5 ms·

Long Exposures – Creating Average Frames from Movies

82 points by edent 9y ago

RcouF1uZ4gsC 9y ago
At the beginning of the article, there is a set of a 2 rows x 3 column set of images by Jason Schulman. The last imahlge on the first row, looks kind of like a blurry Albert Einstein.
stcredzero 9y ago
I wonder how a moving average of a movie would look? I think the trick would be in choosing the right length for the moving average window, so that the viewer could still see the "chapter" transitions.
ghaff 9y ago
Different but related. Color of movies by frame: Corrected: http://thecolorsofmotion.com/films http://thecolorsofmotion.com/films
- baddox 9y ago
  You've pasted the same URL.
- flashman 9y ago
  If you're interested in creating your own: http://timbennett.github.io/movie-barcodes/ http://timbennett.github.io/movie-barcodes/ (I wrote this, it's not fantastic but it's functional)
md224 9y ago
Awesome! Here's a similar project in the audio domain: http://rlukedubois.bandcamp.com/album/timelapse http://rlukedubois.bandcamp.com/album/timelapse
flashman 9y ago
I did something similar by piping ffmpeg into a numpy array, with each frame updating the average RGB value of each pixel in the array. Here's a three-second clip from 'Logan' of a scene where Hugh Jackman's character is leaping through the air from right to left: http://i.imgur.com/EIp56LX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/EIp56LX.jpg I like the results better for short sequences, but here's the entirety of 'Logan' (not sure what's causing the dark line down the middle): http://i.imgur.com/3QW6zPj.jpg http://i.imgur.com/3QW6zPj.jpg
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  > not sure what's causing the dark line down the middle Watermark?
  - flashman 9y ago
    Not a watermark. But I did it on a 240p version of the file (much much faster processing speed), probably has something to do with it.
- pasta 9y ago
  I use this with my crappy webcam. The long 'exposure' fixes noise so it can also take nice pictures when there is no much light. The same technique is also used in 3D path tracers. You sample a pixel multiple times to reduce noise.
- bananasbandanas 9y ago
  Would you mind sharing the code? I find the second example oddly satisfying to look at and would like to experiment with other movies at different resolutions.
  - flashman 9y ago
    Here's my code: https://gist.github.com/timbennett/9c1614281797ce620c6069476d39c7b8 https://gist.github.com/timbennett/9c1614281797ce620c6069476... You'll need to experiment to find the right value for the variable 'alpha' in the script. This controls each frame's opacity: too high and it will be overexposed, too low and it will be dark. It's roughly in the range 5/n to 40/n where n is the number of frames in the video, but depends on the film's overall moodiness too. If you're going to run it on a feature film length video, I suggest making a low-resolution version (e.g. 144p) and fine-tuning alpha on that, since it will be significantly less frustrating.
    - bananasbandanas 9y ago
      Thanks!
mccoyspace 9y ago
Related work: The artist Jason Salavon is well-known for making work using a software-driven frame averaging technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Salavon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Salavon Using analog techniques there is a famous set of photographs of films playing in movie theaters by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. In this work a long duration time-lapse photo of the film renders the screen glowing white with a pale outline of the theatre around it. https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-7 https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-7
lsh 9y ago
Also different but related: slit scan photography. wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit-scan_photography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit-scan_photography with video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSesvu_uqLo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSesvu_uqLo
SuperPaintMan 9y ago
Cool! I tried something similar using Go + ffmpeg. Eventually wanted to find a way to select the most "continuous" pixel from all available data and spider out, but never got that far. Instead I played around with gifs and space. [1] https://goo.gl/photos/se5pBWh399JJ945T6 https://goo.gl/photos/se5pBWh399JJ945T6 [2] https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/ https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/
y04nn 9y ago
With VLC you can add motion blur to your videos in "Video Effects(⌘+E) > Color > Motion Blur", if you push the factor high you get some nice effects.
drcongo 9y ago
I have one of Brendan Dawes' CinemaRedux prints on my wall at home. http://www.brendandawes.com/projects/cinemaredux http://www.brendandawes.com/projects/cinemaredux
rotexo 9y ago
you can also do some fun stuff with image averaging in ImageJ. here is a python script for ImageJ I wrote a while back that takes the standard deviation of several frames at a time and averages them onto a background (https://pastebin.com/09wPkwhN https://pastebin.com/09wPkwhN nb: I am a terrible programmer and this was when I was just starting to learn) that produced this: http://imgur.com/a/eaLEO http://imgur.com/a/eaLEO

82 points by edent 9y ago

At the beginning of the article, there is a set of a 2 rows x 3 column set of images by Jason Schulman. The last imahlge on the first row, looks kind of like a blurry Albert Einstein.

stcredzero 9y ago

I wonder how a moving average of a movie would look? I think the trick would be in choosing the right length for the moving average window, so that the viewer could still see the "chapter" transitions.

ghaff 9y ago

Different but related. Color of movies by frame: Corrected: http://thecolorsofmotion.com/films http://thecolorsofmotion.com/films

baddox 9y ago
You've pasted the same URL.
flashman 9y ago
If you're interested in creating your own: http://timbennett.github.io/movie-barcodes/ http://timbennett.github.io/movie-barcodes/ (I wrote this, it's not fantastic but it's functional)

md224 9y ago

Awesome! Here's a similar project in the audio domain: http://rlukedubois.bandcamp.com/album/timelapse http://rlukedubois.bandcamp.com/album/timelapse

flashman 9y ago

I did something similar by piping ffmpeg into a numpy array, with each frame updating the average RGB value of each pixel in the array. Here's a three-second clip from 'Logan' of a scene where Hugh Jackman's character is leaping through the air from right to left: http://i.imgur.com/EIp56LX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/EIp56LX.jpg I like the results better for short sequences, but here's the entirety of 'Logan' (not sure what's causing the dark line down the middle): http://i.imgur.com/3QW6zPj.jpg http://i.imgur.com/3QW6zPj.jpg

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
> not sure what's causing the dark line down the middle Watermark?
- flashman 9y ago
  Not a watermark. But I did it on a 240p version of the file (much much faster processing speed), probably has something to do with it.
pasta 9y ago
I use this with my crappy webcam. The long 'exposure' fixes noise so it can also take nice pictures when there is no much light. The same technique is also used in 3D path tracers. You sample a pixel multiple times to reduce noise.
bananasbandanas 9y ago
Would you mind sharing the code? I find the second example oddly satisfying to look at and would like to experiment with other movies at different resolutions.
- flashman 9y ago
  Here's my code: https://gist.github.com/timbennett/9c1614281797ce620c6069476d39c7b8 https://gist.github.com/timbennett/9c1614281797ce620c6069476... You'll need to experiment to find the right value for the variable 'alpha' in the script. This controls each frame's opacity: too high and it will be overexposed, too low and it will be dark. It's roughly in the range 5/n to 40/n where n is the number of frames in the video, but depends on the film's overall moodiness too. If you're going to run it on a feature film length video, I suggest making a low-resolution version (e.g. 144p) and fine-tuning alpha on that, since it will be significantly less frustrating.
  - bananasbandanas 9y ago
    Thanks!

mccoyspace 9y ago

Related work: The artist Jason Salavon is well-known for making work using a software-driven frame averaging technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Salavon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Salavon Using analog techniques there is a famous set of photographs of films playing in movie theaters by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. In this work a long duration time-lapse photo of the film renders the screen glowing white with a pale outline of the theatre around it. https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-7 https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-7

lsh 9y ago

Also different but related: slit scan photography. wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit-scan_photography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit-scan_photography with video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSesvu_uqLo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSesvu_uqLo

SuperPaintMan 9y ago

Cool! I tried something similar using Go + ffmpeg. Eventually wanted to find a way to select the most "continuous" pixel from all available data and spider out, but never got that far. Instead I played around with gifs and space. [1] https://goo.gl/photos/se5pBWh399JJ945T6 https://goo.gl/photos/se5pBWh399JJ945T6 [2] https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/ https://theblackbox.ca/blog/vector-video/

y04nn 9y ago

With VLC you can add motion blur to your videos in "Video Effects(⌘+E) > Color > Motion Blur", if you push the factor high you get some nice effects.

drcongo 9y ago

I have one of Brendan Dawes' CinemaRedux prints on my wall at home. http://www.brendandawes.com/projects/cinemaredux http://www.brendandawes.com/projects/cinemaredux

rotexo 9y ago

you can also do some fun stuff with image averaging in ImageJ. here is a python script for ImageJ I wrote a while back that takes the standard deviation of several frames at a time and averages them onto a background (https://pastebin.com/09wPkwhN https://pastebin.com/09wPkwhN nb: I am a terrible programmer and this was when I was just starting to learn) that produced this: http://imgur.com/a/eaLEO http://imgur.com/a/eaLEO