Timelapse Video - Mac
Discussion
Hey all,
I'm using my OH's 13" Macbook Pro (previous gen) to create a timelapse video.
I have Final Cut Pro X/Motion
Firstly, I have 1200 photos, roughly 4.5gb (4mb each), they're currently in 4000x3000 resolution.
First I just tried to add all the photos to FCPX and create a compound clip, this however, took an age, everytime I clicked anything the whole mac would die for about 5 minutes at a time. I eventually had to just save the video, and it didn't work (I'm not worried about this, I probably did something stupid)
Next, I thought I would try and resize the photos to 1920x1080 first, so I tried doing this with preview, and doing all the photos at once made the mac just stop, had to force restart it, then I tried to do it with an automation thing, that too died a death, like it was trying to resize all 1200 photos at once, it works if I do about 50-100 at a time.
My question is, which of this can I do better? Is there a way to do this in motion or something that I don't know about that won't kill the laptop? I'm assuming if I work with smaller files everything will die less.
Before you ask, nothing else running, 4gb ram, core i5, crap intel graphics card.
I'm using my OH's 13" Macbook Pro (previous gen) to create a timelapse video.
I have Final Cut Pro X/Motion
Firstly, I have 1200 photos, roughly 4.5gb (4mb each), they're currently in 4000x3000 resolution.
First I just tried to add all the photos to FCPX and create a compound clip, this however, took an age, everytime I clicked anything the whole mac would die for about 5 minutes at a time. I eventually had to just save the video, and it didn't work (I'm not worried about this, I probably did something stupid)
Next, I thought I would try and resize the photos to 1920x1080 first, so I tried doing this with preview, and doing all the photos at once made the mac just stop, had to force restart it, then I tried to do it with an automation thing, that too died a death, like it was trying to resize all 1200 photos at once, it works if I do about 50-100 at a time.
My question is, which of this can I do better? Is there a way to do this in motion or something that I don't know about that won't kill the laptop? I'm assuming if I work with smaller files everything will die less.
Before you ask, nothing else running, 4gb ram, core i5, crap intel graphics card.
Salgar said:
Hey all,
I'm using my OH's 13" Macbook Pro (previous gen) to create a timelapse video.
I have Final Cut Pro X/Motion
Firstly, I have 1200 photos, roughly 4.5gb (4mb each), they're currently in 4000x3000 resolution.
First I just tried to add all the photos to FCPX and create a compound clip, this however, took an age, everytime I clicked anything the whole mac would die for about 5 minutes at a time. I eventually had to just save the video, and it didn't work (I'm not worried about this, I probably did something stupid)
Next, I thought I would try and resize the photos to 1920x1080 first, so I tried doing this with preview, and doing all the photos at once made the mac just stop, had to force restart it, then I tried to do it with an automation thing, that too died a death, like it was trying to resize all 1200 photos at once, it works if I do about 50-100 at a time.
My question is, which of this can I do better? Is there a way to do this in motion or something that I don't know about that won't kill the laptop? I'm assuming if I work with smaller files everything will die less.
Before you ask, nothing else running, 4gb ram, core i5, crap intel graphics card.
What resolution are you setting the video to?I'm using my OH's 13" Macbook Pro (previous gen) to create a timelapse video.
I have Final Cut Pro X/Motion
Firstly, I have 1200 photos, roughly 4.5gb (4mb each), they're currently in 4000x3000 resolution.
First I just tried to add all the photos to FCPX and create a compound clip, this however, took an age, everytime I clicked anything the whole mac would die for about 5 minutes at a time. I eventually had to just save the video, and it didn't work (I'm not worried about this, I probably did something stupid)
Next, I thought I would try and resize the photos to 1920x1080 first, so I tried doing this with preview, and doing all the photos at once made the mac just stop, had to force restart it, then I tried to do it with an automation thing, that too died a death, like it was trying to resize all 1200 photos at once, it works if I do about 50-100 at a time.
My question is, which of this can I do better? Is there a way to do this in motion or something that I don't know about that won't kill the laptop? I'm assuming if I work with smaller files everything will die less.
Before you ask, nothing else running, 4gb ram, core i5, crap intel graphics card.
Creating the large uncompressed clips can be a nightmare sometimes.
My 3ghz core 2 duo PC with 8GB ram and 512mb graphics card can't play the files I create (8 seconds ish totalling 2-6GB) so a laptop such as yours will struggle (as will probably any).
Once the main files are created I would suggest trying to compress the file somehow. I don't have any knowledge of the software you are using but the total file size is what will be killing it. The problem will be the hard drive can't offload the data quick enough. For example the clips I use, I suppose the RAW make up of them, equal about 250mb a second. A normal hard drive simply can't manage that and even if you have SSD's having a processor and graphics card that can cope is another matter.
Wgen you resuze the images what are you saving them as? Tiff or jpeg?
I would first resize all the images and save them as a 100% jpeg and not a tiff. This should result in a reasonable file size at least to import.
I find iPhoto or aperture are good for this as they give progress indicators so you can leave them running and be confident they are running and that the machine hasn't frozen - or if you don't have them you can download Picasa (free).
Im only guessing but it may be worth using iMovie if you have it. I'm guessing it's going to use less resources (ram) as its a less complicated program so leaving more resources available to render the movie?
Hope that helps
I would first resize all the images and save them as a 100% jpeg and not a tiff. This should result in a reasonable file size at least to import.
I find iPhoto or aperture are good for this as they give progress indicators so you can leave them running and be confident they are running and that the machine hasn't frozen - or if you don't have them you can download Picasa (free).
Im only guessing but it may be worth using iMovie if you have it. I'm guessing it's going to use less resources (ram) as its a less complicated program so leaving more resources available to render the movie?
Hope that helps
The best way to do this is a Batch file automate in Photoshop. Basically you can do anything in Photoshop editing and record the process as a batch file. You simply then drop that command onto the chiosen folder of images.
So in this case you would record a Batch file that : Opens , resizes the image ( in this case for the biggest size for HD i.e 1920 ) save the file to a new extension name and folder.
When you apply that batch to your file of photos it would automate every Photo as instructed to a HD width . Then after import as Image sequence in your editor and render . If you have shot the images in 4x3 you would need to add a crop command to the batch file if you wanted to create a 16 x 9 frame.
Best to copy the images into a new folder and work with those in case you make an error and alter all your originals .
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSf...
So in this case you would record a Batch file that : Opens , resizes the image ( in this case for the biggest size for HD i.e 1920 ) save the file to a new extension name and folder.
When you apply that batch to your file of photos it would automate every Photo as instructed to a HD width . Then after import as Image sequence in your editor and render . If you have shot the images in 4x3 you would need to add a crop command to the batch file if you wanted to create a 16 x 9 frame.
Best to copy the images into a new folder and work with those in case you make an error and alter all your originals .
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSf...
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