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
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Installing the Stitching SoftwareBefore 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 CommandThe 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 timesThe 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 AttemptIn 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 CollateOnce 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 TogetherThe 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 |
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