How to Make a Time Lapse Speed Painting Video Demonstration

time lapse painting video A time lapse video is one whereby something is filmed over a period of time, and the video is condensed to a shorter version. The video appears like it is going in high speed. Most people will not sit and watch an artist painting for 2-3 hours. But, they will watch the same painting being created in a time lapse video of 3 minutes. A lot of the finer details can be missed, but the viewer will get a general idea of the painting process.

Can too many time lapse speed painting videos be a bad idea?

High speed painting demonstration videos tend to oversimplify the creation process. It is a possibility that people may think that the painting was created without thought. Usually all they see is the artist applying paint to the canvas. They do not see the time spent sketching and conceiving the idea - neither is the background of the piece often explained.

If you do a lot of these time lapse videos without explaining yourself, your art can possibly be undervalued. If you do many of these videos, consider including full length versions at your artist website. You can also include captions explaining your piece on the video itself, as well as a link where more information can be found at the end of the video. Also, mention the total time that you were painting in the video description so that people will actually know how long you took painting.

The advantages of creating time lapse videos of yourself painting with webcam.

People will get to see your painting process in a short amount of time. As I said, most people will not sit through 2-3 hours of video footage. But, in 3 minutes they can see your entire painting magically appear before their eyes. Some people may be amazed by seeing this.

The videos can easily be uploaded to Youtube, and other video sharing services. Time lapse videos are very popular there. Make sure you add appropriate keywords so that people will find your video. (ie painting demonstration, time lapse painting, etc.)

How to Create a Time Lapse Speed Painting Demonstration Video for Youtube with Webcam

Download Yawcam (stands for Yet Another Webcam Software), or if you already have webcam software, you can use that. Yacam is a great freeware webcam program, commonly used for webcam streaming to the web. In our case, we will be using it to create a series of webcam images to convert to a time lapse video.
Ignore the big green download button on the right, as it is an advertisement. Click the blue one on the left, then External Mirror 1, and install Yawcam.
Go to settings and set it to your webcam. Then, go to settings again and click Edit Settings. Change the path to a new folder on your computer you can easily find. Then, set the interval to 10 seconds between each picture.
Removing the date and time. This step is optional, and not really recommended, but I will show you how to do it for those who do not want it there.

To ensure the date and time do not be displayed on each image, go to Settings – Edit Settings – Text. Click inside the text box near Text#1 and delete the items inside, then hit OK.
Setup your webcam before you begin painting so there is a good view of the canvas. Ensure you have all your art supplies you will need nearby.
Now, go to View, make sure Control Panel is selected, and click enable near File. Your webcam will instantly begin taking snapshots at the interval you chose. When you are finished with your painting demonstration, click disable to stop your webcam from taking pictures. If at anytime during painting you decide to take a break, click the disable button, then the enable button again when ready to resume.
Find the folder on your computer that incudes all the webcam snapshots.
Open Windows Live Movie Maker on your computer. Go to Project, and change the screen dimensions to the format of your computer, either widescreen or standard.
Click Add Videos and Photos. Open up the folder with your stored webcam images and select all of them. (Click the first one, then scroll down to the last and click Shift plus the image).
Make sure all the images are selected in the preview. Go to Edit, and change the duration of each image to 0,03 Make sure the comma is included. This will condense the length of your video to minutes instead of hours. Hit Enter on your keyboard.
Press the Home tab, then Save on the right. Make sure you click the text below the icon instead of the icon itself. Select Zune HD (for 720p display). Create a name for your video, then click Save. Then, wait for the process to complete, which may take awhile depending on how many pictures you have.
Preview your painting demonstration video. If the video is too fast or too slow, you may have to go through the preceding two steps once more.
To save room on your computer and prepare for your next time lapse video, go to the folder with your images and delete them all.

Now that your video is completed, consider adding music and an ending slide displaying your artist website. All of this can be done in Windows Live Media Maker or Camtasia Studio.

To find out how you can create a full webcam video without the time lapse, please visit this tutorial: How to Record a Webcam Video

Also upload the video to Youtube and include keywords and a good description. We have a helpful tutorial for this here: Create a Video Slideshow for Youtube