HOWTO: Make Time Lapse Videos from Photographs

**CyberAngel** · December 21st, 2014

Wow! Thanks for the tips

I will definitely take a look to your suggestions for improvement!
For the moment, I will simply add a reference to your post in order for others to be able to find these tips easily.

Thanks again!

**Light-kun** · January 10th, 2015

Brilliant article! Helped to make cool videos from a bunch of pictures!

Few days ago I've tried to use your way to make a video but got an error message
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]Specified pix_fmt is not supported
Could not open codec.
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.
Exiting...

my uname -a
Linux tool 3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
mencoder version:
MEncoder 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team

I didn't update my software after I have successfully made a video last time as far as I remember

Any tips?

Full -v output:

$ mencoder -idx -nosound -noskip -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -v -o out.avi -mf fps=24 'mf://@files.txt'
MEncoder 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/drey/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading optional codecs config file /home/drey/.mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Reading optional codecs config file /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
init_freetype
Using MMX (with tiny bit MMX2) Optimized OnScreenDisplay
get_path('fonts') -> '/home/drey/.mplayer/fonts'
Configuration: --prefix=/usr --confdir=/etc/mplayer --enable-xvmc --enable-menu --enable-radio --enable-radio-capture --disable-arts --language=all --disable-dvdread-internal --disable-libdvdcss-internal --disable-libmpeg2-internal --disable-ffmpeg_a --enable-runtime-cpudetection --enable-debug --enable-joystick --disable-gui
STREAM: [mf] mf://@files.txt
STREAM: Description: Multiple files input
STREAM: Author: Benjamin Zores, Albeu
STREAM: Comment:
success: format: 16 data: 0x0 - 0x0
MF file format detected.
[mf] number of files: 125
[demux_mf] file type was not set! trying 'type=JPG'...
==> Found video stream: 0
VIDEO: [IJPG] 0x0 24bpp 24.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:16 fourcc:0x47504A49 size:0x0 fps:24.000 ftime:=0.0417
[file] File size is 0 bytes
STREAM: [file] out.avi
STREAM: Description: File
STREAM: Author: Albeu
STREAM: Comment: based on the code from ??? (probably Arpi)
libavcodec version 54.35.0 (external)
Configuration: --arch=amd64 --enable-pthreads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --extra-version='6:9.11-2ubuntu2' --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --enable-bzlib --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfreetype --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-vaapi --enable-vdpau --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-zlib --enable-gpl --enable-swscale --enable-libcdio --enable-x11grab --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --shlibdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-shared --disable-static
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
INFO: libavcodec init OK!
Selected video codec: [ffmjpeg] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MJPEG)
================================================== ========================
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=d8 avail_size_in_buf=563250
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 0 bytes (0 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=e0 avail_size_in_buf=563248
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 16 bytes (128 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=e1 avail_size_in_buf=563230
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 31680 bytes (253440 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=db avail_size_in_buf=531547
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]index=0
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]qscale[0]: 0
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 67 bytes (536 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=db avail_size_in_buf=531478
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]index=1
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]qscale[1]: 1
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 67 bytes (536 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=c0 avail_size_in_buf=531409
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]sof0: picture: 1440x1080
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component 0 2:1 id: 0 quant:0
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component 1 1:1 id: 1 quant:1
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component 2 1:1 id: 2 quant:1
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]pix fmt id 21111100
[ffmpeg] aspect_ratio: 1.333333
VDec: vo config request - 1440 x 1080 (preferred colorspace: Planar 422P)
Trying filter chain: expand lavc
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
SwScale params: -1 x -1 (-1=no scaling)
Trying filter chain: scale expand lavc
VDec: using Planar 422P as output csp (no 1)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO Config (1440x1080->1440x1080,flags=0,'MPlayer',0x50323234)
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 4
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 1 -> 1
SwScaler: reducing / aligning filtersize 9 -> 8
[swscaler @ 0x7ff955c91640]BICUBIC scaler, from yuv422p to yuv420p using MMXEXT
[swscaler @ 0x7ff955c91640]1440x1080 -> 1440x1080
[swscaler @ 0x7ff955c91640]lum srcW=1440 srcH=1080 dstW=1440 dstH=1080 xInc=65536 yInc=65536
[swscaler @ 0x7ff955c91640]chr srcW=720 srcH=1080 dstW=720 dstH=540 xInc=65536 yInc=131072
REQ: flags=0x401 req=0x0
REQ: flags=0x401 req=0x0
videocodec: libavcodec (1440x1080 fourcc=47504a4d [MJPG])
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]Specified pix_fmt is not supported
Could not open codec.
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 17 bytes (136 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=c4 avail_size_in_buf=531390
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]class=0 index=0 nb_codes=11
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 30 bytes (240 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=c4 avail_size_in_buf=531358
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]class=1 index=0 nb_codes=242
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 92 bytes (736 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=c4 avail_size_in_buf=531264
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]class=0 index=1 nb_codes=9
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 28 bytes (224 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=c4 avail_size_in_buf=531234
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]class=1 index=1 nb_codes=242
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 70 bytes (560 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]escaping removed 1989 bytes
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=da avail_size_in_buf=531162
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component: 0
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component: 1
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]component: 2
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker parser used 529172 bytes (4233376 bits)
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]marker=d9 avail_size_in_buf=0
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]mjpeg decode frame unused 0 bytes
[ffmpeg] aspect_ratio: 1.333333
VDec: vo config request - 1440 x 1080 (preferred colorspace: Planar 422P)
Trying filter chain: scale expand lavc
VDec: using Planar 422P as output csp (no 1)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO Config (1440x1080->1440x1080,flags=0,'MPlayer',0x50323234)
REQ: flags=0x401 req=0x0
REQ: flags=0x401 req=0x0
videocodec: libavcodec (1440x1080 fourcc=47504a4d [MJPG])
[mjpeg @ 0x7ff955194b00]Specified pix_fmt is not supported
Could not open codec.
FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.

Exiting...

**CyberAngel** · January 10th, 2015

I also had some problems with the latest versions of mencoder, so I have updated the article to include information on how to make a video with the use of ffmpeg.
Read the first post in the thread and follow the updated steps

In order to use the "real" ffmpeg, you can use this PPA repository.

**Light-kun** · January 12th, 2015

Many thanks for fast help! Works like a charm!

**John_Lindam** · August 9th, 2015

Thanks, this was the best tutorial I've found and it worked flawlessly!

**sp_nayak82** · January 11th, 2016

I have a created a C++ program for deflickering timelapse images. Program is influenced by the perl script, but have added more features to it. It does luminance calculation & creation of new images in different threads each assigned to different CPU cores. It can crop the images before writing the new images to standard HD, 2K and 4K dimensions.

You can download the tool thru PPA https://launchpad.net/~sandeep-pn/+a...apse-deflicker, by adding this line to sources.list

"deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/sandeep-pn/...flicker/ubuntu trusty main "

and then

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install timelapse-deflicker

Usage :

# timelapse-deflicker -d ./ -t 4

This will search images in current directory ( -d . ) and run 4 threads on 4 CPU cores to do processing. See "timelapse-deflicker --help" for more information.

You can use Blender 3D to generate timelapse videos from the images. See this tutorial on doing the same, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnIZKvDNIc