Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Time Lapse Plant Growth


It took the BBC two years to produce a 60 second time lapse shot of plant growth for their Life series. The shot seamlessly combines a tracking move on location with a matching plant growth shot back in the studio. Here's how they did it.

Via Best of YouTube

7 comments:

The fearless threader said...

Astounding! 96 layers of video! I have enough trouble combining 4 layers in photoshop without it looking messy.

BB said...

Magnificent!
Almost magical !
Thank´s for sharing, you´re a magnificent Artist and human being !
Merry Christmas !

Saskia said...

Wonderful! (Oooh free poster, I want one)

Amanda said...

It took nearly four months to film a time-release animation of a still life rotting. I gave up with the realisation that globe artichokes probably last for ever. Tomatoes can be most unpleasant housemates... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7VGueRriPg

Steve said...

Great clip. It was interesting to hear "You're off an inch," followed by several measurements that had to be centimeters. Probaby a lot of people in England, as in Canada, think in both systems.

In regard to the poster, alas, Saskia, we are too late. Here are the words straight from BBC:

"We're sorry, but due to overwhelming demand, our poster is no longer available. You can still explore the tree online."

To that I would add, you can still explore the tree outdoors. It's still the best place to do that exploring; you'll encounter infinite layers of video.

Don Cox said...

"Probaby a lot of people in England, as in Canada, think in both systems."

Yes. It can be very useful, as you use whichever system most suits the job.

Younger people tend to be more stuck on metric.

Lalquier said...

Thanks for posting this ! I was wondering how they managed that amazing video with such a stable lighting throughout the shot.

Usually, timelapse videos of plants growing have the day/night cycle pasted all over them.