12Dec Free Time Lapse software that’s easy to use: GoPro Cineform Studio
I have a lot of good things to say about the GoPro Hero 3, but I’ll save them for the full review. What I want to point out here is that the free Cineform Studio app on Gopro’s site is an excellent, easy, full functioning, time lapse application.
Simply click the “Import New Files” button on the left, select your group of images and click ok. Once the files are done importing they show up as a single item on the left with the image size, number of frames, an estimated play back time.
Click on the “advanced settings” and choose your final output settings. In this case I went with a frame size of 4000 by 3000 which gives you plenty of room to pan, scale, and frame the final video into a 1080p timeline. At that resolution you can actually scale the footage down by about 50% and still fill a 1080p window, which means any of that noise grain visible in low light shots really starts to disappear.
Once you’ve picked the settings and rendered your file, just drop the file into a timeline and scale and crop until the framing is about right, then render out. In this case I was lazy and didn’t make any edits to the half dozen photos that had white balance issues since this was mostly a test of the workflow. However it’s a good idea to look over your images before you import them into the Cineform Studio app.
Even though Cineform Studio is designed to work with the files from the GoPro hero 3, it was also pretty easy to import 5184 by 3456 jpg files from an old Canon 7d time lapse I worked on and go through the same workflow. It’s a very quick way to turn your time lapse shots into a simple .avi or .mov file that can easily be imported into your NLE. If you’re new to time lapse or just don’t need all of the advanced settings, the Cineform Studio app is worth checking out.
UPDATE: Gopro has changed the name of the Cineform studio to “Gopro Studio edit“. The software works exactly the same as Cineform studio and is still free, if you have any problems with the links on this page, simply visit Gopro’s site and you’ll find the software in the download section.
December 12th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
I love cineform, I use it as intermediate codec when I have to edit some broadcast 1080p programs in a laptop core i7 Q720 1.6ghz. Works flawless.
Here’s an interesting link about color grading with cineform in 10bit
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?248392-Best-intermediate-codec-for-Canon-DSLRs-ProRes-or-Cineform
December 12th, 2012 at 9:39 pm
I was always to lazy to spend the time up converting, but I didn’t release they had time lapse options. I’ve done all my time lapse work in the past in much more complex ways. This makes it so simple and easy.
December 14th, 2012 at 5:18 am
I usually go through Quicktime7 for time lapse exports. If you’ve used QT7, would you recommend Cineform over it? Is the workflow quicker/easier?
December 14th, 2012 at 6:43 am
I dislike Quicktime in general and I avoid it if at all possible, so i’m a little bit bias. It took lest then 1 min to import the clips choose max settings and start the export. The render time takes awhile but that’s true of any time lapse program. Cineform supports my graphics card so rendering times are still pretty fast.
January 17th, 2013 at 8:28 am
strange..the Mac version doesn’t have the deflicker option =(
September 15th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
On a Mac it’s called Motion Blur for Deflicker.
April 26th, 2013 at 7:42 am
So I’m making a timelaps vid with about 9000 frames. Gopro divides them over 9 maps (999/map) they all have the same name so i change every picture in every map: 1(1),1(2),… now I put them all together in one map on my harddrive and import them in cineform studio. I don’t want 9 different movies and then place them together. just one. But It only imports like 1111 frames and it doesn’t start from the beginning! it just randomly takes pictures out of the map! what am I doing wrong ?
April 26th, 2013 at 8:28 am
Each timelapse event is grouped into a section by the software. If you take multiple timelapses, the software will give you multiple groups one for each time laps. If you want to edit them together you’ll have to drop the results in a timeline.
May 4th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
I have a similar problem but only around 150 pics in total. Could you explain “drop the results in a time line” I am trying everything I can imagine to combine all of them to no avail.
thanks
September 7th, 2013 at 12:30 pm
I always time lapse by filing the entire event and then speed up the entire clip.
September 23rd, 2013 at 2:36 pm
Hi, guys,
I have a problem with converting. It converts images into just black. Video is only black screen. Any ideas, how to fix it?
Thanks
September 26th, 2013 at 12:30 pm
I have the same problem. Any solution ?
October 8th, 2013 at 3:37 am
Same problem as above, just a black output
October 18th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
i have the same problem! can someone please help!? :/
October 25th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Yup, black screen for me too, both .avi and .mov.
November 17th, 2013 at 5:07 am
All I get is a black (=blank) screen video, though it runs as long as it should. Is this question being avoided….??? ;->
November 17th, 2013 at 11:47 am
Never had any problems with black screen. It’s hard to say whats going wrong without knowing more then “black screen”.
April 21st, 2014 at 1:56 pm
I get the black screen as well. In other words, whether converting to avi or mov the output is black. There are no images on the screen after proceeding to step 2 after conversion. The videos being made contain no images. Step 1 shows the initial image in the conversion list but when I click on proceed to step 2 the avi that was just created is black. All Black.
April 21st, 2014 at 1:58 pm
I think I will go back to using MGI VideoWave, painful as it is. Atleast I get something I can see.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:50 am
I am no media expert, so when I saw your item, I thought the GoPro Studio s/w would be perfect for joining some photos together and playing them as a time-lapse “movie”. I follow the 3 step process (import, edit, export), but the resulting file just shows a black screen when played.
I have tried several different fps & imaeg size settings but the result remains the same…
Any ideas what I am doing wrong please?
Thanks in advance for any help! (-:
December 29th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
Ok so ya…I had this issue too and when i inserted audio, i thought I erased it. Turns out on stage 2 of go pro studio my studio file was WAY down at the other end which created the black screen for me. Hope this helps!
April 21st, 2014 at 2:03 pm
Not the same case as I just dl this and uploaded only 224 images of the blood moon. No sound was added. Steps 1 2 and 3 just like the tutorial. Nothing but black, black, black.
December 29th, 2013 at 1:01 pm
audio file*
January 7th, 2014 at 6:48 am
I too love Cineform for time lapses but each video I make using still frames shot on a Canon 7d leaves a Cineform watermark on the final video. It doesn’t seem to do this using GoPro images. In your comment above you mention it working with 7d photos. Is there a way to remove the watermark?
January 13th, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Im trying to create timelapse videos created with a Sony ActionCam (competitor to the GoPro). seems like cinepro is “hanging” when it comes to exporting the timelapse video
January 13th, 2014 at 4:44 pm
I could be an image size issue. There is a max file size for timelapse in cinepro.
April 21st, 2014 at 3:08 am
Has anyone solved the black video issue yet?
May 27th, 2014 at 11:54 am
I am also having the issue of a black, or blank video after output. This only occurs when I turn the de-flicker option on. If I turn it off I can import photos from Canon and use GoPro Studio to create the time lapse.
Sadly, the de-flicker option is what I want…
July 12th, 2015 at 3:46 am
I have got my 302 files into a time-lapse sequence but there are many files that are out of order???
I exported them from lightroom in original capture order but it jumps around like crazy!
Any help please….
July 13th, 2015 at 5:40 am
After you feed them into LR, export them to the desktop and make sure they are still in order. If not, make sure you rename all of them to make them fall in order again. LR and a few other programs has export batch rename features. That usually leads to the jumping around later on. You can process them as a timelapse if you get the LRTimelapse Plugin. It takes a while to learn how to use, but the options are great and it really works well for Day to Night / Night to Day shots.