recreate this video (using the same pictures) on a Mac in iMovie. I will let you know how the process compared to Windows.
4 comments:
Any time I've done it, I've used the time lapse feature on my digital camera. The movie's already done and can be uploaded right away. All I'd need movie maker for is titling.
No doubt Movie Maker leaves a lot to be desired. I'd like more information on how you did it?
Dean - you found my post too fast. What you read was a quick post from within YouTube. I was in the middle of editing the post and adding more information when your comment popped up. I now have links to the guides I used.
Once again I have been wanting to do this since I saw your post on time lapse video (which is why I gave you some credit).
I took close to 1500 pictures and stitched them together. That is nearly 1500 transitions which might be why Windows Movie Maker and my laptop cried for its mommy.
Very cool Gary! Happy Holidays!
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