Yellowsone . How to Make a Time-lapse Without a Camera (or Webcam) and for Free - V.3

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Time-lapse Online Webcam Makeavi AutoDownload Powertoys Easy Free Music Extension Changer Yellowstone National Park
BoomerangLC
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    BoomerangLC
  • International International
  • Comments: 0
  • Views: 17
  • Added: 04-Aug-08

IDEA/Concept:
Many online webcams (or cameras) are set up to capture and upload to a server (or a website) images taken every X seconds or every Y minutes.
Each new image is overwritten on to the old one, but the file name (e.g. image.gif) remains always the same.
The webpage displaying the webcam view will refresh every X seconds or every Y minutes, in order to show the most recently captured image.
If you find an online camera (there are thousands) which uses the above described kind of system, you can create a time-lapse video using it.
To check if an online webcam is set as described above, right click on the image and select properties; if it is an embedded image you should see its address (e.g. www.website.com/directory/image.gif). Use this link in step #2.

To do this you will need the following:-

1) An internet connection.

2) Software #1
Downloading images from a website at regular intervals.
I used AutoDownload (www.orangeview.net/autodownload/)
You can find this video's webcam Yellowstone National Park - The Old Faithful (www.nps.gov/archive/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm).
I pointed the software to ns.www.nps.gov.edgesuite.net/yell/photosmultimedia/images/webcams/oldfaith2.jpg and saved a new image every 30 seconds, for a total of 2981 images.

3) Software #2
Changing the extension of the images from GIF to JPG.
Since AutoDownload downloaded GIF images and MakeAVI accepts just JPG images, I used Extension Changer 1.0 to fix this issue (www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Faltronsoft-Extension-Changer-Download-60980.html).

4) Software #3
Creating a video merging all the images.
I used MakeAVI (http://sourceforge.net/projects/makeavi)

5) A good soundtrack.
In this video I have used:
"George" by William Bolcom

6) Software #4
Post-producing the video and adding the soundtrack.
I used Windows Movie Maker (available from Microsoft Update)

Have fun and a good day.

P.S. Please read the Terms & Conditions on the website you are downloading the images from and make sure you are not infringing any Copyright protection (the same applies to the soundtrack).

  1. Categories: Art & Animation
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Yellowsone . How to Make a Time-lapse Without a Camera (or Webcam) and for Free - V.3

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