{"id":134,"date":"2009-11-15T21:36:59","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T20:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=134"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:38:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:38:47","slug":"weather-stop-motion-how-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=134","title":{"rendered":"Weather Stop-Motion How-to"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After seeing the video I put together for the “Going Green” contest<\/a>, a friend who’s starting down the addicting road of video editing asked me how I did the intro to the video – speeding up the movement of the clouds while retaining the sound. In truth, it’s pretty easy, and a trick I like to use often as an establishing shot, or as a background for the end credits. To tell you the truth, I got the idea from “Survivor”…!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, the trick is to film on a day when it’s windy, and the clouds are moving relatively quickly. Use a tripod, and make sure you don’t have anything on screen that moves too<\/em> much, like branches or leaves moving near the camera.  I left animals on the “Going Green” video, but only because they’re far away and I wanted it as part of the effect.  Film for at least ten minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you get your footage on your computer, the first thing you should do is trim the beginning and end, because the camera surely moved a bit when you pushed the “record” button.  If you don’t do it right away you’re likely to forget later when it’s sped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjust your lighting using whatever video editing program you use, and be sure not<\/em> to use any “auto” effects that adjust continually during the clip.  Although the piece I used in the “Going Green” video is at times a little dark and then gets a little light, remember I was trying to emphasize the rain clouds and knowingly filming directly into the sun.  With more expensive equipment it could have ended up better.  But the point is, if I had used “auto” effects in the editing process, the light\/dark variations would have been much<\/em> more emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next you’ll want to separate your audio and video, assuming your program will allow you to do this (most do).  On my editing program it’s “unlink audio and video.”  I then use the function “time stretch” on the video portion only<\/em> and in the case of this particular clip, sped it up by about 1500% – or fifteen times its original speed.  Now you’ve got a short video clip and a long audio clip – and all that’s left is to choose the portion of the audio you want to match your video and you’re done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is 1500% speed not fast enough?  You can always do more.  Just remember that there are always things moving that you may not be aware of, and at a certain point it’s just going to look blurry.  And the other thing is to plan ahead so that you’ll have enough video for your final product.  For the video below, I had to take 35 minutes of footage, in order to speed it up fifty<\/em> times its original speed.  I’m still not happy with it – I wanted the complete sunset – and also you can tell that it was so windy that day that even a tripod wasn’t enough to keep the camera completely still.  Maybe next time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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