Create time lapse video from images
Create timelapse
Install ffmpeg:
sudo apt install ffmpeg
Create timelapse indexfile:
sourcedir=$HOME/Pictures/timelapse
find "${sourcedir}" -iname "*.jpg" -type f | sort | sed "s/\(.*\)/file '\1'/g" > "${sourcedir}/../files.txt"
Create the video:
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i "${sourcedir}/../files.txt" -r 25 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 "${sourcedir}/../out.mp4"
Tuning
Increase the playback speed
Increase the playback speed (x2), the resulting file will be smaller:
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i "${sourcedir}/../files.txt" -vf "setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS) / 2" -r 30 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 "${sourcedir}/../out_fast.mp4"
Add music, crop
The original video-length is the length when we create the video without 'setpts=~'. The images will be read as a stream of 25 pictures per second (input framerate=25). For example:
2500 pictures -> 2500/25 = 100 seconds of video = 1:40 minutes
Lets say you have some music and want to speed-up the video to match the music length:
Music length 1:30 minutes
Then use the following video filter to shorten the video by increasing the playback speed:
setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS) * <music-length> / <video-length>
You can input this as a simple formula:
setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)*(1*60+30)/(1*60+40)
Complete example including crop:
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i "${sourcedir}/../files.txt" -i "${sourcedir}/../music.mp3" -filter:v "setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)*(1*60+30)/(1*60+40), crop=1280:800:0:224" -r 35 -vcodec libx264 -crf 22 "${sourcedir}/../out.mp4"
Overview of the used options
Input indexfile 'files.txt':
-f concat -safe 0 -i "files.txt"
Add music from mp3 file:
-i "music.mp3"
These options allow for this indexfile format:
file '/full/path/to/file1.jpg'
file '/full/path/to/file2.jpg'
...
Video filter. Speedup video x2:
-filter:v "setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS) / 2"
Video filter. crop=<width>:<height>:<left>:<top>:
-filter:v "crop=1280:800:0:224"
Output framerate:
-r 30
Output codec and quality setting 'Constant Rate Factor'. For x264, this means setting a value somewhere between 18 and 26 for this CRF. The default is 23, and higher values will give you worse quality.
-vcodec libx264 -crf 22
Sources:
