We have all seen those epic time-lapse videos of buzzing cities and amazing landscapes, it is hard not to watch these and feel a sense of awe as the time passes and the scenes change. If you’ve wanted to know how to make a time-lapse video, the truth is that it’s not a terribly complicated process — but there is more to it than you might think.
Griffin Hammond is a long-time YouTuber who used to run the popular Indie Mogul channel before that was shut down and he moved on to bigger and better things at Bloomberg TV. He still posts videos on his personal channel, though, and a recent pair of videos tackles the questions anyone might have about shooting and editing a time-lapse video.
As you can see from the first video, there are certain things about time-lapse shooting that you need to consider if you have never done it before. Things like what gear you should have to make the process go smoothly, what settings would be ideal for the look you are going for, and related matters.
“A time lapse is a beautiful way to illustrate movement we normally couldn’t perceive — stars circling in the sky or snow piling up outside your window.” Hammond tells Digital Trends, “They make lovely establishing shots in film, but they’re also visually interesting enough to share with friends as a standalone clip.”
For you Mac users, in his second video Hammond takes us through the process he uses to edit his time-lapse footage in Final Cut Pro X. The process would be similar for Windows users on something like Premiere Pro, but there are enough differences that you wouldn’t be able to simply follow along.
After showing us how to process the time-lapse footage step by step, Hammond processes another time-lapse video faster, and shares some more advanced tricks for users who want to take their time lapse to another level — like adding motion to your time-lapse without actually having moved your camera at all — pretty neat.
