Timescapes: Timelapse Dolly Project on Vimeo

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12. Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 months ago

11. Timescapes Timelapse: Learning to Fly

by Tom @ Timescapes

8 months ago

10. Timescapes: Timelapse Dolly Project

by Tom @ Timescapes

10 months ago

9. 5D Mark II Test Shoot at Beach

by Tom @ Timescapes

1 year ago

8. Timelapse: Day to Night at Joshua Tree

by Tom @ Timescapes

1 year ago

7. Timescapes: Digital Timelapse

by Tom @ Timescapes

1 year ago

6. "The One that Got Away"..... (Night Timelapse HD)

by Tom @ Timescapes

1 year ago

5. Night Timelapse MOTION

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 years ago

4. Stars and Rock Spire Timelapse - HD

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 years ago

3. Tribute to Terrence Malick

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 years ago

2. Drivelapse

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 years ago

1. Timelapse: Nightscapes

by Tom @ Timescapes

2 years ago

Get updates about my film and download my 1080p videos: timescapes.org

twitter.com/timescapes

I spent the last couple of nights testing my new dolly. It's custom made from aluminum and powered by the mumford stepper motor. The dolly is capable of "move-shoot-move" motion control.

A couple of photos of the dolly:

i40.tinypic.com/5b1x4.jpg

i39.tinypic.com/qreuwy.jpg

Credits

322 Likes

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4 hours ago
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5 days ago
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10 days ago
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15 days ago
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19 days ago
See all 322 likes

Jordan Megahy 10 months ago

Oh... My... God... That is absolutely Amazing.......
My jaw is on the floor. Oh man that is fantastic!!!!
Antonio Segura 4 months ago

is a very nice video, greetings from Seville
Rick Lantz 10 months ago

Tom, that's so cool! Thanks for showing the set up.
Jason Chen 10 months ago

Sweet. The result is amazing. How much time do you need to set this up?
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

it takes some time, for sure. maybe 20 minutes right now. like anything, the longer you do it, the faster you get at setting it up.
Ben Millett 10 months ago

Beautiful. Too bad the sample is so short!
Pikku 10 months ago

That what i thought too.
Ian Lucero 10 months ago

Nice work Tom! I love your set-up. Your photography is beautiful.

We share a very similar dolly design.

170.tumblr.com/post/58707535/dolly-detail
170.tumblr.com/post/58707458/dolly-mounted

I've been trying to figure out a timelapse set-up or at least a way to move the camera remotely so I can get more consistent speeds.
Agambaros 10 months ago

Sirius and Canis Major on the sky....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_Major

Beautiful
Blake Whitman 10 months ago

AWESOME. Nice work.
Blake Whitman 10 months ago

also, we have flickr support so you can put your photos in line on the side of the page, just fyi.
Richard Huntington 10 months ago

Wow, nice!
ße ωell ;-) 10 months ago

cool rig, I must give that a go and make one myself...
ße ωell ;-) 10 months ago

btw, did you link the stepper to the intervalometer to get it to stay-put while you took the shots?
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

yes the mumford time machine intervalometer controls the shutter, and also sends a signal to the stepper controller to move the motor between exposures.
ße ωell ;-) 10 months ago

thought so, now I just have to figure out a way to break the stepper whilst the shutter is open with my intervalometer.

Thanks Tom for the reply, its given me food for thought :)
Terje Nesthus 10 months ago

Awesome rig man! Love it
Andrew Curtis 10 months ago

Very nice setup and results. My super cheapo pvc dolly is now complete and I will be doing some tests this weekend hopefully. Combined with the zoom rig it has some cool potential.
BigCrow 10 months ago

Oh my fuc8ing god!
It's so amazing and not usual... Moving lapse...
mikehedge 10 months ago

wow. shit. genius
Dan Valentine 10 months ago

Awesome
Andrew Wilding 10 months ago

holy fucking awesome job.
Mark Rigler 10 months ago

i think we want one of these dollys
Jamie Thompson 10 months ago

You need to manufacture and sell those bad boys! I'd buy one in a heartbeat, except, for giving you the idea you'd give me one free :)
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

wait... i see what you did there.. :)
Jamie Thompson 10 months ago

cant blame a guy for trying
Matthew Gorveatte 25 days ago

lol; I am on the same train. send me one. buddy old pal. I do this now too, but i do it by hand my last one was a moving time lapse like this buy every shoot is hand pressed and focused all bracketed and hdr-rd. I zoom and pan thought time, but not like you. I now see that a controller would be more amazing. vimeo.com/5990932
Robb Cox 10 months ago

Great job man
ZhiC 10 months ago

That's fantastic.. can't stop staring at that system.. looks extremely professional!!
ben crowell 10 months ago

Nuts
Leonardo Dalessandri 10 months ago

Hey Tom... che tipo di motore hai utilizzato?
complimenti ragazzo, hai fatto un ottimo lavoro!!
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

Grazie.

Uso il sistema del motore di Mumford…

bmumford.com/photo/rotary/index.html
olivier auverlau 2 months ago

thanks tom ... i am working in a Pan tilt head that it can be added to your dolly !
Martijn Doornenbal 10 months ago

Wow that is an amazing setup! Beautiful timelapse shot. I would love to see more of that!
trondk 10 months ago

Very very nice, but you quite the set-up now. Your next investment isn't by any chance a bigger car? You might have to get a used Volvo BM BV202 :-D
Telemov 10 months ago

Wow. Great choice of music, too.
Juneteenth Works 10 months ago

very cool!
Wesley Kandel 10 months ago

Absolutely fantastic bro!
Brian Boudreau 10 months ago

OMG thats awesome Tom. tell me you have a longer TL coming soon :)
E-One Productions 10 months ago

Vraiment superbe, quel esprit creatif, c' est incroyable !!!
A quand les prochaines videos de ce style...
Bravo.
Ken Scott 10 months ago

love how you push the envelope Tom ... fantastic!
Exposedlight 10 months ago

You have got to be kidding me! That is one of the best shots I have seen in months. It's great to see creativity like this without having to resort to Shake, Nuke or AE.

Well done.
Ty Frey 10 months ago

Fantastic. How much track can you add?
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

well in theory i could add miles... heh. it's modular in design.
Jeff Gammons 10 months ago

Outstanding! Would love to see some furture videos using this setup. Great work!
Antti Pietikäinen 10 months ago

right...now i'm jealous
James 10 months ago

hot damn, that was amazing. Saying it's beautiful is an understatement.
JORGEFRIED 10 months ago

Hey Tom, how much money did you put on this?
Amazing!
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

about 550 bucks, I think. wheels were 200, aluminum was 150, and welding was 200. i already owned the motor and controller, which is around 800.
JORGEFRIED 10 months ago

Thanks for the info Tom!
1:1 Pictures 10 months ago

Unbelievably great footage!!!
What program do you use to put the photos together in a movie? I have a dinky one called 'photo-to-movie' I've been using but its not great.
Tom @ Timescapes 10 months ago

Adobe After Effects. By far, it's the best program for rendering timelapse. It can even ingest RAW files.
Ian McGlynn 10 months ago

Really cool!
Andy Orr 10 months ago

Awesome! Very well done! And love the Floyd! Hell ya! It's one fantastic song for a fantastic TL!
Eric Tsutomu 10 months ago

Oh my god...this is just amazing.
Hoop-CA, USA 10 months ago

Breathtaking, Tom. I don't even know what to say.
Andy Riddle 10 months ago

Awesome. I love Special Features!
Sherriff HD 10 months ago

Hell Yeah!
Adam Machowiak 9 months ago

Wow, just incredible...
individualEye 9 months ago

like
Ted Chandler 9 months ago

that's freaking great, man. reminds me of Planet Earth stuff. congrats.
Martin Whipp 9 months ago

Excellent work Tom,

Got something like that back home in the UK. I'll dig it out and try myself when I get back.

You've got me thinking about the stop-to-expose phase though. That's gonna be interesting to work out.
Sean Seah 9 months ago

AWESOME!! Thks for sharing
Scott Last 9 months ago

fantastic stuff Tom have really enjoyed your work, great build quality of the dolly. How are you keeping the cable tension applied, as it goes from the mumford head to your camera but not out the other side, or am I wrong.
Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing
Tom @ Timescapes 9 months ago

heh... simple gravity. i just make it have a slight grade. not a great solution, but it works for now. i'm hoping to make a closed-loop cable system soon that will be more accurate and professional.
Attilio Cerqua 9 months ago

WoW
Thomas Akira Nakasone 9 months ago

i love the inside look at the shot... it is a beuatifully crafted machine and clip
Peter Longno 8 months ago

speechless... HOW LONG DID THAT TAKE?!
Tom @ Timescapes 8 months ago

oh it was only shooting for like 2 hours.
Will Fuqua 8 months ago

Wow, very nice. I was wondering how you got those time lapse shots in you're 'Learning to Fly' video. Now I just wonder how you moved down the road at a constant but slow speed with little camera shake.
Tom @ Timescapes 8 months ago

very carefully. ;)
Joao Correia 8 months ago

freaking awesome !
philip mast 8 months ago

This makes me want to pack up my gear and head west..
Tim Lüdin 8 months ago

Hi Tom

Your new stuff is killer. Specialy the new dolly shots.
You are mr. timelapse for me.
I also bought the 5D2 as a backup body for my 1DS3.
The 5D is da bomb. Also video. Now think Scarlet.
It's gonna be a great RED year.
Cya on Reduser.
Tim
Pompo Bombacci 8 months ago

Imagine how cool it would be have a person really close to that setup staring at the cam moving on da dolly!
Philip Bloom 8 months ago

well done Tom. Can you build me one? I will of course pay! Been trying to get something like this for a year now nut been too expensive.
Tom @ Timescapes 8 months ago

sure thing, just pm me or hit me up with an email.
Scott Wittrock 8 months ago

Dude that's an epic rig. Thanks for givin us a little glimpse as to how it's done.
StaticCinema 7 months ago

do you have link or guide about setting up a stepping motor/controller to a dolly?
Jon Ross 7 months ago

dude that's awesome, I want one.
→Zac Boyet← 7 months ago

I have been thinking of making a setup like this.
doctordurden 7 months ago

***** Tom @ Timescapes Interview !! *****
timelapses.es/blog/?p=68
chris paredes 6 months ago

holy freaking crap i saw your post on zaza's indie slider thread on dvxuser and had to check this out. sooooooo awesome!!!
MrMoe 6 months ago

Brillant! Great Work.
Daniel Hidalgo 6 months ago

You are the freaking man!!!!
Just awesome!
liam thomas 6 months ago

brilliant man...
keep up your efforts
luis garcia de armas 6 months ago

Very nice work. Are you thinking about commercialice it?
It´s an interesting tool...
Tom @ Timescapes 6 months ago

i don't know how to commercialize it. if some company wants to work with me, let me know!
Jesse Merz 6 months ago

Beautiful.
MotionTimelapse 5 months ago

Brilliant result! Smooth motion.
rickflick 5 months ago

Looks like a careful engineering job.
Amedeo Fabroni 5 months ago

Wonderful work!
Matthew Kevin 4 months ago

great work... but why is it so short?
Rod Cole 3 months ago

This is the best DIY dolly I have seen and Learning to Fly is freekin' incredible. If you are not going to produce the dolly commercially (you should!) would you be willing to share some of the construction details?

Would also like to get your post workflow. I have the Adobe Premium Production Suite CS4 but only know Final Cut Pro, so anything you are willing to share would be helpful.
Tom @ Timescapes 3 months ago

I very well might try to do something commercially, at some point, especially if I can refine the design.

For workflow, I just use Adobe After Effects CS4, which can ingest the Canon RAW .CR2 files directly, and then render out gorgeous 1080p and 4K sequences.
360 TIME I M A G E S 3 months ago

My dolly track has to be assembled on site being lightweight, portable and elegant :-) I am refining by design with my structural software and would like to run yours for comparison. Would you be able to let me have some dimensions/measurements?
toferphotography 2 months ago

Just amazed with your work and the rig
Romic48 2 months ago

Mythical Tom!!! To open mouth!!! Thanks!!!
from Italy
DunnRight Video 2 months ago

Saaweeeeeet!
Daniele Gatti 2 months ago

a masterpiece. Good job!