Time-Lapse Photography – The Hard Way

[RPinAZ]

I have a Canon HV-10 high definition camcorder, which does not support time-lapse photography.
So I had an idea to do the time-lapse the hard way – using VideoReDo.
I set the HV-10 on a tripod and recorded about 30 minutes of thunderstorm clouds developing in the distance. Then I transferred the footage to my PC via firewire and edit it with VideoReDo.
Editing consists of:
1. Start segment (F3)
2. Advance 1 second (Down Arrow) * you can adjust the speed of the time-lapse by increasing this value
3. Stop segment (F4)
4. Cut segment (Delete)
5. Advance two frames (Right Arrow, Right Arrow)
6. Repeat

Once complete, I save to an MPEG file. It takes a while to set up all of the cut points, and to render the new file, but the results are breathtaking.

My questions for the VRD gurus:
Is there an easier way to do this without getting carpal tunnel?
Does VRD support user defined keystroke macros? (If not, I’d like to request that as a new feature.)

Thanks,

Ray

[Anole]

You might look in the VideoReDo AddOn Tools section (http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/forumdisplay.php?f=13) and see if Harry's Tools will be of some use.
I would think this should be easy to automate... though hardly a feature the VideoReDo guys will add. :rolleyes:

If you aren't into the programming yourself, I'm sure one of the members would be sufficiently enticed to help you out.

[mike_flood]

Cool idea. Good luck on making a macro for it.
I don't own a video camera but if I had one I'd want to do this too.

[phd]

A couple of things you can do:
1. rather than define the beginning and end with F3 and F4, use the "D" key to delete an individual frame. After you complete your jump and delete. Invert all of the cuts so the individual frames you deleted now become the frames you keep.

2. Use a keyboard/mouse recording program. Program in one sequence, then play it back however many times you need for the jump and cut.

3. Use AutoIt to record the script and create a mini app out of it like I did with VRD8.
http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showthread.php?t=3769

[BaysideBas]

One of the best investments I ever made [second only to purchasing VRD] was in Macro Express [Macex]. http://www.macros.com/support.htm

It's so powerful and feature rich that I don't know how I would get along without it. And automation such as you described would be a 5 minute project for Macex.

[RPinAZ]

Wow! Thanks for all of the great suggestions. :)
Deleting the individual frames then inverting the cuts is brilliant - much fewer keystrokes required.
I tried Workspace Macro (http://www.tethyssolutions.com/product.htm) to record and replay a keyboard macro. It worked, but was a bit slow. I will give Macro Express a try.

[Anole]

Yea, that invert-the-cut idea is really inspired.

If you are new to VideoReDo, you might take a look here:
Pull-Down Menu: Tools | Options | Navigation | .
- You could program one of the on-screen buttons with the number of seconds to advance . . .
- The mouse wheel could be programmed how far to go with each tick . . .
- The right/left arrow keys could be programmed how far to advance . . .

The right arrow and the D key would make short work of your video, I suspect.

[phd]

The one I've used in the past was called WinMacro.

Free.

Recommended by a user on this forum a long time ago.