If you’ve seen Koyaanisqatsi,
Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi or Baraka you know just how spectacular a motion picture time lapse can be. More contemporary timelapses are seen on "reality television" intros such as the Apprentice and Survivor. You know, the shot where the sun sets in a matter of seconds…
If you’ve ever tried to re-create this look you know that it’s quite difficult to do properly. Shooting a real time lapse on a large format motion picture camera is prohibitive in terms of equipment and cost.
My friend’s solution is to shoot high resolution digital images on a digital slr camera and then animate the images in After Effects. This technique uses the same persistence of vision concept that films are based on to create movement. Here’s an example of a time lapse he shot out the window of my apartment. It’s a big file (~15mb) because I wanted to keep the quality alive. That and I don’t know how to use good codecs properly…
More of these to come soon.