You mean you want to add time-lapse clouds to a non-time lapse scene? Or you just want to speed up your scene so the clouds move faster?

Powertools -> playback speed -> 10x

Otherwise, you'd have to find some appropriate time lapse clouds (or record some) and make a mask to show them where your sky is.

Hi Gary,

You have asked a really great editing question, although some more detail is needed about what you are trying to do.

Bastian has given you a good answer, if there is no other motion in the video other than the clouds and if you took it with a tripod.

However, if you were inquiring about a technique for making the clouds appear to be moving quickly by the mountains, you may need to use an overlay of clouds, cropping the video and/or something more. Take a look at the possibilities in PIP.

Additionally, you could clearly get the movement effect by creating a stop movement video, such as in the gumby TV commercials. There are some real experts at this, such as videocentricity, who could give you some pointers. You , or anyone else interested, might start by carefully reading the current thread on this forum, entitled "Editing advice for stop motion". Also, it might help to check wikipedia, which has a good article on the subject.

Pax

Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
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If the clouds are still images (PNG), you can use magic motion to give motion to the clouds.

Tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/user/pdtoots#p/search/0/7Nm6XAsXbUQ
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hi Carl,

Of course, you can extract a still image from a video by using the freeze frame or snap shot tools.

It seems to me that Carsten's excellent tutorial would be difficult to apply to this situation because the full screen movement of the clouds would be very limited. In other words, as the clouds scud by, and out of view, how do you keep new clouds coming into view as the old ones exit from view?

Although I do not have the path, there is another tutorial that uses a jet plane as an example. I suspect that one would have the same problem, unless you use multiple images of the clouds. I tried using multiple images of the Nature.mpg clip, but it seemed obvious that I was just resetting the cloud image. I would still vote for a very laborious stop motion clip.

Hopefully, someone out there knows how to do this so it looks great and isn't extraordinarily labor intensive. I thought that Gary was asking how to make a video look like Nature.mpg, but starting out with one that looks like a still image.

Pax Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Of course the smart thing to do, is find a cloudly day and go outside and shoot some video.

It would be a Video that you could repeat if it was long enough.

You would have to careful of the image of the ground, you would not want any ground image in the video.

If you get ground (or buildings) in the video you would have to mask the video to just show the clouds.

Just an Idea.

I would think you could find some cloud images on Google images.

edit: There is cloud video on Google.

http://www.google.com/search?q=clouds&tbo=p&tbm=vid&source=vgc&hl=en&aq=f
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: Of course the smart thing to do, is find a cloudly day and go outside and shoot some video.

Since there are only blue skies in Texas, I guess you would have to go a long way outside to find a cloudy day. No wonder you Googled it!

Pax Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Does smoke count as clouds? RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6
(2 NVME 2TB, 1 SSD 2TB, 3SATA 18TB )
PD18 ULTIMATE 64bit
WINDOWS 10 PRO 64 BIT
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RYZEN 7 3700X 8-CORE , 64 GB DDR4
ORSAIR HX1050 watts PSU

I have a couple of cloud clips in my stock, so I gave it a try just for the
fun of it. Same clip in the back and front of the image, just playing with
keyframes/opacity/speed.

Whether Pax will be satisfied remains to hear ,but maybe something for Gary?

Took me 15 min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BUMqLMGFMs



Just something.
https://www.petitpoisvideo.com

Pax,

Since there are only blue skies in Texas, I guess you would have to go a long way outside to find a cloudy day. No wonder you Googled it!

We keep hoping for rain, nothing but 100 degree days for over a month.

I do have some still images of clouds, but not anything that would make a believable animation.

I looked at the images of clouds on Google, there may be a possibility there for animation.

And Rocket-Scientist, no, I do not think smoke counts.

Nina's demo looked pretty good to me. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Nina,

I am still laughing at the cartoon you put up when I was tut tuting the other day.

Pax Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Heres something i made sort of like Ninas. I used some stock footage clouds and made a VERY rough mask of the default castle picture.

You could also mask out the top of the Nature video PD starts with and use that as some moving clouds. And then duplicate it to fit your duration.

ClancM

Now that is more like it should be.

That is the way I would expect to see clouds moving behind the castle. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

So -

There are a few possibilities:
1. Mask a still image (like Clancy's example)
2. Apply transparency to part of a photo (see attached)
3. Use particle effects better than me (example in attachment)
4. Overlay videos and modify opacity (Nina's sky test video)
5. Apply a mask to a video... which MUST be shot with a tripod! (also embarrassingly attached)
6. Shoot the clouds when they're moving (Carl's suggestion)

Cheers - Tony
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Thank you all for your responses to my question
I am going to try your suggestions in the near future.
I am leaving on a two week Elk hunt on sat. Time to fill
the freezer hopefully.
Thanking you all again
GARY 364 Gary

Hi Gary,

While you are out filling your freezer, I hope you will take your video camera and a tripod along. I have explored several options on your question and it currently looks to me like PD9 is a little weak on this particular task. It is very strong in creating an illusion of motion, but it is difficult to have them scudding across the screen. Great cohesion in the images is needed. It does fine for cartoons because the viewer knows they are not real clouds, but it seems a little weak on generating what looks like a real life motion of clouds in a video of a mountain.

1. I agree with Carl that your best bet is to take a video of some clouds moving at an appropriate speed. Cropping is easy, but there will be problems matching the sky color, or even the time of day the sun is on the clouds, etc.

2. An original video in slow motion or delayed action of the mountain and clouds is, of course, best. If you are about to make your video on the hunting trip, be sure to make a long sequence and hope the wind doesn't kick up. You can then speed the action in PD9. PD9 can deal with altering slow motion to standard motion. The mountain will not move and that will simplify everything.

3. If you are just taking a still camera, probably you can do a long "burst" or series of bursts and PD9 will be able to create a very credible motion illusion, especially by generating a stop action clip.

If you are stuck with prior footage of the mountain, but are able to video or photograph clouds on your trip, you will easily be able to crop the clouds and overlay them on, or above, your mountain. Matching the sky and the sun could remain a problem, but you should be able to "lasso" them with a third party program like "Paint.net". Then, you could paste them onto a transparent background in PIP. At any rate, you can probably have a good time creating your masterpiece, if you can get some good cloud footage in slow motion.

There are several cloud clips on Google and DirectorsZone. Of course, others may have much better suggestions, but I wanted to post this before you leave tomorrow.

Good luck and good hunting.

Pax



Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

There's another problem that I don't think anyone touched on: looping.

Suppose you do manage, somehow, to separate the clouds from the mountains. Speeding up the clouds would be easy with the PowerTools. The problem is that you won't have enough "cloud."

If you have 60 seconds of original clip, and you double the speed of the clouds, then you'll have 60 seconds of mountain and 30 seconds of cloud. If you just run the cloud video twice, it will be obvious.

If you only need 30 seconds total, that's fine.

By the way, are the clouds casting shadows on the mountains? Jerry Schwartz

Jerrys Wrote:
If you have 60 seconds of original clip, and you double the speed of the clouds, then you'll have 60 seconds of mountain and 30 seconds of cloud. If you just run the cloud video twice, it will be obvious.

That is probably true, if you are shooting clouds, why not put your camera on a tripod and let it run until you fill the Memory card?

Mine would shoot one hour. If you can't get useful footage out of an hour, then you just don't have any clouds.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

I think Jerry has put his finger on the most difficult, if not impossible, problem. That is why I suggested that Gary make a long video. If you don't have enough excess, you will see a creeping black screen, where the clouds had been.

There are many video editing programs that can accelerate motion, but they all compress the footage, so far as I know. It seems like it should be possible to create a macro which endlessly resets, but subtly changes, the first few frames of the upstream clouds. This would look like new clouds continuously proceeded into the frame. Accelerating the movement should be no problem if the macro works right. This is just speculation. I have not tried to create a macro and would have no idea how to do it, except in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word!

I have been fiddling with a work around that gives "reasonable" results, until something better comes around.

I took Nature.mpg and spilt it where the cloud part ends. Then I copied it several times and placed an overlapping fade transition between each clip. This looks like the clouds are "rebuilding" as they go along.

I suppose one could play with this, or the macro idea, and improve on it more. But until one of you skilled and trained geniuses comes up with the real solution, I am at the end of my rope.

There are several tutorials on the internet which show excellent fast and slow motion clips, but none of them, which I saw, address the problem of reducing the length of the clip in order to speed the motion.

Pax Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

It wouldn't be easy to fake an endless loop of clouds, even with a cross-fade. If you think about the ditties that are used as bumper music in broadcasting or to drive you insane when you are on hold, you'll realize that they are specially constructed to be endless.

I have used programs that can generate an endless stream of clouds, but that is merely a side-effect of their real purpose (modeling in 3D). They use random number generators and some pretty geeky math to do it.

I don't think the tools in PD would be up to masking off the mountains. That being said, I think that there is a way to get the desired results without much trouble.

Since mountains don't generally move much you could replace the entire clip very easily.

Take a snapshot of the clip; bring it into a decent photo editor

Mask off the mountains

Make the rest of the image transparent

Use the resulting image as a still PIP

Now that you have your mountains, but no sky, the only thing that remains is to get a clip of moving clouds and put it behind the mountain PIP. No fuss, no muss.

You can chuck the video portion of the original clip at this point. You don't need it anymore.

Remember, video (and 3D modeling) is all about cheating! Jerry Schwartz