Tutorial: Creating a Moving Timelapse Effect in Adobe After Effects CC

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Stjepan Alaupovic (6382)

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<div style="display: none;">&nbsp;</div><script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[brightcove.createExperiences();// ]]></script>In this tutorial, I&rsquo;ll show you how to create a moving time-lapse effect using Adobe After Effects Creative Cloud 2014. In <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse in Adobe Premiere Pro CC" href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Producer/articles/readarticle.aspx?ArticleID=99445" target="_blank">another recent tutorial</a>, I showed you how to add a slider or jib effect to your timelapses by using Adobe Premiere with 2K footage in a 1080 sequence. Be sure to check out <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse Effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CC" href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Producer/articles/readarticle.aspx?ArticleID=99445" target="_blank">that tutorial</a> for a simple way of achieving this look.This tutorial is going to show you a more advanced method of that technique with a use of a few extra features in Adobe After Effects.<h2>Getting Started in After Effects</h2>We'll start by importing the clip into Adobe After Effects. We'll create a new composition and choose a 1080 preset (Figure 1, below). Next, we'll add a 2K or even a 4K clip to the timeline.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/103999-alau1-ORG.png" alt="" width="640" height="558" />Figure 1. Choosing a 1920x1080 present in the Composition Settings dialogYou can turn the audio off for this clip by selecting the speaker button to the left of your clip (Figure 2, below), since we're not concerned with audio for this project.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104000-alau2-ORG.png" alt="" width="366" height="240" />Figure 2. Click here to turn off audio for the clip.The first step we'll take is to adjust the duration of our clip from just under 8 minutes down to 10 seconds. You can do this by right-clicking in the Duration area and scrolling down to Columns (Figure 3, below). Here, you want to make sure that the check mark next to duration is enabled.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104001-alau3-ORG.png" alt="" width="420" height="312" />Figure 3. Click here to open the Time Stretch dialog.Now, we can alter the duration of this clip and have After Effects do the math for us. We know we want a finished clip length of 10 seconds, so let's enter that as the new duration in the Time Stretch dialog (Figure 4, below). Press OK. Now After Effects has adjusted the length of our clip to fit the 10-second duration. Do a RAM preview to see what clip looks like sped up from 7 minutes, 58 seconds to 10 seconds.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104002-alau4-ORG.png" alt="" width="640" height="429" />Figure 4. Adjusting duration in the Time Stretch dialogYou can see at the 1:29 mark in the <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse in Adobe After Effects CC" href="http://bcove.me/zatcu631" target="_blank">tutorial video</a> that our clip is now starting to look like a time-lapse.

<h2>Enabling Frame Blending</h2>Next, we're going to turn on a few other options to give this time-lapse a little more production value. We'll start with enabling the Frame Blending options (Figure 5, below). This will smooth out the transitions between all the frames in our time-lapse. We'll enable this both universally and for our clip itself. Select the Toggle Switches/Modes button (Figure 6, below Figure 5) at the bottom of the window if you do not see the frame blending option.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104003-alau5-ORG.png" alt="" width="425" height="111" />Figure 5. Enabling Frame Blending<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104004-alau6-ORG.png" alt="" width="234" height="62" />Figure 6. The Toggle Switches/Modes buttonYou can see what things look like after this step at the 1:55 mark in the <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse in Adobe After Effects CC" href="http://bcove.me/zatcu631" target="_blank">tutorial video</a>.<h2>Enabling Motion Blur</h2>Next, we'll enable another option called Motion Blur (Figure 7, below). Again, we'll do this universally and then also to the clip itself. You can see the effect in the RAM preview at the 2:09 mark in the <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse in Adobe After Effects CC" href="http://bcove.me/zatcu631" target="_blank">tutorial video</a>.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104005-alau7-ORG.png" alt="" width="640" height="179" />Figure 7. Enabling Motion Blur<h2>Adding the Slider/Jib Effect</h2>Just with these two options enabled, we start to see a powerful sense of motion in this time-lapse. Now, we're ready to add the slider or jib effect to this project. As a reminder, we have extra pixels to work with since we have 2K source footage. Now, we can reposition our video and have it move over time by adding a few keyframes.With the clip selected, press P to reveal the Position values (Figure 8, below). Make sure the playhead is at the beginning of your clip. Now we can begin to reposition our video. We want to start from the upper left and then pan and tilt down to the right. We'll enable keyframes by clicking the watch button to the left of the Position values and adjust our starting values.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104006-alau8-ORG.png" alt="" width="378" height="108" />Figure 8. Position values revealed and ready to adjust.Next, we'll right-click our starting keyframe and choose Keyframe Assistant &gt; Easy Ease Out (Figure 9, below). Next, we'll move to the nine-second area where we want our move to land. Here, again, we can reposition the video by adjusting our values to the left and to the right.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104007-alau9-ORG.png" alt="" width="640" height="286" />Figure 9. Choosing Easy Ease Out to begin our motion smoothlyWe&rsquo;ll smooth out our next keyframe by right-clicking and choosing Keyframe Assistant &gt; Easy Ease In. You can see the keyframed movement in a RAM preview at the 3:14 mark of the <a title="Creating a Moving Timelapse in Adobe After Effects CC" href="http://bcove.me/zatcu631" target="_blank">tutorial video</a>.

<h2>Adding an Adjustment Layer</h2>Now, you could stop here and export the video, but I'm going to add a few more things since we're already in After Effects.While I like what we've done with this, I want to make the video stand out a bit more since this footage is fairly flat. We'll start by navigating to Layer &gt; New &gt; Adjustment Layer (Figure 10, below). Check out my tutorial on <a title="Adjustment Layers in Adobe CC" href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Producer/articles/readarticle.aspx?ArticleID=98010" target="_blank">adjustment layers</a> to see how handy these can be with your video projects.<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104008-alau10-ORG.png" alt="" width="425" height="164" />Figure 10. Adding an Adjustment LayerNow, with our adjustment layer selected, we can navigate to Effect &gt; Color Correction &gt; Brightness &amp; Contrast (Figure 11, below).<img src="http://itipix.com/Images/ArticleImages/InlineImages/104010-alau11-ORG.png" alt="" width="594" height="384" />Figure 11. Choosing the Brightness &amp; Contrast effectDragging to the right on this value in the Effect Controls panel will increase the contrast to our video. We can also go back to Effect &gt; Color Correction, and this time, choose Vibrance. Here, we can add some more color to our video by, again, dragging to the Vibrance value to the right.You can continue to add effects or filters to your liking, but you can see how we can quickly enhance our videos with After Effects. You can see a RAM preview of what everything looks like at the 4:09 mark of the tutorial video below.<div style="display: none;">&nbsp;</div><script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script><div style="display: none;">&nbsp;</div><script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[brightcove.createExperiences();// ]]></script>

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