Hey guys, i really love the look of moving timelapse shots that travel much farther than on a slider. I've learned that a "walk-lapse" is the method used. So basically, you're literally moving the tripod inches at a time (on wheels). Then use a stabilizer in post to fix any jittery qualities in the timelapse. I think this is probably much easier said than done. Anyone have any advice?
BTW i'm interested in all advice from shooting to post. I think mastering walk-lapse videos would be an excellent talent in my filmmaking portfolio. I've tried a practice run and found that its hard to make smooth/perfect movements, and smoothing the video in post doesn't work so well. I think for smoothing the video will work better if your subject is far away on a wide lens instead of anything close which is more subject to showing the subtle differences in each movement.
I've tried (with zen-like concentration) to do very slow pans or dolly moves using 1fps, but no software stabilizer is going to iron those shots flat. I've seen stepper motors control little home-made dollies that travel on step ladders: http://www.wimp.com/natureminute/ <-- at about 4:15 onwards. Very 'Wallace & Gromit', huge fudge factors involved in the post production, not the sort of thing you'd set up in a public space, but hey. Look at the result.
Outside of using an expensive rail system like a shuttle pod that wouldn't give you near enough length, I think a diy track might work. I've seen tracks made simply from a strong hose material. It's a pressurized hose or something. Make a platform with wheels to fit and you can easily lay down and bend the hose to any form for lengths of 25' to 50' or maybe even longer. It's just that I don't think I want to lay something like that out in public. And you're right, the handheld movements are nearly impossible to iron out smoothly, although I've seen a few good examples online. The best solution just might be to use a motorized slider and forget about getting long movement timelapses.
I've wondered about using a stedicam for the hand held stuff? I was thinking of using some kind of water drip system with a crane/jib for vertical moves
Hello Jeremy, if you are interested in some workflow, let´s stay in touch. I hafe practised this technique for many years. Now I want to try the postproduction of my old footage 2006 - 2011. It wasn´t stabilized or collorcorrected at all. And unfortunately I even shot it with a Nikon L12. (no manual focus, no manual exposure, only jpeg, no adjustments) The next Camera was a Casio Exilim Fh20...( some more features, but in jpeg anyway) Today I am working with with a Nikon D7000 and I use programs like AE , lightroom, and LR-Timelapse..and of course shooting all the pics in NEF (RAW) to have full acces to every aspect of the colourinformation and so on.. I´m looking forward to see the results and too proof , if it´s achievable it to "rescue" second rate-quality footage with advanced postproduction. Example: Cheers
