T2
While Premiere Pro may be the bee’s knees for editors who are eager to take advantage of some of the higher functions of the inexpensive non-linear editing system, Adobe has taken out one of the features that made Premiere a fun program to use. With the built in Stop Motion Capture feature of previous versions, the ability to capture time-lapse video directly from your DV camera was great. If you still have a copy of Premiere 6.5 sitting around, you may want to keep a copy on your system for just this reason.
Begin by connecting your DV source to your system via FireWire. Premiere 6.5 doesn’t require that powerful of a processor, in fact my old Sony Vaio (Lain), who has recently been replaced by Sheeta, my new Sony Vaio, is perfect as a time-lapse/stop motion system. [an error occurred while processing this directive]Launch Premiere 6.5, and select File>Capture>Stop Motion.
By default, Premiere 6.5 assumes you want to do Stop Motion capture, which is great if you are working on your next Wallace and Gromit rip-off or South Park construction paper feature. The Stop Motion feature allows you to manually trigger the capture process, which then generates a still image you can store on your hard drive.
While this is nice, it would be a pain (and a complete bore) to have to sit in front of your system for an entire month, while you are waiting for your flowers to bloom. Instead, you will want to switch to the Time Lapse mode. Right+Click in the Stop Motion Capture Window, and choose Capture Options.
From the pop up window change Still Image to Time Lapse. This will give you access to other options such as the number of frames to be captured over a set time period (minutes, hours, days), and if you would like to set a limit to the number of frames captured.
When your options are set, click the OK button to close the pop up window, and when ready, click on the Start button in the Capture Window.
You should be aware that while Premiere 6.5 is capturing data, any other window or program that is opened will abort the capture process. So it is best if you are using a dedicated system for your Time Lapse capture.
When you are done with the capture process, click on the Stop button. A temporary video file will appear that you can then save to an appropriate location. If you are on a PC, the file will be an .avi file. This can then be used in any editing system that supports the format or can be converted into other formats for use.
The drawback of using Premiere 6.5 for Time Lapse footage is that you are relegated to the DV format and a fixed image size. If you plan on doing any zooming into your footage, your image will quickly deteriorate.
If you think you will want to manipulate your footage later on, you may want to connect your system to a digital still camera and use the software provided by the manufacturer. In the case of my Canon Powershot G2, a time lapse program was included. You can read more about calculating your time lapse intervals here.
So what if you are not someone who has upgraded from a previous version of Premiere and are stuck with the new Premiere Pro version? One can only hope that enough people have complained to Adobe so that the next release reinstates this fun feature. If you can’t wait that long, you may want to check out a program called Scenalyzer Live (http://www.scenalyzer.com), that does have a Time Lapse feature. I have not tested this software, but I have had it recommended by many other sources.
If Adobe decides not to bring back Stop Motion in the next version of Premiere Pro, I have a feeling that there will be quite a lot of users who will be holding on to their Premiere 6.5 version for just this one feature.
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
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