Top 10 tips for epic hyperlapses
with the Insta360 ONE X2 and ONE R,
and these are two cameras that in my opinion are the best
choices for the hyperlapse effect because of the quick and
seamless editing experience inside both their mobile and
desktop software.
Tip number one is making sure your clip is the right length.
Having a clip that is too short to begin with
won't give you enough footage to speed up into
an awesome looking hyperlapse.
Take this one for example,
here I started with a clip that was three minutes and 23
seconds, but after speeding it up,
it left me with 10 seconds.
Whereas if I'd only started with 20 seconds of footage,
that would leave me with about one to two seconds of usable
hyperlapse.
It's better to have too much footage to work with than too
little. So always overestimate how much footage
you need for a good hyperlapse.
At the absolute minimum, I'd suggest two minutes.
At the max 20 minutes,
because just like you can have hyperlapses too short,
they can also drag on too long.
Tip two is pick your speed wisely.
Sometimes hyperlapses can end up looking too quick
or too slow,
which is why every time you're editing a hyperlapse
you should try multiple speeds to see which one looks the
best. So for a really long clip,
like this 18 minute 360 video that I took on the ferry from
Manly to Circular Quay, here in Sydney.
If I were to play that at four times the speed or even 16
times the speed, it would take over a minute
to get from start to finish.
Which defeats the purpose of hyperlapse,
it's supposed to be snappy.
So if you're starting with a lot of footage and there's not
that much happening in your hyperlapse,
then consider speeding up drastically to even 64 times,
which is what I ended up using with this clip.
On average, though, the ideal speed for the average
scene that you're probably going to be shooting
is going to be 16 times speed.
But again, it's subjective on the clip you're shooting
and always test different speeds
with every hyperlapse you make.
Tip three is when you're shooting hyperlapses,
always do your best to walk or navigate
in a straight path, if you can.
If you're constantly changing directions and you speed that
up into a hyperlapse, it's going to
leave your audience dizzy and confused.
So the ideal hyperlapse location is one way you can navigate
in a somewhat forward motion. Like here on the beach,
I was literally just walking from one end to the other,
which made it feel so much smoother and almost like a drone
shot. And that helps make it a little bit easier on the eye.
My next tip for epic hyperlapses, is turning direction
lock off. Direction lock keeps the perspective locked
on the direction of the camera.
And if you're walking around with this thing handheld and
you don't have a perfectly straight hand,
it means the field of view is constantly going to be moving
side to side. As you can see here in this clip on the beach,
this is direction lock on and it's shaky as,
this is not a good hyperlapse.
So instead I turned direction lock off
and look how much smoother that is,
that really does help make the most of that
awesome six axis stabilisation,
and really only required basic key framing to get the
direction facing forward anyway.
Situations where you may want to put direction lock on, is if
your camera is fixed to something.
So let's say you have it mounted to a car and you know,
the camera is not going to move at all,
but in most situations I'd recommend turning direction
lock off and key framing the direction yourself manually.
Tip number five is that you should consider
reframing your hyperlapses.
If you're walking a really simple path,
like my beach shot here,
then showing it from start to finish actually starts getting
a bit boring,
which is where reframing in several directions is going to
totally transform this clip into something completely
different. So here I've animated it inside Insta360 studio,
which is Insta360's free desktop software.
And I was able to create this really cool
key frame 360 hyperlapse.
And this really is so much better and more engaging than
facing the same direction the whole time.
So any situations where there's not a lot going on in your
environment, you will want to consider reframing
to make your shot more interesting.
This brings me a tip number six,
and that is using moving elements to your advantage.
I'm talking about trees, people, buildings,
as boring as these things can be in real life,
when sped up at 16 times with the hyperlapse effect and
motion blur, suddenly they turn into these blurry,
cool looking patterns, which really bring
your hyperlapse to life.
Whereas if I was just walking through an empty field,
you'd have none of that stuff and it'd be a boring
hyperlapse. So the more general detail
in your environment, the better.
Tip number seven is to avoid stopping.
This can be hard sometimes,
walking for five plus minutes without stopping
even slightly, it's a challenge,
especially if you're in a busy city or an area where there's
a lot of people.
And we all know it.
What happens when you're patiently
waiting to get an awesome shot?
People tend to stand in your way and they don't move and
they don't take a hint.
But I find when capturing these hyperlapses,
the best approach is to be really obvious
about what you're doing.
So hold your camera up high and be very confident with what
you're doing. When people see you in the distance,
they'll see that you're making some kind of cool shot.
They'll have no idea what you're doing,
but they'll at least stand to the side.
If you're walking through a busy area and if they don't
practice your best ninja skills of weaving in and out of
people, if you can. Just try your best to avoid stopping,
because when you stop the hyperlapse stops and you can't
continue it, unless you want to take the time to manually go
and re edit the pauses out later,
which adds an extra step to the workflow. It is possible,
but if you can avoid it, then you should.
Tip eight is that shorter clips can work with hyperlapses.
You just need to slow them down a bit.
So instead of going for a full on 16 times hyperlapse
of a five minute clip, instead, you might want to go
for a four times hyperlapse of a one minute clip.
As long as what you're shooting is still interesting.
And the hyperlapse effect add something,
Then shorter clips are absolutely possible when
played back at a slower speed like two, four
or six times the speed.
Tip number nine for epic hyperlapses is
the pivot effect.
This means walking around in circles around your subject.
Here I tried it with my girlfriend and it didn't really work
because she was too small.
However, I found this cool bird cage looking thing
in Sydney's Botanic Gardens and decided to
pivot around that.
So I went down the path near it,
then pivoted around it four times and
back in the direction I came.
Now, speed that up, and that hyperlapse
is looking good. Okay.
The pivot is probably a bit fast, but that's okay.
We can re edit it. So here in Insta360 studio,
I started at 16 times the speed transitioned to six times as
I pivot around it a few times,
and then back to 16 on the way out.
And this goes with the general principle of the more that is
going on in your video, the slower you should go.
The less that's going on, the faster.
So don't be afraid to play with different speeds throughout
your hyperlapse. You can go fast, slow, fast, slow.
According to whatever would work best for specific bits of
your hyperlapse.
Tip 10 is that hyper lapses look awesome from vehicles.
Here we are back at the ferry clip and
the reason this looks so good is because you can see
the ferry prominently in the hyperlapse.
It adds a really nice contrast of a close element with the
passing distance elements on the right hand side.
And this would work super well with cars, bikes, boats,
helicopters, planes, whichever vehicle you can attach
a 360 camera to you can get this cool hyperlapse
parallax effect with.
Now as to actually
how to make a hyperlapse. It's so easy.
It barely even needs a tutorial,
but I'm going to give you a 15 second one anyway.
^Open up either Insta360 studio or the Insta360 mobile app.
Choose the clip you want to edit, go to speed,
select the portion you want to speed up,
then choose the new speed you want the hyperlapse to be,
by default, it will add the motion blur effect,
you can turn it off if you want,
but I recommend keeping it on.
You won't be able to preview the hyperlapse
until you export. So go ahead and do that.
Then once exported use that as a guide,
as to what needs to be changed to
make the hyperlapse better.
Rarely does it work well the first time,
but when you do make a few changes to your hyperlapse,
you can end up with some epic results,
like I've got it in this video.
So that's my top 10 tips for epic
hyperlapses with a ONE X2 and ONE R,
I'll linked both of these cameras below.
Subscribe for more, and I'll see you next time.
Peace!