Timelapse

Hi All,

I have 150plus video clips in my browser of security cam footage of a building under construction. I want to take 10 frames from each and put them on the timeline.

Is there a way to highlight all the clips in the browser and take 15 frames from each (as opposed to the whole clip) and put them all onto the timeline?

Or, do you have a better suggestion?

Thanks for your help,

cg

The first 10 frames?

If that is a static shot, and you want high speed, drop all the clips into the timeline in order, nest and do a speed ramp



www.strypesinpost.com

slightly long-winded approach, but faster than anything else i can think of:

drag bin of clips into a timeline.
load slug into viewer, set to 10 fr duration (or 15 or whatever you want)

now for the long part: insert the slug between every clip.
F9, down arrow. F9, down arrow. F9, down arrow. 150 times (wont take TOO long)

next, select all
hold SHFT & OPTION and drag up, creating a double on V2
select all V2 and move +10frames

now do a find in the timeline for all slug,
delete
select all on V2
hold SHFT and drag down
delete
should leave you with first 10 frame of each clip.

select all, drag up to canvas, and a drop into "overwrite" window.
all clips will go back to timeline with no gaps, then tidy up the left-overs.


ALTERNATE METHOD:

select all clips,
batch export as a still image.

set your still / freeze duration (user prefs / editing tab) to 10frames
import the stills you made.

drag to timeline.


cheers,
nick

Nick, I'm surprised at you-- your first method is a job for QUICKEYS!!

It's how I handled a securecam job years ago -- 8 cameras, needed one frame from each at specific intervals. I semi-automated the selection of frames from each camera and also automated separate camera angle assemblies, frame by frame, by copying each frame from the master program track to one of 8 specific camera angle tracks!

After an hour of "programming" and testing QK macros, a 30 hour job was completed in two hours.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Advance to next/previous keyframes in a clip with Shift/Option-K !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I can also be done using XML, which would be the fastest way even without knowing anything about XML.

Export all the 150 clips as XML.
Open the the XML in TextEdit.
Then with "Find & Replace" replace all

<in>-1</in>

with

<in>0</in>

do the same with

<out>-1</out>

replaced with

<out>15</out>

Save the XML and open it again with FCP -- now all your clips have a duration of 15 frames.
You can use any other numbers.

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

The beauty of FCP's XML...



www.strypesinpost.com

hi Loren.

yes, it's a relatively quick job for QuicKeys! (but there is the learning time involved.)

Andreas the XML expert will of course be rolling his eyes at us QuicKeys guys.
he is right: XML is the fastest, but it also involves some special knowledge,
so thanks for sharing Andreas.


nick

Thank you all, this is quite helpful. I should have thought of the XML approach!