Can Anyone Figure Out How This Timelapse Was Filmed?

The guys at T-Recs (short for timelapse recordings) created a timelapse video that is unlike anything I have seen before. We have all seen timelapse videos that have camera movement but nothing like this. Some how these guys are making really big moves, almost like they are shooting out of an airplane. Anyone know how this sort of thing is done?

July 29, 2011

Lee Morris

Timelapse

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http://thetechzonelive.com Anthony Di Iorio
Must have been shot on some sort of massive jib.
http://twitter.com/Seshan Seshan
Could be just shot on some kind of vehicle and they just crop the images to stable them out.
http://twitter.com/sankeyphoto Sankey Photography
No firsthand knowledge, but it appears to be an intervalometer-triggered camera, probably mounted on a fluid head in a clamp on top of a car/jeep/vehicle for the ground shots; some on roads, some on overpasses. The early 2 or 3 that are from a higher perspective could’ve been on an elevated road, ski lift, gondola, etc. The cloud effect in the beginning was very cool; if that’s non-photoshopped, I’d have to guess at a mountaintop cloud swirl around dusk.
Just my $.02 – could be dead wrong. (But I bet I’m at least partially correct.)
http://twitter.com/sankeyphoto Sankey Photography
No firsthand knowledge, but it appears to be an intervalometer-triggered camera, probably mounted on a fluid head in a clamp on top of a car/jeep/vehicle for the ground shots; some on roads, some on overpasses. The early 2 or 3 that are from a higher perspective could’ve been on an elevated road, ski lift, gondola, etc. The cloud effect in the beginning was very cool; if that’s non-photoshopped, I’d have to guess at a mountaintop cloud swirl around dusk.
Just my $.02 – could be dead wrong. (But I bet I’m at least partially correct.)
http://twitter.com/Brian_Hawkins Brian Hawkins
Could also have been a riding on dolly track with the operators leap-frogging sections of track as it goes along. Possibly also an RC helicopter transit, stabilized in post (would have plenty of resolution to spare for this if shooting 21MP or so). Vehicles, as stated above, are also quite likely.
http://www.learningdslrvideo.com Dugdale
No idea but it is cool! They appear to be keeping it a secret.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506432237 Corey Melton
im thinking some from a vehicle and some from a tripod that is either one wheels or they just really took care while moving it from shot to shot. cool video
Bastien Chong
Maybe they found a solution a create a slider in several parts that can be unmounted and than added at the end of the last piece and so on, so it looks like a giant slider.
Bastien Chong
Maybe they found a solution a create a slider in several parts that can be unmounted and than added at the end of the last piece and so on, so it looks like a giant slider.
http://twitter.com/arthurkendrick arthurkendrick
only two ways too do that:
1. a full size computerized dolly with track (preferably one that has the ability to move up and down too). It’s huge, really expensive, and a pain to haul around but it would do shots like this easy. You just lay the track, plan your shots, and then tell the computer how much to move each second and it takes care of the rest.
2. You could rig up a cheaper version of this with a super tight (I mean ultra tight) steel wire and a robotic computerized rig that would run along the cable. Never seen it used in time lapse but on a day without high winds and a super tight cable you might be able to pull it off. Since it is traveling long distances the small movements wouldn’t make as much a difference as it would over a shorter distance.
that being said a couple of the shots (ones near the grapevines) looked like dolly shot IMHO.
Vincent Muccioli
I am saying an RC helicopter for most of it.
http://twitter.com/aluisius Aluisius Sudiarto
My guess is it’s from a steady cam video, stabilized and time lapsed on post-production. It would be neat to try and imitate the technique, e.g. using video footage shot from a moving train.
http://twitter.com/aluisius Aluisius Sudiarto
My guess is it’s from a steady cam video, stabilized and time lapsed on post-production. It would be neat to try and imitate the technique, e.g. using video footage shot from a moving train.
Anonymous
on their show reel number 2 they display one of their jibs/dolly type rig. I am to assume the first 3 elevated shots could easily be crated with an extended track and or like suggested above, a ski lift kinda thing.
Anonymous
on their show reel number 2 they display one of their jibs/dolly type rig. I am to assume the first 3 elevated shots could easily be crated with an extended track and or like suggested above, a ski lift kinda thing.
http://twitter.com/arthurkendrick arthurkendrick
this was not shot with video and done in post, it was not shot with an R/C helicopter, it was not done with a steady cam. You cannot get the precision you need from those tools. You either need a ruler and a lot of time and precise measurements or a computerized dolly.
http://twitter.com/leithart Sheffield Leithart
manually. take a picture with a tripod, move the tripod 2 inches and repeat. notice that the lampposts aren’t always even, they seem to jitter up and down. also, on the shot at 2:00, up the vineyard, it’s obvious that they’re moving up stairs. if you watch the vines, they’re not moving smoothly; it looks like they’re stair-stepping. also, the side-to-side movement isn’t always consistent. watch it again, thinking it’s done manually, and it makes way more sense.
http://www.patrickhallphotography.com Patrick Hall
It’s interesting, if you watch around :58 you do see an elevation and then a slope back down. Could it be a ski lift sort of public transit?
http://www.facebook.com/albert.manduca Albert Manduca
Looks simple enough.. Just a timelapse, recording on a large dolly track/off a car/cable/etc. Stabilized in motion or ae..im guessing. I guess I could be wrong, but I dont see how they could do it any other way.
http://twitter.com/leithart Sheffield Leithart
or maybe with two timelapse sliders, switching back and forth between them… when one is finished, start the next one, and move the first to the other side….?
Anonymous
Hmm.. I have watched it a couple times now and the thing that keeps catching my eye is how not smooth the motion is. If you watch at the bottom edge of the screen you will notice how the images jump around a bit as it is moving. To me.. it, it does not feel like it is on rails. It almost seems like it is on a tripod that gets moved for each frame. I have never made a time-lapse so maybe i’m full of pickles.. but I am just going by what I was seeing in the video.
http://twitter.com/connywa Conny Wallström
Wires.
http://twitter.com/connywa Conny Wallström
Wires.
Anonymous
Good Eye, didn’t notice the jitter….
http://twitter.com/ChuckPurnell Chuck Purnell
I have a couple theories. One is that perhaps this is a series of separate shots composited together to create one complete shot and sped up. The other theory is they shot the footage as they normally would then imported the footage into a program called Twixtor. With Twixtor you can slow down or speed up or change the frame rate of your image sequences with visually stunning results.
On their site they mention: “In order to achieve its unparalleled image sequence quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique frames by warping interpolating frames of the original sequence employing RE:Vision’s propriety tracking technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.”
I agree that some sort of crane was used to get some of the “sweeping” shots and the camera may have been attached to a car to get some of the other shots…Its a very cool video nonetheless!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1030135833 Elizabeth Jury
http://www.bmumford.com/photo/dolly/index.html found this. Tried to post a link on fb but it dissappeared.
Ian Ameche
It seems like every shot that seems above the ground is only because there something further below it. For example, road shots or shots with road in foreground could have been taken from a road above that road, ie overpass, etc to give it the feel of flying. If you look at the last sequence, it looks as if they are flying away from that hill and up, but right at the end you can see shrubs, on the side of a road most likely.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1643430075 Trevor Henry
Bridges and walkways. Then all you’d need is a monopod to take the shots as you strafed along, taking a picture every step (keeping your shots centred on an element of the landscape). A little bit of cropping and stabilizing of the final images and I would assume you would have something similar to this.
http://www.facebook.com/kumaran16 Kumaran Alagesan
Looks like a motion controlled cable cam setup…
Aurora Vanderbosch
I don’t know anything about video or timelapse, so I could very well be missing the point…but Googling “full motion time lapse” came up with the term “multi axis time lapse”–which turned up lots of equipment and tutorials and sample videos…like this one: http://www.indigozoom.com/timelapse–3-axis-motion-control.html
Abraham Ziner
If you look at this video, you can see the rig that they used. It looks like a roll-out track that is 75′ + and a motor moved platform (that moves along the track) that the camera is mounted on. Worth taking a look at.
Cheers.
-A
http://twitter.com/prosediva Kris Kendrick
Overhead heli-gimble camera perhaps…. affixed to hot air balloons and helicopters… http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/planet-earth3.htm
Anonymous
Pretty straight forward to me. A really taut cable, and done using a device that carried the camera across that you can program.
http://twitter.com/widgic Denis
I think this could be, as suggested by some folks here already, be done with cables and dollies for shots that are close to the ground. But another possibility is a mini-zeppelin in combination with a 3 axis stabilized gimbal. See http://minizepp.com/ for more info.
Anonymous
Watching the trees, it looks very windy. At least in some shots. Just another thing to think about. I guess wires or RC flying machine could be stabilized by cropping as mentioned already.
http://www.facebook.com/max.queenan Max Queenan
I’ve actually built a rig for shooting time lapse with a steel cable, and it sort of worked. A normal, short exposure has to be used for the necessary! stabilizing in post, which will give you a stop-motion sort of look, as opposed to the longer exposures usually used in time lapses. However, I would imagine a two cable rig like the one Sea-to-Sky cam uses would work quite well. With a single cable design, even the slightest wind will push the camera slightly, and even half a degree of tilt is pretty obvious.
That said, I don’t think they used that here. I think they were probably from a car with a crane mounted on it, and stabilized in post. Changing the exposure for a daylight time lapse to a normal sharp exposure gives a lot more freedom with how smooth the movement needs to be, because of the effective stabilizing in post. There’s a timelapse video called “The Sandpit” (youtube it), in which some panning shots were done handheld. Also, in Tom Lowe’s “Rapture,” there is one amazing shot which I believe was done from a boat, if not then from an R/C helicopter.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Varden/1249597381 Tom Varden
Looks like a CamCat a la Brains and Pictures: http://www.youtube.com/user/brainsandpictures#p/c/76E13169DD2D585E/2/7SMw1okO_6M
Steven Pham
zipline
Steven Pham
zipline
http://twitter.com/mikesly5 Mike Sly
Looks like A CableCam or Technocrane depending on the shots
http://twitter.com/mikesly5 Mike Sly
Looks like A CableCam or Technocrane depending on the shots
http://www.facebook.com/people/Wouter-van-der-Linde/1118709648 Wouter van der Linde
cable cam for sure!
André Wirsig
It is just a matter of good location scouting. If you know the places it looses its miracle:
First is a large office building:
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.045563,13.743421&ll=51.046386,13.743832&spn=0.007366,0.01929&sll=51.049379,13.744822&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&num=1&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A
Second is also a long building that houses the Dresden Congress Centre (still a building site in Google maps but you’ll get an idea in street view).
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.058647,13.730997&sll=51.061142,13.749025&sspn=0.007363,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16
The flying over the streets are two pedestrian crossing bridges.
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.060076,13.74606&sll=51.046278,13.743832&sspn=0.007366,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.028777,13.731018&sll=51.058498,13.735528&sspn=0.007364,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16 (imho obvious even in the video)
Even the last “fly” over the Radebeul wine yards is actually a ground shoot due to the landscape:
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.114394,13.664437&sll=51.06406,13.698598&sspn=0.100175,0.088133&num=1&t=h&z=17 (might not look like in satellite view, but the staircase is quite a landmark).
Sorry for taking it to the ground, but it must be still an impressive rig though.
André Wirsig
It is just a matter of good location scouting. If you know the places it looses its miracle:
First is a large office building:
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.045563,13.743421&ll=51.046386,13.743832&spn=0.007366,0.01929&sll=51.049379,13.744822&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&num=1&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A
Second is also a long building that houses the Dresden Congress Centre (still a building site in Google maps but you’ll get an idea in street view).
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.058647,13.730997&sll=51.061142,13.749025&sspn=0.007363,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16
The flying over the streets are two pedestrian crossing bridges.
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.060076,13.74606&sll=51.046278,13.743832&sspn=0.007366,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.028777,13.731018&sll=51.058498,13.735528&sspn=0.007364,0.01929&num=1&t=h&z=16 (imho obvious even in the video)
Even the last “fly” over the Radebeul wine yards is actually a ground shoot due to the landscape:
http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.114394,13.664437&sll=51.06406,13.698598&sspn=0.100175,0.088133&num=1&t=h&z=17 (might not look like in satellite view, but the staircase is quite a landmark).
Sorry for taking it to the ground, but it must be still an impressive rig though.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1191624656 Tashindra Lal
http://vimeo.com/27033486
This gives you some idea how they did it..
http://popraul.wordpress.com/ Raul Pop
this is called Motion Control Time Lapse. I’ve done some research and some people shoot just with an tripod. you can see an other example here: http://vimeo.com/16063824 The author said this:
“shot frame by frame, the order is: a place from where the shoot should
ideally be flat, preferably with a tile (for it is convenient to measure
at regular intervals between the frames and follow the exact
trajectory) can be removed and hands, but with a monopod is easier)).
further very important to accurately aim in each frame (you must choose a
piece on the subject, which is stable and in motion than does not
override and not get lost) aiming through the live view and 10x
increase. the horizon is also important to follow, I use a bubble level.
vobschem it all fits in a backpack and compared with the rails are much
more mobile)). Night footage mainly shot with parapets and perilok
(used area of the slider with ball head), a couple of times with a
tripod, but it is less mobile. – Automatic translation”
http://popraul.wordpress.com/ Raul Pop
You are right. This video was shoot on a tripod or maybe a monopod. And that’s why the distance is so long
Chris Blizzard
Looks like everyone is having a guess at this… So here’s mine.
Manually.
I’ve done similar things before. The hardest part is getting shots properly aligned in post. A tiny difference can ruin the effect. I’ve done it using a monopod, tripod, hand held, and putting the camera on a hand rail of a bridge… Keep the camera pointed at the same thing for each shot. If you move closer you have to aim up or down more to stay aimed at it…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Piotr-Tymcio/100000265906068 Piotr Tymcio
How aobut this? http://ditogear.com/featured/introducing-portaslider/
http://www.facebook.com/phil.lagettie Phil Lagettie
Defiantly shot with the iPhone 5 ;)

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