• Time Lapse Software Windows 10
• Open Source Time Lapse Software
• Time Lapse Software Reviews
• Simple Time Lapse Software Machine

A simple way to shoot time lapse photos indoors on the Nikon D3100 on Mac. Rather than using an Intravolometer, simply plug your Camera into the computer, set your computer on a desk or other. Another application that has time-lapse features is the $49 iStopMotion2 from Boinx Software. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. And this article has carefully picked up 14 best time lapse editing software for your reference. Adobe Premiere Pro. Compatibility: Windows, macOS. Pricing: $20.99 per month. Arguably one of the best time lapse software, Adobe Premiere Pro is professional and feature-wise software to create stunning time lapse videos. It can work with a wide range of file formats and involves tons of customizable tools, as well as third-party plugins to let you fly through your workflow.

Time-lapse photography is a technique that takes photos or videos at a lower frame rate and then plays them at a normal or faster rate. In a time-lapse video, the process of slowly changing objects or scenes is compressed into a short period of time, presenting a wonderfully speeded-up picture that is usually invisible to naked eyes. It's commonly used in shooting day to night transitions, urban scenes, natural scenes and many more.

However, not all cameras have a time-lapse function. Therefore, you need to take a series of photos and combine them into a video using time lapse software. And this article has carefully picked up 14 best time lapse editing software for your reference. Let's Explore!

#1. Adobe Premiere Pro

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

Pricing: $20.99 per month

Verdict: Openshot is an open source Mac video editing software. It may remind iMovie with its easy to use drag-and-drop interface. However, Openshot contains more features than iMovie, including an unlimited number of layers and sound mixing. This free video editor for Mac offers a good balance between advanced features and a simple interface.

Arguably one of the best time lapse software, Adobe Premiere Pro is professional and feature-wise software to create stunning time lapse videos. It can work with a wide range of file formats and involves tons of customizable tools, as well as third-party plugins to let you fly through your workflow.

Making a time lapse video from photos in Premiere Pro is simple. Create a new bin and import all your photos to the bin at the get-go. To ensure the video playing without any glitch, you will need to sort the photo files by name. Next, you will create a sequence with proper video settings and add all your material to the timeline. Then you will be able to get a smooth and nice time-lapse video.

Apart from that, you can find out other nice-to-have features like scaling, stabilization, color grading, etc. in the arsenal of Premiere Pro to make your video look better.

What we love about it

• It can make a time lapse video from photos or convert video to time lapse.
• A wide array of file formats supported.
• Lots of plugins to extend.
• Make quick adjustments like adding music, color grading, stabilization, zoom in/out, etc.
• 7-day free trial to the new.

#2. VideoProc

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

Pricing: $42.95 with a 30-day money back

With a smooth and uncomplicated interface, VideoProc can emulate the time lapse or hyperlapse effect by increasing the playback speed of original videos. What you need to do is to navigate to where your video is located and import your video to the program, alter the speed of your video, and mute all video tracks.

Once the speed change is complete, you can preview the changed video in the viewer. You can enable cropping, cutting, trimming, etc., or applying filters, texts to your will. At last, export the video with your needed format and save it to your computer.

What we love about it

• Turn normal videos into time lapse.
• Increase/reduce playback speed up to 16x times.
• Cropper, splitter, filters, stabilizer, fish-eye remover for video enhancements.
• Handle processor-intensive media with full GPU acceleration.

#3. Adobe Photoshop

Compatibility: Windows, macOS, iPadOS

Pricing: $20.99 per month

Deemed as the most powerful image editing program, Adobe Photoshop, virtually, can be also used to create videos. Though this ability is not as powerful as it does in Premiere Pro, it still is a good solution to compile a high definition time lapse sequence. The sweet spot is that you are able to modify the ISO, white balance, exposure, contrast, saturation, etc. of images in Raw format directly in Photoshop, so that you can yield the best result of time lapse videos.

What we love about it

• Deep adjustments like ISO, white balance, exposure, contrast, temperature, etc. to the images.
• It's pretty easy to resize images and make them fit into the frame.
• You are able to add a music track in Photoshop with nothing else needed.

#4. iMovie

Compatibility: macOS

Pricing: Free

iMovie is a Mac-only photo and video editing software that gives you highly functional and cool capabilities like theme-based templates, cropper, speed alternation, text layer, image stabilization and more. And creating a time-lapse video in iMovie takes much time than other tools in this list, largely because iMovie doesn't edit videos frame to frame in the timeline and the minimum duration in iMovie is 0.1 second, which is nearly 10 frames. Therefore, you need to export the time-lapse sequence first and speed up the clip later on.

What we love about it

• Free and frequent updates.
• An intuitive interface makes tools pleasant to use.
• Incredible video stabilization, frame cropper, color balance, etc.
• Exported files are high-quality.

#5. Shotcut

Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Pricing: Free and open source

Putting into the open source league, Shotcut is widely considered one of the best time lapse video editing software at no cost. Though it is primarily geared toward video editors expecting to create videos, Shotcut is also packed with a number of key image editing features for making time lapse videos from photos.

What we love about it

• It's completely free and works across platforms.
• Keep your sequence at one frame per picture.
• Give your videos touch-up by speed alternation, video/audio filters and others.

#6. LRTimelapse

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

Pricing: Private License for $116.62; Pro License for $293.32

LRTimelapse is a professional and flexible software designed for making time lapse videos with the integration with Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Camera RAW, and Adobe After Effects. The real benefits of it are that it can remove ugly and distracting flickering in your image sequence and connect all the images with a smooth change in white balance, exposure, highlights, temperature, etc. in one click.

What we love about it

• Seamlessly works with Lightroom, Adobe Bridge, After Effects with the LRTExport plugin.
• Workflow indicators let you have a clear vision of your workflow position.
• Luminance curves guide you to make steady brightness throughout.
• A high-performance video rendering engine that can handle high-quality videos up to 8K and supports popular formats like MP4, H.264, ProRes, H.265, etc.

#7. Panolapse

Compatibility: Windows, macOS

Pricing: $99.95

How to timelapse a video with motion? Generally, you can use camera sliders to shoot smooth motion control time-lapse video. However, in addition to the price, the heavy and bulky slides could be prohibitive to some. Don't have one? No sweat. You can use Panolapse to motion to time lapse videos in a minute. More so, it can work with fisheyes lens and 360° panoramic images.

Time Lapse Software Windows 10

What we love about it

• Support almost any lens, including normal, fisheyes, equirectangular, thoby and more.
• Create real-world rotational panning.
• Built-in deflicker guarantees for an even brightens of your projects.

#8. Time-Lapse Tool

Compatibility: Windows

Pricing: Home License for $69; Business License for $99

Time-Lapse tool is a Windows-only software dedicated to making time lapse videos by combining multiple still images. Once you've imported your images, you will find there are many options to play with, covering color adjustments, transitions, shooting info, adding watermark, rotation, zoom & pan, as well as deflicker that helps reduce unstable brightness. Plus, you can export time-lapse videos to 4K, Full HD 1080p, H.264, and other formats.

What we love about it

• Modern and easy-to-use interface.
• More than 20 visual effects can be applied.
• Adding of watermark and camera information for professional protection.
• Support a wide range of file formats.

#9. SkyStudio Pro

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 10

Pricing: Free

Let's say you want an application to film yourself at work, at study, or even as a CCTV that safeguards the security of your home. SkyStudioPro can be the best choice for you. It's a piece of freeware that uses a webcam or external cameras to capture time-lapse videos with motion detection. Simply put, motion detection is a feature that increases the video frame rate for a short period of time when it detects an object or sound is being captured, so that you can see the object in slow motion clearly.

What we love about it

• Compatible with both webcams and external cameras.
• Work with two capture devices simultaneously.
• A scheduled auto-shot is available.
• Motion detection slows down objects in motion.

#10. MakeAVI

Compatibility: Windows

Pricing: Free

If you're looking for a tool to stitching images together, you can opt for the free MakeAVI tool. It offers a quick method to compile JPGs, PNG, BMP, as well as other formats into an AVI. What's more, you are allowed to crop images to needed dimensions. Unfortunately, MakeAVI functions well when handling less than a thousand images but it could generate glitches in your time lapse video when working with over a thousand photos.

What we love about it

• Very flat learning curve.
• It can make time lapse videos as well as stop-motion animations.
• Video cropper and resizer provided.
• It reads JPGs, PNG, BMP and other image formats.

Open Source Time Lapse Software

How Do You Make a Time-Lapse Video?

a. Choose a place to shoot

There are three factors when choosing a location to shoot time lapse videos: moving objects, a great night scene, and no or less strong lights. Among the moving objects can be the clouds and traffic, as well as changes in shadow, because time-lapse videos will be no different than regular videos if without variations. And strong lights are one of the elements to avoid in capturing day to night transitions, otherwise, it will be very troublesome in post-production.

b. Prepare the tools needed

• A camera (it can be a DSLR, a smart phone, an action camera, etc.);
• A stabilizer (it can be a tripod, a gimbal, and camera sliders) that helps capture steady images;
• Memory cards;
• Power banks, ND filters (if available) and others.

c. Set up your shooting mode

• Always shooting in Raw.
• Set to manual focus (MF).
• Fixed aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
• A rough idea of setting intervals: moving clouds with an interval between 2 seconds; sunset between 2~5 seconds; growing plants between 120 seconds, etc.

Conclusion

This article has summarized 10 different time lapse video editing software with different prices, features, levels of use, as well as a few tips on how to shoot a time lapse video. Wish you can get some inspirations from this article, and you can share it on your social media if you consider it is helpful, thanks in advance!

VirtualDub is free video editing software with very basic features. While it may not be able to serve as a powerful Adobe Premier alternative, it can surely be used to accomplish some tasks that you might think only a more robust application can do.

There is a step-by-step process below for installing and using this software to create incredible time-lapses using a sequence of images or video clips.

Let’s get started!

Best VirtualDub Alternative to Create Time-Lapses

There are two unfortunate criteria for using VirtualDub. The first is that you must use it on a Windows platform and the second is that it can only work with AVI files. Those with a Mac platform or other file formats can use the alternative, Movavi Video Editor.

In terms of ease-of-use and assembling time-lapse sequences, Movavi Video Editor is the best alternative to VirtualDub and is available for both Mac and Windows platforms.

The wide range of features and effects makes this video editing tool powerful, enabling you to create enhanced time-lapse videos. This software caters to your strengths and weaknesses, with wizards for beginners and manual options for the more advanced users.

Learn how to create your own time-lapse video following the video tutorial below:

How to Create Time-lapses with a Sequence of Still Images in VirtualDub

Step1. Download and Install VirtualDub

Click on the download link: Virtualdub download page to begin, and then choose to download either a 32bit version or 64bit version of Virtualdub according to your computer system.

Once the package is downloaded, install the .exe file. Once it’s installed, open the program, this is how the interface looks like:

As you can see, the interface is simple and not flashy. It is however, highly functional and once you can get past the plain user interface, you can create great time-lapse videos for free.

Step2. Install Video Compressor Tool with VirtualDub (Optional, You Can Skip This Step If You Don’t Want It)

Only uncompressed AVI files can be exported to VirtualDub which is perfect for short video clips.

However you will need some compression if you don’t want files that are dozens of gigabytes in size. For this purpose you can use a free compression tool called Xvid Video Compressor. You can get this tool to install with Virtualdub.

Click on the link above and install the Mirror 2 version of the application as seen below:

This version is an installer so you would need to run it once you have completed the download. You can choose to have it installed in the default folder or in another preferred location.

Xvid can also be used with other applications. To configure it to work with VitualDub, open the VirtualDub .exe application file and click on the Video tab and then Compression from the drop-down list:

From there, select the for Xvid MPEG-4 Codecoption from the pop-up window and click OK if you do not want to further configure the compression level.

To configure the compression level to your liking, click on the Configure button on the same window with the Xvid MPEG-4 Codecoption. There are different levels but you can choose MPEGA SP @ L4a under the Profile @ Level and slide the maximum quality slider to 1. You can change your selection based on the file size and quality of your preference. Click OK, to close the configure options and then OK to close the Video Compression window.

Note: VirtualDub will not consider it as a default video compression option, every time you need to compress videos for a video project, you should repeat the steps above.

Step3. Make Sure All Photos Are Numbered Sequentially

All images that would be used for creating your time-lapse should be of the same size and in one folder. To ensure that images are placed in the order you need it for your time lapse, each image should be numbered sequentially and continuously.

Renaming each photo is very time consuming but it can be done quickly if you follow the steps below:

Time Lapse Software Reviews

1. Open the folder with your time-lapse images and ensure they are in the layout that you want them to be placed in your time-lapse video
2. Click only on the first image to highlight it and then hit on Ctrl+A on your keyboard to highlight all the other images.
3. Hit F2 on the keyboard or right-click and select Rename from the drop-down list. You can rename your image to anything you like and hit Enter on your keyboard. You would notice that each image has a number in parentheses and in sequential order.

Step4. Import Images to VirtualDub

Go to VirtualDub and select Open video file from drop-down list of the File tab. Search for the folder that has all the images you wish to include on your time-lapse:

To import all the images from the folder, click on the first image and then check the box next to Automatically load linked segments. This will tell VirtualDub to import all the images from the folder according to its number sequence.

Note:

The images will load but would be zoomed in the preview. Since most likely, the images are larger than the screen it would be displayed on, you would only see part of the image. Right-click on the image and select your preferred zoom size, that is, make the image smaller.

Step5. Adjust Basic Settings for Time-lapse Video

Adjust the settings for your time-lapse video to optimize its quality or directly export the video. Some adjustments are highlighted below:

#1. Frame Rate:

From the Video tab, select Frame Rate from the drop-down list:

This would let you change the setting for the video length. For instance, if you have 200 photos and you want your video to be 10 seconds long, set the frame rate to 20 under Change frame rate to 9FPS) and then hit Enter on the keyboard or select OK:

#2. Resolution& Aspect Ratio

Go to the Video tab and select Filters from the drop-down list. Click on Add and go through the list to select resize and then OK:

Standard HD size is 1920 x 1080 so type 1920 in the first box of the Absolute (pixels) under Size options which would give you a slightly larger height. Under Framing options, select the Crop to aspect ratio and type in 16 in the first box and 9 in the second, to set the video to standard size HD then hit OK:

Step6. Preview and Export the Final Video

By now, your video would be ready for rendering but you can also watch a preview before saving.

On the bottom of the screen, you would see the stop button and play buttons with “I” for input and “O” for output. You can clock on the “O” play button to initiate the rendering in the output window. To save, click in File then Save as AVI from the drop-down list and VirtualDub would convert it. Your video can now be uploaded directly to websites such as YouTube or you can export it to another application software for further editing.

Simple Time Lapse Software Machine

Hey, My name is Paul – nice to e-meet you 🙂 I’m a freelance video editor who has over 4 years experiences of making all types of videos. I founded this website to provide step-by-step and easy-to-follow instructions to first-time editors or beginners like you who want to start their journey in video editing.