If you want to make a cool, professional looking, smooth timelapse video, you could spend lots of time and $$$ on gear or if you have an iPhone, you can just download an app. This morning, the people behind that little app, Instagram, released ‘Hyperlapse,’ a standalone app that makes it super easy to smooth out your shaky tracking shots or create timelapse/hyperlapse videos without the encumbrance of a pricy rig or heavy equipment.
Using some image stabilization algorithms, the phone’s gyroscope to stabilize the footage and magic fairy dust (or something like that), the very simple to use interface has one button you press to record. After your masterpiece is complete (it will allow you to record up to 45 minutes of footage), choose the speed on the slider, between 1x and 12x, then share your video with the world or save it so you can submit it to the Academy for next year’s Oscar consideration.
For those that have shaky hands and questionable balance (like me), Hyperlapse will produce a fairly steady video. You can adjust the exposure with a tap and in seconds, have a smooth, cinematic masterpiece.
[REWIND: 7 SIMPLE & CREATIVE TIPS AND TRICKS FOR YOUR SMARTPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY]
I wanted to see if someone with no cinematic skills could use this app, so I woke up my puppy and bribed her with treats to come downstairs with me for a quick demo. Running backwards and upstairs, the Hyperlapse app made my little video look like I took more than the 40 seconds I actually spent shaking a bag of treats and running through the yard while my neighbors looked on. It was then uploaded to Facebook with one press of a button. Total time spent: 1 minute 10 seconds.
For now, the app is only available for iPhone 4 and up. Instagram hopes to make the app Android friendly soon, but that requires some changes to the phone’s API and gyroscope.
The app isn’t perfect, of course, and will not replace a $15k setup for a quality cinematic feature, but I can’t wait to see the cinema magic you creatives out there will be making with this new toy.
To download the app, head over to the iTunes store. Read more about the inspiration behind Hyperlapse on WIRED here.
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this app spams video platforms with very bad “hyperlapses” ….
Loving the app, but has anyone tried shooting with the phone on a tripod? I have, and the results are very weird. The entire video kinds of ways back and forth, like it’s on a boat. Seems to work much better when the phone is being hand held. Kinda weird. I thoght it would be a quick and easy way to shoot a timelapse that I can speed up, but it doesn’t really work with a tripod.
Really looking forward to trying this out, especially for some behind the scenes photo shoot action
Just downloaded it and have been playing with it all afternoon. I have an iPhone tripod mount coming in the mail already so the combination of the hyperlapse app and the tripod could be cool. The stabilization is nice, but I like the flexibility this gives when you’re out to be creative. Thanks Hanssie!!!
Hooray for actually getting no work done today! Thanks a lot Instagram!
Just got it and will give it a try tomorrow. The stability looks great and it’s a shame it hasn’t been made available to Android users just yet. Good thing I have iOS too.
I can see a flood of pointless walking videos hitting our feeds in the coming months. Don’t get me wrong the app itself is pretty sweet and I’m trying to see how I can creatively add it to my workflow for certain projects. But to record to just record…no thank you.
Well, isn’t that what Facebook is all about? Now all those cat videos will be a lot smoother :)
Wooow its really good for an app…the stabilization is quite okay .. i will try it out
I feel like this could be one of the next annoying things that everyone on facebook and everywhere else is going to try for like 6 months.
I agree, but isn’t it like that with everything that is trendy?
Of course, I am sure there are going to be some amazing videos coming from this…look at what some artists have done with Vine videos and stuff. (I’m over here just videoing my dogs). :)
Agreed, I do have to say that some vine videos can be pretty hilarious
This is fantastic! I was actually planning to go out and shoot some time lapse sequences tonight with my old 400D, Magic Lantern and the sigma 10-20. I will charge my phone’s batteries now and totally give this a shot! It would be great if I could use this tethered over wifi with my 6D and use the videos of the DSLR… there’s a little thought for the folks over at Instagram ;)
Thanks for sharing and the write up of this article!!
I had a lot of fun with it. So much so that I didn’t do any work all afternoon. Oops. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone).
Video does not exist
Hmmm…wonder what happened. I reloaded it and it should be working now. Thanks :)