The documentaries broadcast on television, very often, are not real videos, they are only photo sequences edited with a special technique called Time Lapse Movie or Stop Motion . For example, when a growing flower is shown, it is photographed several times and then the whole sequence of photos is mounted in an accelerated way that looks like a video.
So, if you have taken several photographs depicting the same scenario that changes slowly, you can then mount the photos with this Time Lapse technique, compress the times and create a video composed of these images that run quickly .
Given that we have already talked about how to create a video slideshow with photo slideshows, to make a photosequence in the form of a video it does not take who knows what magic, just a small free program called PhotoLapse .
Prerequisite for playing with Photolapse and creating a video sequence of photos such as a documentary is to have a collection of photographs taken every 10 seconds from the same position .
To try, you can photograph the clouds in the sky at regular intervals to capture their movement.
In case you don't have a collection of photos of this type, probably the easiest way to try the program and get the photos from the same angle, is to use a webcam and plan to take photos every x seconds (see here the programs of video surveillance that take photos at regular intervals).
This sequence of photos can then be transformed into a video with the small free program Photolapse for Windows.
After downloading it, you can start it without installing it.
The somewhat spartan interface consists of a file browser to select photos from the computer, a preview area and some settings.
All you need to create the time-lapse film is to select photos from your computer. It is possible to upload files from a folder and select only some or all of them.
Some optional settings are used to configure the frame rate (default 15, between 1-30), the error checks.
By setting as FPS 1, the photos alternate every second and maybe it's the ideal value to start.
After uploading the photos just click on the "Create Movie" button to get the Avi video.
Since there are no integrated codecs, it is based on those installed on the computer and, in this regard, I recommend, if it is not already done, to download the complete codecs to solve the problem forever.
The creation process takes some time depending on the video codec chosen, the quantity and size of the selected photos.
In this regard, it is strongly recommended to use low resolution photos (640x480) otherwise the creation of the video will take a lifetime.
A similar and very easy-to-use program to create a video as a sequence of photos in Stop Motion or Photo Lapse, as happens in animated films or documentaries, is JellyCam (2011)
Jellycam, a free Adobe Air application (therefore for Windows, Linux and Mac), works with both PC photos and a webcam and is simple to use.
In another article, the guide to creating an accelerated video with images with a third program called Chronolapse.
