What is it?

The Raspberry Pi Camera Module can be programmed to take a series of photographs over a period of time.  This creates a time lapse video of events that usually take a lot longer to complete and as humans, we would not normal see.  If your Camera is not set up or installed, click here first, here
Camera Commands
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Installing the Stitching Software

Before making or stitching together the individual photographs together software will need installing.  This software will stitch the photos together and is very easy to use.  A simple program called Mencoder, prepares, converts and exports the photographs into a video.

To install the Mencoder software type:
sudo apt-get install mencoder

Part 1: The -tl Command

The time lapse camera feature code is broken down into several sections:

raspistill -o n00b_%5.jpeg -tl 100 -t 18000

raspistill -o n00b_%5.jpeg in this example the name of the files created will each called n00b, as it is my first attempt at time lapse photography!

_%5.jpeg this command adds 5 decimal places to the file name, so creates files from n00b.00001 to n00b.99999, 

-tl 100 is the time in milliseconds to take a picture, ie every 100 milliseconds, every second

-t 18000 is the total time that the camera will take pictures for, 18000 milliseconds, 3 minutes 

Part 2: Calculating the shooting times

The tricky part is calculating the times and the number of photos that you want taken.  In the example, I wanted to shoot for 3 minutes and take a photo every second.  Because the times are in milliseconds the overall time needs calculating, 3(min) x 60 x 100 = 18000

18000 / 100 = 180, ie 180 photos will be taken in total.  Therefore -tl = 100 and -t 18000, (the camera takes a picture every second for 3 minutes)

Combining these elements together gives the code,

raspistill -o n00b_%5.jpeg -tl 100 -t 18000

First Attempt

In this first attempt I shot a syrup bottle being turned upside down and the syrup falling to the top of the bottle.  The whole process took 2 minutes and 31 seconds.  The video below shows the process in just under 8 seconds.

Part 3: Create a Folder and Collate

Once up and running, the shots will soon fill up a folder.  It is good practice to make a new folder to store the photographs in.  

In the LX terminal type:  
mkdir pics

This makes a new directory in the /home/pi folder called pics (replace with your folder name), then all the photos can be moved / copied into this new folder.

Next, while in the LX terminal navigate to the new folder and create a list of all the files which will then be passed to the Menconder.

Move to the new folder:
cd /home/pi/name_of_your_new_folder

Then create the list with the code:
ls * .jpeg >timelapse.txt

Part 4: Stitching it all Together

The last part of the project is stitching together all the photos.  While you are still in the /home/pi/pics folder type the following code: (it is a handful!) All this goes in the LX terminal on the same line, as shown below, watch for all the colons, :  the file is called myfirstvid but can be changed to a more suitable file name.
mencoder -nosound -ovc lavc  -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:aspect=16/9:vbitrate=8000000 -vf scale=1920:1080 
-o myfirstvid.avi -mf type=jpeg:fps=24 mf://@timelapse.txt