Can you create time lapse videos in iMovie '08?

Time-lapse films are typically shot with still cameras controlled by a remote timer, capturing one or two frames every minute. Compare that to a video camera, which captures and either 30 or 24 frames per second.

Technically, it is possible. You can drag all you frames onto the timeline, select them then right-click ‘Set Duration’. However, the minimum duration (that I’ve been able to get anyway) is 0.28 seconds per picture; around 3.5 fps, a ludicrously low frame rate.

If you want to do it properly, take a look at iStopMotion or, if you want freeware, FrameByFrame. I’ve only used iStopMotion a bit but it seems to offer a fantastic set of resources. I haven’t used FrameByFrame though so I can’t offer advice on that.

Hope that helps!

I think that is the major draw back to iMovie ‘08. It’s great for your typical editing choices but when it comes to speeding up or slowing down film it just isn’t possible – and the only reason I can think of them doing that is to force the more advanced users to upgrade to FinalCut

@btko well I would upgrade to final cut pro simply because it has everything I need, and I’d love to be able to be able to say I can use photoshop and final cut pro fairly well. But isn’t it something like 52GB? I’ve got 55GB left on my macbook, so you know :(

Yeah I’m not saying your should upgrade to FinalCut – I am sticking with iMovie, it does the job well enough. Plus FC quite expensive – I think the FinalCut Express would be fine though and it’s only a couple hundred bones.

I can’ afford Photoshop either, so I am looking into Pixelmator.

@btko Slowing down film isn’t a particularly efficient way to make a time lapse video.

@btko COUGHtorrentCOUGH

@johanspun true true, I wasn’t meaning for timelapse, just slow-motion type shot.

@cage yeah I know all about torrents, but I also know about the hard work required to make the products being torrented.

@btko thanks for making me feel guilty :(

just wait for iLife 09 it’s coming out at the end of the month and I beleive it can do what u need it to

@dexinsf Awesome if it does! Where does it talk about that?

I’m guessing that @cage already has ‘08 though (it’s part of iLife which comes preinstalled on Macs). ‘09 is a paid upgrade unless you bought a Mac after Jan 6th ‘09.

imovie hd

its free. =]

Just to let you all know, I do have iMovie ‘08…
I would have thought the question would have implied that.

iLife ‘09 contains iMovie ‘09. iMovie ‘09 I believe allows speeding up of clips etc.
All I wanted to know is if there was a way to do this in iMovie’08. But apparently there isn’t.
Thanks anyway guys.

Like Noah says though, if you own ‘08 you get a free copy of iMovie HD.

@btko Isn’t iMovie HD a step down from ‘08?

@johanspun Yes, it would appear iMovie HD doesnt give me the changing speed ability either.
Could be wrong.

So, how are you planning on making the time lapse video? Filming and then slowing it down or taking photos every minute or something then putting them together in whatever works?

@johanspun well, no I’d be speeding it up wouldn’t I. Time-lapse is to show the passage of time.
I’d be filming and then speeding it up.

@cage How long would you want to show? Say you wanted to show 8 hours in 8 minutes… you’d need 8 hours of film in that case.

The way this would normally be done is to set a camera up on a timer to take a photo every 30 seconds or something. Then you’d put all the photos together in a film, displaying them for something like 0.1 seconds (giving a 10fps film). So, for the 8 hour film at 10 fps, taking the photos every 30 seconds would give you 96 seconds of time lapse.

There are a lot of resources online for making time lapse (explaining the concept as well as tutorials, even one for the previously mentioned iMovie HD).

@johanspun right. I was asking about iMovie ‘08. Thanks.
I know about the picture time-lapse method.

@cage So, you just want to speed up a video?

@johanspun yes, iMovie ‘08 cannot do this.

@cage Ah. Fair do’s. I’ve been pushing the wrong point then.

iMovie ‘08 can’t, but iMovie HD can. Hit Editing > Video FX > Fast/Slow/Reverse

@Noah_D cheers man GA’d (twice)

@cage I’ve done time lapse using aforementioned iMovie HD and the free app Gawker for frame capture. If you use Editing > Video FX > Fast/Slow/Reverse you can wait for it to finish rendering and then apply it again to get a good speed.

Well thanks to everyone. Using iMovie HD and quicktime pro I’ve got round to this
http://vimeo.com/2985043
enjoy :D lol

To answer cages question. it is possible to generate a time lapse in iMovie 08 relatively simply. Insert and highlight the clip/s you wish to time lapse and click on the inspector button found on the toolbar. Go into the clip settings and change the speed setting to a faster speed.

@Pickle thanks, but this is an old question. Besides, you;re talking about iLife/iMovie ‘09. Which I now have.