In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a hyperlapse with DaVinci Resolve from beginning to end.
You can fast-forward using the video chapters if you just want to check out the DaVinci Resolve hyperlapse stabilisation process.
What do you need to shoot a hyperlapse
You obviously need a camera, but you can shoot this on your phone as well.
Then you will need a subject, an anchor point, and a path to follow.
The subject here is St Pauls cathedral
The anchor point is going to be the top of the cathedral.
The path is a line on the floor that I can easily follow.
How to shoot a hyperlapse
Make sure your anchor point is visible for the entire path. I recommend you do a little test walk to make sure nothing obscures the anchor point on your path.
You want to shoot on Manual mode with fixed settings so the exposure stays the same throughout the shot.
Keep your camera level and use a focus point in your viewfinder to line up the anchor point in the same exact spot for each photo.
Take a step forward, line it up again, shoot, repeat.
You want to keep your time between photos and your step distance as consistent as possible.
Try and shoot at least 100 frames.
Once you’re done, scroll through the photos to get a preview of what your hyperlapse will look like.
How to edit a hyperlapse in DaVinci Resolve
Drag the folder with the photos into the Media library, right-click the image sequence and create a new timeline.
In the timeline select the clip and go to the stabilizer.
Click the stabilize button and see what it looks like, as you can see this is a very impressive result already.
There are three methods of stabilizing here.
- Perspective mode, which is very similar to the Warp Stabiliser in Premiere Pro or After Effects)
- Similarity, which adjusts your pan, tilt, zoom, and rotation parameters
- Translation, which does pan and tilt changes only
There are more settings you can adjust:
- Camera Lock tries to simulate a tripod style shot. This is useful for stabilising handheld static timelapses.
- Zoom tries to get rid of black bars or other black edges on the side of the frame
- The cropping ratio decides how much the software is allowed to crop into the image.
- The smooth slider has an effect on overall smoothness, you can play around with this to find the sweet spot.
- The Strength slider increases or decreases the overall effect.
No two hyperlapse shots are the same, so this might be quite a bit of trial and error before you get it right.
If you’re not happy with the result, go to your timeline, right-click the clip and create a compound clip, then apply the stabilizer again and tweak your settings if needed.
The more you shoot the better you’ll be at capturing them, and the less stabilizing you will have to do.
I want to point out that DaVinci Resolve is MUCH faster at analysing the footage.
It took just under 1 second in DaVinci and it took 44 seconds in After Effects to stabilize the hyperlapse sequence used in the video.
What else do you want to learn in DaVinci Resolve? Let me know in the comments!
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