Zoom transitions

[AJPhotographic]

Hello, I've been trying to practice using zoom transitions between time lapse and hyper lapse scenes, in an attempt to give the impression of each scene being part of a journey between different locations.

I am using Lightroom and LRTimelapse to process the DNG sequence, captured in RAW on a Canon 600d, then opening the images in After Effects as a RAW sequence. Because the images are large in size, I rendered out proxy files using the Cineform codec and a much smaller resolution. This took a few hours, but made the preview speed when editing significantly more tolerable.
As well as applying several effects, for the transitions, I used keyframes with scale and position to create to zoom, then enabled motion blur. I then used Media Encoder to render out the final clip into H.264 for YouTube. It's only a 55 second clip but it took about 20 hours to render at 4K.

The second scene is from the camera mounted in front of the passenger seat of the car. I plan to re-shoot this scene with a proper camera mount that attaches to the window and more importantly, a much shorter interval. I used a 6 second interval, no filter and a pretty quick shutter speed. This resulted in a staccato effect and gave the impression of moving way too fast through the scene, even at 24fps.

For the final scene at the end, I experimented with an external flash. I ran in to some problems with the flash not firing every time, and then problems with the camera missing intervals. I think this was to do with batteries taking longer to charge the flash as they became more discharged. I need to do some more testing and see if adjusting the interval and reducing the flash power solves the issues.

Any tips or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[astroNikon]

with the flash
maybe use an external flash with it's own separate additional power supply so it has quick recharge.

 

[CherylL]

I liked the third time-lapse the best. Did you use a dolly for the hyper-lapse? I can't imagine using a flash for time-lapse.

Raw images with adjustments will give you long render times from AE. That is a lot to process. Since you are using Lightroom to process your files why not export them as PSDs? Import the PSDs as an image sequence into AE.

What version of AE are you using? The zoom transitions went by so quick that they looked like dip to white transition. I usually use dip to black to show a change in scenery.

The time-lapse sequences can be slowed down in AE using the Time-remapping. Generally, if I slow my time-lapses down it is around 30%. It just depends on the scenery.

Are you exporting your comps via the AE render que? If so then you are not getting 2 pass encoding. The render que only has one pass encoding for H.264 It is better to use the AME (Adobe Media Encoder). You can use one of the presets and then click on that preset to open the export window to change the parameters for 2 pass encoding and your bit rate. Once you find the spot you like, just add it as a custom preset.

AE isn't set up to give a good rendered preview like a video editor due to the processing and depends on your RAM. I generally work in third or quarter rez and export a simple file if needed for preview.

 

[AJPhotographic]

with the flash
maybe use an external flash with it's own separate additional power supply so it has quick recharge.

Hi, I hadn't thought about using an external power supply for the flash, to be honest I very rarely use it for time lapse, and I just had a look and they are not cheap.

I was using the 320EXII triggered with the cameras built in flash, this then led to its own issue of the camera starting to miss shots about halfway through the scene. Again, I think this is a power issue and I plan to buy a battery grip for the camera and a long cable to plug the external flash into the hotshoe.

Some more experimentation with longer intervals and lower manual flash setting may help. I was using an 8 second interval for this scene.

I plan to shoot this scene again in October and try and shoot for longer and get some stars towards the end.

Has anyone had good results using an LED film light to illuminate the foreground?

Here are two examples of shots with and without the flash, without the flash the boat in the foreground is just too dark and noisy.

 

[AJPhotographic]

I liked the third time-lapse the best. Did you use a dolly for the hyper-lapse? I can't imagine using a flash for time-lapse.

Raw images with adjustments will give you long render times from AE. That is a lot to process. Since you are using Lightroom to process your files why not export them as PSDs? Import the PSDs as an image sequence into AE.

What version of AE are you using? The zoom transitions went by so quick that they looked like dip to white transition. I usually use dip to black to show a change in scenery.

The time-lapse sequences can be slowed down in AE using the Time-remapping. Generally, if I slow my time-lapses down it is around 30%. It just depends on the scenery.

Are you exporting your comps via the AE render que? If so then you are not getting 2 pass encoding. The render que only has one pass encoding for H.264 It is better to use the AME (Adobe Media Encoder). You can use one of the presets and then click on that preset to open the export window to change the parameters for 2 pass encoding and your bit rate. Once you find the spot you like, just add it as a custom preset.

AE isn't set up to give a good rendered preview like a video editor due to the processing and depends on your RAM. I generally work in third or quarter rez and export a simple file if needed for preview.

The third one is my favourite too. I just used a standard tripod and used the lines between the paving slabs as markers to move a set distance each frame. I used a 20 second interval which gave me time to recompose each shot with the church spire in the same point of the live view finder. I stabilized it using the AE warp stabilizer effect.

I've never used a flash for time lapse, but have seen it used in astro photography to help light the foreground so figured I'd give it a try.

Exporting to PSD creates massive file sizes as each image is about 100 MB so just this short video would be over 100 GB of PSD files. Its the same issue with TIFF at 16 bit. May give it a try though to see if the performance gain is worth the extra hard drive cost. This is the reason I used AE to render out AVI Cineform proxies at 1296x864. This had the effect of AE previewing each frame in about half a second with the preview set at quarter resolution.

After effects is not my strong point as I am a little bit new to it. It is the 2015.2 version I think. The speed of the transitions was limited a bit by the raw footage. Towards the start and end of each scene, I didn't slow the movement down between each shot. This made the transitions difficult because the camera was moving too much. Next time I'll start and end each scene with 12 or so static shots and then a few shots with the camera moving a small amount before going the full measured distance between shots. This should give me more flexibility with my transitions.

Didn't think of time remapping. That could be a good idea.

No, the final H.264 output was with AME and 2 pass encoding with render at max depth etc. I'm sure there are a tonne of things I could do differently to get more performance, but with all of adobe software there are a million buttons and hundreds of ways to get similar results. Lots of trial and error I guess, and LOTS of staring at progress bars!!

 

[CherylL]

I liked the third time-lapse the best. Did you use a dolly for the hyper-lapse? I can't imagine using a flash for time-lapse.

Raw images with adjustments will give you long render times from AE. That is a lot to process. Since you are using Lightroom to process your files why not export them as PSDs? Import the PSDs as an image sequence into AE.

What version of AE are you using? The zoom transitions went by so quick that they looked like dip to white transition. I usually use dip to black to show a change in scenery.

The time-lapse sequences can be slowed down in AE using the Time-remapping. Generally, if I slow my time-lapses down it is around 30%. It just depends on the scenery.

Are you exporting your comps via the AE render que? If so then you are not getting 2 pass encoding. The render que only has one pass encoding for H.264 It is better to use the AME (Adobe Media Encoder). You can use one of the presets and then click on that preset to open the export window to change the parameters for 2 pass encoding and your bit rate. Once you find the spot you like, just add it as a custom preset.

AE isn't set up to give a good rendered preview like a video editor due to the processing and depends on your RAM. I generally work in third or quarter rez and export a simple file if needed for preview.

The third one is my favourite too. I just used a standard tripod and used the lines between the paving slabs as markers to move a set distance each frame. I used a 20 second interval which gave me time to recompose each shot with the church spire in the same point of the live view finder. I stabilized it using the AE warp stabilizer effect.

I've never used a flash for time lapse, but have seen it used in astro photography to help light the foreground so figured I'd give it a try.

Exporting to PSD creates massive file sizes as each image is about 100 MB so just this short video would be over 100 GB of PSD files. Its the same issue with TIFF at 16 bit. May give it a try though to see if the performance gain is worth the extra hard drive cost. This is the reason I used AE to render out AVI Cineform proxies at 1296x864. This had the effect of AE previewing each frame in about half a second with the preview set at quarter resolution.

After effects is not my strong point as I am a little bit new to it. It is the 2015.2 version I think. The speed of the transitions was limited a bit by the raw footage. Towards the start and end of each scene, I didn't slow the movement down between each shot. This made the transitions difficult because the camera was moving too much. Next time I'll start and end each scene with 12 or so static shots and then a few shots with the camera moving a small amount before going the full measured distance between shots. This should give me more flexibility with my transitions.

Didn't think of time remapping. That could be a good idea.

No, the final H.264 output was with AME and 2 pass encoding with render at max depth etc. I'm sure there are a tonne of things I could do differently to get more performance, but with all of adobe software there are a million buttons and hundreds of ways to get similar results. Lots of trial and error I guess, and LOTS of staring at progress bars!!

Yes, AE has millions of buttons! Sorry I missed that you were using the AME in your original post. The hyperlapse you made takes a lot of work and patience.

Here is a tutorial that may help with the lighting:


He has how to videos on Vimeo and another one that may be of interest to you:

 

[AJPhotographic]

I liked the third time-lapse the best. Did you use a dolly for the hyper-lapse? I can't imagine using a flash for time-lapse.

Raw images with adjustments will give you long render times from AE. That is a lot to process. Since you are using Lightroom to process your files why not export them as PSDs? Import the PSDs as an image sequence into AE.

What version of AE are you using? The zoom transitions went by so quick that they looked like dip to white transition. I usually use dip to black to show a change in scenery.

The time-lapse sequences can be slowed down in AE using the Time-remapping. Generally, if I slow my time-lapses down it is around 30%. It just depends on the scenery.

Are you exporting your comps via the AE render que? If so then you are not getting 2 pass encoding. The render que only has one pass encoding for H.264 It is better to use the AME (Adobe Media Encoder). You can use one of the presets and then click on that preset to open the export window to change the parameters for 2 pass encoding and your bit rate. Once you find the spot you like, just add it as a custom preset.

AE isn't set up to give a good rendered preview like a video editor due to the processing and depends on your RAM. I generally work in third or quarter rez and export a simple file if needed for preview.

The third one is my favourite too. I just used a standard tripod and used the lines between the paving slabs as markers to move a set distance each frame. I used a 20 second interval which gave me time to recompose each shot with the church spire in the same point of the live view finder. I stabilized it using the AE warp stabilizer effect.

I've never used a flash for time lapse, but have seen it used in astro photography to help light the foreground so figured I'd give it a try.

Exporting to PSD creates massive file sizes as each image is about 100 MB so just this short video would be over 100 GB of PSD files. Its the same issue with TIFF at 16 bit. May give it a try though to see if the performance gain is worth the extra hard drive cost. This is the reason I used AE to render out AVI Cineform proxies at 1296x864. This had the effect of AE previewing each frame in about half a second with the preview set at quarter resolution.

After effects is not my strong point as I am a little bit new to it. It is the 2015.2 version I think. The speed of the transitions was limited a bit by the raw footage. Towards the start and end of each scene, I didn't slow the movement down between each shot. This made the transitions difficult because the camera was moving too much. Next time I'll start and end each scene with 12 or so static shots and then a few shots with the camera moving a small amount before going the full measured distance between shots. This should give me more flexibility with my transitions.

Didn't think of time remapping. That could be a good idea.

No, the final H.264 output was with AME and 2 pass encoding with render at max depth etc. I'm sure there are a tonne of things I could do differently to get more performance, but with all of adobe software there are a million buttons and hundreds of ways to get similar results. Lots of trial and error I guess, and LOTS of staring at progress bars!!

Yes, AE has millions of buttons! Sorry I missed that you were using the AME in your original post. The hyperlapse you made takes a lot of work and patience.

Here is a tutorial that may help with the lighting:


He has how to videos on Vimeo and another one that may be of interest to you:

These are stunning!

I see he uses led lights rather than a flash to light the rocks. I'll try that next time.

He uses a similar workflow as I do, only with much more colour grading in After Effects.

This was really helpful. Thank you for sharing it here.