4 Best Time Lapse Video Makers to Create Dramatic Time Lapse Videos in a Breeze (Online, Desktop)

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4 Best Time Lapse Video Makers to Create Dramatic Time Lapse Videos in a Breeze (Online, Desktop)

Last Updated: 2023. 09. 25

If your camera doesn’t have the time lapse feature or you wanna create a time lapse video from a regular-speed video to convey the passage of time dramatically or make time lapse effects to skip repetitive steps to make your tutorial video more engaging, then using a versatile time lapse video maker can be a great workaround.

So, in this tutorial, we’ve handpicked 4 best time lapse video makers for you and will walk you through their best features to speed up a video to create a dramatic time lapse video, both online and on your desktop.

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YouTube Travel Time Lapse Video

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Here’s What You Will Learn:

Also, read the 5 best birthday slideshow makers.

1. FlexClip

If you want to seamlessly create a time lapse video from parts of a normal-speed video for your YouTube tutorial videos or a travel Vlog to make long and slow processes look much quicker and more interesting, the user-friendly and feature-rich FlexClip time lapse video maker and AI video editor will live up to your expectation.

Seamlessly create a time lapse video by FlexClip online.

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Best Features to Create a Time Lapse Video with FlexClip:

Harness the speed curve feature (0.1X to 8X) to smoothly speed up the entire video or any parts of a video to make a dramatic time lapse video in a breeze. There are 6 fully customizable speed curve presets available as well as the normal speed controller (0.2X to 8X).

Use speed curves to create smooth time lapse videos by FlexClip online.

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Choose from 74,000+ royalty-free music tracks and sound effects to do sound design or audio mixing to highlight the time lapse effect. For example, blend cinematic music or symphony with ambient sounds, and transition sound effects, such as “whoosh”, “swoosh”, etc.

Use vast royalty-free music and sound effects to highlight the time lapse video.

What distinguishes FlexClip from other time lapse video makers is that you can find thousands of designer-made and fully customizable video templates, covering travel, YouTube tutorials, newscasts, birthday/wedding/memorial slideshows, webinars, podcast intros & outros, and promo & sales, sports & fitness, movie trailers, etc. With easy drags and drops of your video assets, you can create a captivating video in minutes.

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Travel Memories Slideshow Story

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Cinematic Travel YouTube Video

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Family Moment Memories Photo Collage

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Golden Memorial Video

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In addition, for video content creators, FlexClip also empowers you with diverse AI tools to automate your video editing process and save you tons of valuable time. From the handy AI video script generator, powered by ChatGPT, to the generative text-to-speech generator, AI auto subtitle generator, text-to-video generator, and text-to-image generator, image background remover, and audio extractor, etc. you can leverage the power of AI and create compelling videos like never before.

Effortlessly convert text to realistic AI voices for your videos.

Use Free TTS

How to Create a Time Lapse Video by FlexClip Online:

Step 1

Access FlexClip > upload your video > upload your video assets from your PC, phone, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, or even Google Photos.

Upload your video assets to FlexClip.

Step 2

Click the Plus Sign to add the video to the intuitive timeline > you can trim or split the clip when needed.

Add the video to the intuitive timeline.

Step 3

Make a time lapse video with speed curves.

With the video selected, click the Speed tool > Curve Speed > Customize > move the playhead to where you want the time lapse effect to start> click “+ Add Point” to add a new speed point > drag it upward to speed up the video (up to 8X faster) > repeat the same step to add another speed point to where you wish the time lapse to end > drag all the in-between speed points upward and align their position. Done.

Use a speed curve to fast forward parts of a video to create the time lapse effect.

Drag all the mid-speed points upward to create a time lapse video in parts of a video.

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To create a smooth and gradual transition from the normal video to the speeded-up time lapse effect, just drag the two speed points further away. The further away the two points are, the smoother the transition will be and vice versa.

Adjust two speed points’ distance to create smoother or abrupt transitions for the time lapse video.

Meanwhile, the Time indicator will show you the final video duration as a result of the increase in the video speed. If you want to delete a speed change, just select a point > click the Delete button or click the Rest button to undo all the speed changes.

Show you the video duration change and undo button.

Step 4

Add royalty-free music and sound effects to bring your time lapse video to life.

Click the Audio tab > Music > search for “symphony”, “epic”, “uplifting”, or any upbeat music to create the vibes for your time lapse video. Meanwhile, you can place “swoosh”, or “whoosh” transition sound effects to where the video picks up the speed to highlight the speed change, a popular sound design strategy used by many YouTubers.

Add royalty-free music and sound effects to enhance the time lapse effect and speed change.

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You can easily layer multiple audio tracks for audio mixing, trim or split the audio, adjust the audio’s volume, or apply fade in/out effects for a smooth audio transition.

Step 5

Preview and share.

Done with the editing. You can click the Export button to save the 1080P MP4 video to your computer or directly share it to YouTube, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, or even TikTok; a clickable link is also available for your blog posts, newsletters, or other repurposings.

Easily share and repurpose your video content.

Downside:

The maximum speed change is only 8X faster than the original video.

2. Clipchamp

If you simply want to speed up the entire video to create a time lapse video, without considering the transition, then another versatile time lapse video maker that will serve you well is Clipchamp, an easy-to-use online video editor acquired by Microsoft in 2021. Besides, Clipchamp’s mobile app is also available in some countries in IOS systems.

Create a time lapse video by Clipchamp online.

Best Features to Create a Time Lapse Video with Clipchamp:

Offer you a video speed controller (0.1X to 16X) to speed up a video up to 16x faster to create a realistic time lapse video with ease. Clipchamp also allows you to speed up the audio with the same speed controllers as well.

Provide you with both free and premium music and sound effects to enrich the time lapse video on the intuitive timeline.

Similar to FlexClip, Clipchamp also supplies you with diverse editable video templates, text animations, auto-caption, etc. to elevate your video content.

How to Create a Time Lapse Video by Clipchamp Online:

How to create a time lapse video by Clipchamp.

Step 1

Import your video to Clipchamp.

Sign up free for Clipchamp > click Create a New Video > click your media > import your video > add the video to the timeline.

Step 2

Make a time lapse by speeding up the video.

Select the video > click the Speed icon on the right sidebar > drag the slider to the right to speed up the video, up to 16X faster, or directly enter exact values to decide how many times you want your video to speed up.

Alternatively, if you want to make a time lapse video for parts of a video, you can click the split tool to split the video and use the speed controller to create a time lapse video.

Step 3

Add royalty-free music and sound effects to enhance the time lapse effect.

Click the Music & SFX tab > choose upbeat music and transition sound effects to further spice up your time-lapse video. Besides, Clipchamp also allows you to speed up audio as well.

Step 4

Preview and share.

Click the Export button > download the 1080P time lapse video to your PC.

Downside:

Since Clipchamp doesn’t have the speed curve feature, creating a time lapse video from parts of a video may result in abrupt transitions.

3. Online Video Cutter

Well, if you only want to need to create a mild time lapse video and don’t need any music and sound effects, another user-friendly and free time lapse video maker for you is Online Video Cutter’s online speed changer.

Create a time lapse video by online video cutter for free.

Best Features to Create a Time Lapse Video with Online Video Cutter:

Use the speed changer to speed up a video up to 4X faster to create a time lapse video.

Utilize the video stabilizer to stabilize the shaky footage before making it into a time lapse video. (still in beta stage)

Offer you MP4, MKV, MOV, and Auto modes to encode the time lapse video for exporting it to your PC.

No signup is needed and it is free to use.

How to Create a Time Lapse Video by Online Video Cutter:

Step 1

Google Online Video Cutter > click its webpage > hover to Video Tools on the top left corner > follow the drop-down menu to select Change Video Speed.

Step 2

Click the Open File or down-drop menu to upload your video from your PC, Google Drive, Dropbox, or from a URL.

Step 3

Drag the speed slider to the right to speed up the video up to 4X faster to make a time lapse.

Step 4

Click the Gear icon > select from MP4, MKV, MOV or Auto to encode the time lapse video as you wish > click the Save button > download the finished time lapse video to your PC.

Downside:

Duration of our hands-on test, the URL import never works for YouTube videos.

The maximum speed change is only 4X faster.

4. Premiere Pro

Last, but not least, if you are a subscribed Premiere Pro user, this editing workhorse can be your ultimate time lapse software to create a time lapse video with ease. With Premiere Pro, you can import either a video or a stack of images to make a time lapse respectively.

Create a time lapse video with Premiere Pro time lapse software.

Best Features to Create a Time Lapse Video with Premiere Pro:

Create a time lapse video from a video or piles of photos.

Offer you 3 ways to speed up a video for a time lapse video: speed/duration, time remapping, and rate stretch tool.

Tons of professional tools and effects to take your time lapse videos to the next level.

Create a Time Lapse Video from a Video by Premiere Pro:

How to make a time lapse video from a video using Premiere Pro.

Step 1

Add a video to the timeline in Premiere Pro.

Step 2

Add a time lapse effect to the video.

Head to the Effects panel > search for “time” in the search bar > drag and drop the “Posterize Time” effect to the video > with the video selected, head to Effect Controls > under the Posterize Time, change the frame rate to 1-1.5 to make the video look choppy.

Step 3

Smooth out the time lapse effect.

Right-click on the video > select Speed/Duration > set Speed to 2000 percent> click Ok > select the video again > go to Sequence > select Render Selection to smooth out the time lapse video.

Step 4

Preview and export the video.

Create a Time Lapse Video from Photos by Premiere Pro:

How to create a time lapse video from photos using Premiere Pro.

Step 1

Launch your Premiere Pro on your computer > select Import > navigate to your photos > click Options and check Image Sequence > hit Import > right-click the image > click New Sequence from Clip to import your images to Premier Pro as a video file.

Step 2

Use the Lumetri Color panel to adjust the hue, saturation, vibrance, etc. of the time lapse video.

Step 3

Go to File > Export > Media > save the time lapse video to your computer.

Downside:

Premiere Pro is extremely CPU and GPU intensive.

Not available to free users since PR is only available through a monthly or yearly subscription plan.

There is a steep learning curve for someone new to video editing.

Now, It's Your Move

So, that’s how you can use different time lapse video makers to speed up a video or parts of a video to create a dramatic time lapse video for your video project. Please feel free to try out all the time lapse video makers and share this post on your Facebook or Twitter to tell us which one fits you best. Cheers!

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Frank /

Passionate about photography, video-making and travel, Frank is a seasoned copywriter and a beloved father of 2-year-old daughter at FlexClip. He is always keen to share his latest discovery about video marketing and tricks to relive your memories through videos and images.