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Chronolapse

Chronolapse makes it easy to record screenshots and camera captures on a schedule then combine them into timelapse videos. Chronolapse provides the tools for capturing the images, lightly processing them, adding optional 'picture in picture', rendering the images into video, and adding audio.

Chronolapse uses MEncoder to render the captured images into video - make sure you have MEncoder installed and on your path. Alternatively, you can select the MEncoder executable on the Chronolapse video tab. Additionally, Chronolapse can save image files in either timestamp format or sequential integer format so the resulting images can be combined using other external tools like VirtualDub.

Chronolapse 2.0 is a rewrite of the original Chronolapse codebase with generally cleaner code, much better configuration control, some new functionality, and some old, unused features pruned away.

Most significantly, Chronolapse 2.0 uses the OpenCV library to support webcam captures on all platforms.

Command Line Options

  • -a / --autostart Automatically starts capturing immediately

  • -b / --background Starts Chronolapse in the background without showing the frame at all. You can open the Chronolapse window from the taskbar on supported systems.

  • --config_file The location of the configuration file. If not found, a new one will be created at this location. This must be writable. Defaults to 'chronolapse.config'

  • --sequential_image_format Sets the format string for sequential image filenames using python's string formatting and passing in the next integer number. Defaults to '%05d'

  • --timestamp_filename_format Sets the format string for rendering timestamps on images using python's datetime.strftime function. Defaults to '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'

  • -v / --verbose Increases command line output

  • -d / --debug Greatly increases command line output. Helpful for debugging.

Configuration Hacks

Some configuration is only exposed via Chronolapse's configuration file, which defaults to chronolapse.config in the chronolapse folder. The file is a simple json file - you can carefully edit it by hand (you may want to use a json formatter to make it easier on yourself).

The configuration file contains a top level key 'chronolapse' and a long list of simple key: values underneath it.

Example:

{
    "chronolapse": {
        "use_webcam': true
    }
}

Most of the configuration keys are automatically handled by the user interface and will be overwritten when you change them in Chronolapse itself. However, there are several advanced options that can only be changed by editing the configuration.

Changing Camera

OpenCV does not do a great job of enumerating the available capture devices, but it is possible to manually specify the device number you wish to use by editing the webcam_device_number field. The default device number is 0.