Timelapse Recording
A time lapse recording is essentially a movie that runs faster then reality. It is therefore especially useful to illustrate slow movements. This tutorial will guide you to creating a time lapse movie in iStopMotion. While following along you will get acquainted with some basic tools of iStopMotion.
After installing the license key according to the instructions, iStopMotion becomes fully functional.
1. Create a new iStopMotion project

Upon opening, iStopMotion creates a new movie and presents a dialog, requesting a file name and a preset for the movie. (If this does not occur, it has been disabled. You can create a new document by selecting > at any time.)
- Enter a name for your movie or keep the default name, “iStopMotion Clip”.
- Select a folder in which to store your project from the popup menu labelled "Where:". By default this will be your “Movies” folder.
- Choose the “Default” preset, as this is generally suitable for display on a lot of devices as Apple's iPod, iPhone, and AppleTV.
- By clicking
your settings are stored and an empty movie is created.
2. Choose an image source.
In order to record frames in iStopMotion you need to choose the device (video camera, webcam, still camera) to be used for capturing. A live preview of that device will be shown in the preview area. In case the content of the preview area is not what you expected you need to select the right camera:

- If your computer is equipped with a built-in iSight / FaceTime camera or if you have already connected an external video camera, a live video feed will be displayed in the preview area. Otherwise you should connect a camera now.
- In case it is not already visible, open the Source module in the sidebar by clicking the button labeled “Recording” in the toolbar.
- If there is no video, click the the pop-up menu next to “Source” and select your camera here. All connected cameras should be listed here including any iOS devices with the iStopMotion Remote Camera running.
- Your camera will now be displayed as the video source.
As most still cameras are not able to transfer a live preview, you will only see an image from a still camera after creating a preview manually. Create a preview by clicking the left record button in the toolbar. If your camera supports live preview you have to turn it on with the Life button next to the overlay slider. To find out if your camera supports live view, please check the list of supported cameras on the iStopMotion support website.
3. Position your camera and objects
- Position your camera to capture the target scene. Make sure your target object will stay visible during the recording.
- It is recommended to keep the camera position fixed and let your object(s) move or transform by itself.
4. Calculate the time interval between two frames to be captured
In order to calculate an appropriate time interval you first need to consider the following parameters:
- How long is the event that you plan to capture going to last? The blooming of a flower could take 8 hours, for example.
- How long should the resulting movie be? Let's say you want a movie 2 minutes in length.
- What frame rate should the movie have? (In case you are using the “Default” preset that would be 12 frames per second.)
Total number = length of the movie (in seconds) × frame rate of the movie
Interval (in seconds) = event duration (in seconds) ÷ total amount of frames
This for example means:
Total number = 120 seconds × 12 frames per second = 1140 frames
Interval = 28,800 s (8 hours) ÷ 1440 frames = 20 seconds per frame
5. Enable Time Lapse and enter the time interval in iStopMotion

Using still cameras usually requires values of several seconds as transferring high resolution images over a USB connection can take rather long.
6. Start the time lapse recording

- Start recording by clicking the capture button in the toolbar.
- A count down in the module as well as a small clock symbol on the capture button indicate that Time Lapse recording is active. iStopMotion will now capture frames at the given interval and place the images into the timeline.
Older video cameras with a tape usually fall into some sort of sleep mode in case they are not being used for a longer period of time. While this function is useful when filming it can be annoying when working with a computer as it will stop any time lapse recording. Usually the following two precautions help preventing sleep mode in video cameras:
- Remove any video tape from the camera.
- Connect the video camera to a power outlet.
7. Stop the recording.

You can stop recording at any time by once again pressing the capture button in the toolar. The movie can now be played.
To switch out of Time Lapse mode toggle the switch next to “Time Lapse“ to off (0).
Further processing of your movie
When you are done capturing frames, you can export your movie to it's final state or for post-processing in another application, such as iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
Select
> menu and choose a setting. To distribute the movie via email, MPEG-4 (at 320 by 240 pixels), would be quite suitable. If you prefer to edit it in another application first, you should export your movie in full size with as little compression as possible.To edit your scene in iMovie just select
> . iStopMotion will convert your movie in a format suitable for iMovie and launch iMovie automatically.