Timelapse/speed up video

[bugmadmark]

Hi
Just wondered if anyone ever tried doing any timelapse video of british butterflies and moths to show their life cycle. I had a go videoing some Privet Hawkmoth ova hatching - and this can be seen via the 'Lepidoptera (Not butterflies)' forum (http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... 0&start=40) and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRKe-ywA4eQ). I then came across this link - and it got me to thinking I wouldnt mind giving this technique a shot myself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyWJlpIchkE&fmt=18
Although not British species, I found this persons video very inspiring.

[Dave McCormick]

I am thinking of doing something similar with the videos I have been taking of my large white rearing. I have not watched the videos yet as my internet is running a little slow for some reason and takes a while to load the videos. What video editing software do you use Mark? I need to get one soon and looking to see which one has lots of features, but easy to use and supports different video formats and audio etc, so I can create my videos.

[bugmadmark]

Hi Dave

I am currently using a PC and use Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6. Its not the easiest to use at first, but now Ive got to grips with it I am much happier. There are lots of 'Show Me How' guides embedded in the software to get you started, plus sonycreativesoftware has a forum with lots of pro and serious amateurs who are willing to help and advise. Ive just bought a new version of this 2 weeks ago: Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Pro 9 was half price (about £45 on Amazon for a week or so, and I took the opportunity to get it - it was cheaper than actually upgrading over the internet. I've yet to install and try out on this old PC.Fingers crossed! On the basis of the older version, Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platignum (not pro vsn) was really very stable compared with other products such as Pinnacle. the new version can do high def rendering etc and incorporates conversion and upload direct to YouTube etc in the correct format.

On the other hand if you've done no video editing but have a pc with windows XP you do have Windows Movie Maker to get yourself started, but it's a little limiting. Not sure what the Vista operating system offers as I don't own it.

My PC is about 5 yrs old. I had an extra 500Gb 7200rpm hard drive installed internally for writing & rendering video files to. This means that the drive with software and operating system on is unaffected. Video files are big. I usually render edited movie to a .avi file (video for Windows). These are very big files - and hour being perhaps 15Gb. The quality is excellent - but I have to keep the copy on a hardrive as there is no media like DVDs I can really put it on - not sure about BlueRay yet.

Alternatively, you can render as a very compressed format such as MPEG-2 - idealy for uploading to internet - but there is quality loss due to compression. YouTube compress videos into a format that workds for their site - not sure what - but the quality used to be poor. Intro of a HD buttin seems to imporve this - but again don't know much about it (yet).

Mark

[Dave McCormick]

Hi Mark,

I was thinking about getting the new Sony Vegas Movie Studio as I saw it before. Since my movies are in quicktime HD format, that might be the way to go. I record all mine in 1080i HD video quality and something that can create videos in the same quaity might be helpful and movie maker can't read that video format. I used Vistas one before, it was good, but not if you want a bunch of features, but for basic editing its good.

I just want to upload video onto youtube at moment and record videos of my butterfly/moth rearing and what I see when I am out and about.

I recently upgraded to a quad core 2.6Ghz, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 9800 graphics system so I am ready for video editing. Thanks for advice.

[bugmadmark]

Sounds like you've got all the gear - I will be sending my miniDv tapes to you for editing at this rate as my pc is getting on a bit and I'd like to do HD - not that I have an HD tv as yet!!

[Dave McCormick]

Just managed to see the video there, looks great! I am going to do this with my garden tigers as I am getting caterpillars soon. Just one thing, does anyone know how long it takes for the adult to energe from pupae and harden its wings? Just want to know how long to record video for of one emerging. I can do this with my last few large whites too if I knew how long it usually takes as my camera can take up to 4 and a half ours of video on 720p HD mode.