How to Create Tilt-Shift / Miniature World Time-lapses

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Today, I want to show you how to do time-lapses that look like you’re in a miniature or tiny world, aka the tilt-shift effect.
In reality, this is a simple technique that can be done in any editing program. I'm going to show how to do it in FCPX, but once you see what I do here I think you can follow along in AE, Photoshop, or Premiere.
But before I get to that, I should probably explain why this technique is called the tilt-shift effect. That’s simply because you can simulate this miniature world on larger scales with a tilt-shift lens.
The best tutorial I’ve seen about that is this one from Canon’s Vincent Laforet - • Tilt-Shift Lens Basics... but essentially you can take a lens like this and use the tilt function to change the plane of focus. However, what kind of blows my mind is that there is no good reason that I can think of as to why you’d shoot your miniature world time-lapses like this. It gives you no ability to change the focus afterwards. I prefer to do it all in post-production, and in fact it’s really easy these days.
I think the blur technique is fairly straightforward in the video.
However, to get the effect right, I think it’s good to do a few more things other than just blur it. First, models like the legos we shot are usually painted with vibrant and saturated colors. That means you need to up your saturation, contrast and sharpness
Other than that, it's up to your creativity. To wrap up my suggestions, here are three general rules to do after you do the blurring.
1. Get the angle right - pointing down at 30-45 degrees
2. Make keep that contrast and saturation up.
3. Keep the shutter speed fairly fast - 1/60th or faster.
In this video I talked about time-lapses from the Toronto Tiny world: • Tiny Toronto in 4k | L...
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[@huble922]

I friggin LOVE this effect

[@marclorence8742]

Omg! The one with the construction workers is crazyyyY! Nice vid!

[@OliverPassemard]

I thought I would put on my $.02 on the topic. I think the essence of tilt shift is that it removes the focal point so that the perspective is gone. In that sense, shooting as if you're replicating a miniature set is great, but I would only add that there has to be a lots of lines in the shot to give the best impression that the perspective is gone. That was originally how i went about it and I found great success.

[@MacGuffinSC]

This gave me a lot of cool ideas to try out when I eventually get my order from DJI. Good show.

[@robnelsonfilms]

I think drone shots will actually take some great miniature photos.

[@kikakapu1]

Enjoying your work/channel/tutorials very much, keep up the good work!

[@blackmennewstyle]

Fantastic tutorial

[@sentar_dv]

That is an awesome guide! Thank you so much! I'm absolutely going to try this effect on my photos. And maybe even try to make my own timelapse! Liked, subscribed!

[@LimitedWard]

I'm planning on recreating this effect in OpenCV for a class. This tutorial was pretty helpful for inspiration. Thanks!

[@AndyJamerson]

Awesome Video! Thanks for sharing. Love the quality of your videos as well. So pleasing to watch ☺️.

[@Robert8455]

Very interesting and cool effects. Thanks for sharing your techniques.

[@NeilsIn]

I think I originally found your channel for time-lapses! Been a keen follower ever since. Keep up the great work guys!

[@robnelsonfilms]

I have a few more too that I'm going to do Neil. Thanks for the comments, as always.

[@afterfurtherreview]

This is an awesome technique! Another quality video.

[@bravo1224]

This is a great video - very useful and thorough. Thank you!

[@newcubemedia7704]

This is adorable. Can't wait to try it! Thank you!!

[@Travelingmel]

Saw this on my home page and noticed the Lake Bled thumbnail. Watched it and got a great tutorial. Would love to see another one on using filters in Premiere to do this. Also liked the color grade and noise aspect that I would not have thought of. It's Inspired me to start taking more timelapses with people and vehicles in them.

[@stephenmcdevitt3702]

I have been looking for the name of this effect for weeks, thanks you

[@gaymensbizzareadventure1885]

Im here after dailydoze of the internet.

[@returns.trades]

Lol same

[@returns.trades]

We are 3 years to late to this 😂

[@Joshua-td5rv]

same

[@Riku-Leela]

Lol same

[@srinathj2222]

Same

[@MrAndyballard]

You have some of the most listenable tutorials on YT, another great job. Oh... and congratulations on not using the most common verbal tick ‘you guys’ every 5 seconds ! it really does make such a difference.

[@robnelsonfilms]

Thanks you guys... DOAH. I mean, thanks Andy. Good catch there. That annoys me to no end as well. Sometimes it slips as I say it colloquially, but I try to not start my videos out like that! Also, thanks for leaving a comment. I do work a lot in a little "cave" here and it's nice to hear when people like yourself at least appreciate them. - R

[@esgee3829]

Good one. Also, another benefit of using this editing technique vs tilt-shift lens to produce tilt shift effect is that when you get a subject with unknown trajectory across the frame, like the guy with his bike, you can determine the 'slice of the focal plane in focus after the fact.

[@robnelsonfilms]

Great thought! I totally agree. Moving the focal plane is a great technique!

[@CucukCreations]

Very very well done! Always wondered how this was achieved!

[@KevinSebesky]

Nice tutorial! Thanks for the clear explanation. Subscribed.

[@ziggypuppyproductions7453]

You guys do great work! Hopefully one day I'll get there. :) I shared your channels, website and the Our Rock Project with both of my kids' science teachers. Hopefully they'll do it. One of the teachers sounded excited about it!

[@robnelsonfilms]

Awesome. I'm really proud of the series we did (do) for beginners. I felt there was great need for a simple and easy to understand beginner series.

[@kashisman]

I love all art of lapses, they are all awesome

[@Zasaqas]

My biggest Thanks to you and your nices Videos. You really helped me to improve my editing skills and you had a major impact on my latest video i created. Keep your work as dope as it is :)

[@alanfeng99]

awesome tutorial about tilt-shift effect and timelapse!

[@samimqazi4270]

wonderful video and love your work bro ... always good tips and tutorials...

[@travelingbase268]

Looks so unreal! Awesome tutorial man

[@impguardwarhamer]

Currently planning on doing some film work that will require making small models look big, so this was kinda interesting trying to understand what the effect is and how you make big things look small in order to reverse-engineer it to do the opposite

[@gg-ps1vz]

3 years later - how'd it go?

[@mdturnerinoz]

Cool ideas, thanks! This will really help me in that GoPro footage has generally limited recording manipulation options.

[@alphoneleo9595]

your work-space setup seems awesome!!!

[@jackkraken3888]

Great intro. I noticed this feature on a smartphone for taking photos but had no idea what it actually does.

[@nomusicrc]

This is absolutely amazing

[@SeanOzz]

nice video. i had forgotten all about this effect. good stuff!

[@ajbelanger9835]

Amazing tutorial once again! Thanks!!

[@odinata]

Very good point about the stop motion thing.

[@davidbkopp]

Amazing tutorial. I'm going to refer to this quite a bit! Here are a few alternative ideas. COLOR: The color needs to be vibrant, not because people tend to paint things in bright colors (the green of the mini bush could be as bright as my green bathing suit). Instead it's because all colors appear brighter close up than far away. Why? Light pollution. The further an object is from the viewer (or camera) generally the more light, and certainly the more sediment between them. This is why mountains in the far distance appear lighter and tend to blend in to the same color as the sky. So the best way to do this is to make sure that the 'brightness' is adjusted. Saturation and contrast help, but the main point is that the image should not apear washed out, because that's not what things look like up close. SHARPNESS & GRAIN: The grain and shaprness are important because we can see so much more detail when looking at small objects up close. Lint, dust, imperfections, these all come into full focus when you're up close. So sharpness and grain help simulate this experience and create the illusion of detail that isn't really there. SPEED & SCALE: These things are coupled. First let's talk about speed. The tilt-shift videos are sped up, not because we tend to see close-up game play sped up. It's because things appear to move faster from point A to B when you're up close. Imagine a kid playing with a train set. The kid isn't going to adjust for scale and move the train exactly according to what it would look like if we were birds looking down at that size train, right? He's gonna just move his hand quickly to make the train move ... which according to scale is way faster than it would actually look like it's going. So the train moves 6 inches. It would take a hand about 1 second to move it that far. So now back to the video. When you record video with a tilt shift lens of a REAL train moving and play it back at regular speed, the train looks tiny, so the train looks like it's moving about 6 inches because of the tilt shift. But there's a problem. If you play the video at its normal speed, it will seem like it's taking forever for the mini-train to move 6 inches! A kid's hand would just zoom it over in one second! Of course in reality what was filmed was not 6 inches, it's 200 feet. So it takes longer to move that far in real life. So what you do? You speed up the film (or do a time lapse)! When you do that it makes it look like all the little moving things are really in a toy model, and you're looking at it up close. BUT!!! Remember, that there's a direct relationship between the distance between your lens and the moving objects and how fast they are going. Most often, time-lapses are TOO FAST. They look too fast for the scale we would imagine tiny models. With the train is moving, for example, 6-inches in .1 second. And that makes the model look extra tiny, which is okay but, I'd say try to play with the speed as well.

[@robnelsonfilms]

Ah of course. That also makes a lot of sense. Now I wish I could have redone it. I took that from another tutorial and it made a fair amount of sense.

[@davidbkopp]

Still a badass tutorial! Short, sweet (instruction) .... incredibly LEAN. I'll be coming back.

[@chipdrone7202]

Very nice. Give me ideas to use with Mavic mini. Excellent work.

[@DjTonioRoffo]

Thanks, a lot of information and something to try :)

[@PaolaEnergya]

Excellent tutorial, thank you! I've always wondered how to make that miniature effect

[@Booyamakashi]

Superb material man. Im newbie and understood you, congrats!

[@robnelsonfilms]

Thanks for stopping by. Appreciate the comment.

[@himantak6607]

Out of the world bro!! superb!! Thanks a lot

[@alantowerphoto7307]

Nice examples. The Canon TS lens (I have the 24mm) is one of their sharpest lenses. No need to add grain on it's account. I'll watch more of your time lapse stuff though. That's very helpful.

[@alessandrovalentino3406]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you so much!

[@DrawCuriosity]

I thoroughly enjoyed this!

[@SofiyaLevina]

Great tutorial! I'll try to do it maybe next week =) thank you!

[@AstroHBF]

Great, thanks! Will definitely be giving this a go

[@lovellyyyw]

thanks for your explanation, awesome!

[@de1t4]

Awesome clips of Gothenburg in the end!

[@robnelsonfilms]

You got it! :)

[@vrijemezabave]

Of course I'm gonna try this thanks for the idea and the video

[@UjamesH]

Loved the thorough and thoughtful explanation

[@robnelsonfilms]

Thanks.

[@michael_viteritti]

That's an awesome technique!

[@richardaneale]

Great video!.. I would love to see a tutorial on how to make a tilt shift time lapse​ in Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop (If its possible)

[@potojr]

thanks for the video. I want to try this out next time i can get a city timelapse

[@planetmarine]

Informative. Eyeopening. Thanks

[@onetimelapseeveryday-ish8695]

ah excellent! thanks for sharing this guys!

[@Redcrit]

But shouldn't you blur less sobject closer to the in focus part and blur more the one that are further ?

[@dylannolan7454]

Thank you so much there is not enough tilt shift content.

[@DaPanda19]

very awesome effect!

[@acmulhern]

Amazing video. Thank you so much!

[@doodofthedead]

You gave me wanna do timelapse! Thanks a lot!!

[@GregsGarage]

Wonderful tutorial.

[@AndrewLXiong]

Great tips...thanks for sharing.

[@markbernaldez4727]

Thank you for this video tutorial. Great and love it. I'm curious though about gopro set up for hero 4 silver. Do you have any tips for that? Thank and God bless.

[@DaleRoossien]

I did this, and it turned out great...Thanks.

[@876Abb]

This is not actually what I searched for, but thanks for sharing ...great info

[@dr34mlucid]

Dude, that was awesome, thank you!

[@JayHelms]

Just awesome stuff! Thanks!

[@dannyj4732]

Great advice. Thank you so much.

[@b.h3877]

i love this effect so much TT

[@TheGreatGandalf09]

Great stuff. Thx for that.

[@prathameshkhadse8329]

Awesome tutorial. Definitely deserves more than 60k views 😳

[@mervfer1162]

It's getting there! I just saw it. 449k

[@maxsiemund3454]

Very well done! I really like your vids! Keep up the good work =]

[@lukasreinarz2733]

Love your Videos!!!

[@irisd90]

great vid!

[@streetlifephotographer1359]

Awsome. Thanks a lot!

[@simonmuu]

clicked because of Bled island. Stayed because of an awesome tutorial

[@mariomalmanza]

I am 10 seconds into the video and I want to take a stab at it. Okay shoot in miniature setting while doing a time-lapse session and Wallah? okay I'll keep watching now

[@nemac23]

clicked because of Bled island. Scrubbed through video looking for Bled island. No Bled island. Leaving video.

[@foundedinbucks]

clicked because of Bled Island, because I am currently editing videos of Bled Island myself lol

[@Bert0ld0]

Clicked for Bled island, stayed for the tutorial, still wondering where is that shot? Please, show us!

[@Felpstech]

Holy crap I love this channel

[@VaibhavSingh-lf6ps]

mind-blowing !!

[@imdecon5482]

Love your vids guys!

[@JohnMRaggio]

Awesome tutorial. Just got a drone and can't wait to try some of this out. Question - does the band of focus need to be horizontal? Can it be vertical, or even on an angle? Can it be elliptical with surrounding edges blurry? Thanks!

[@adelafei7098]

Great tutorial!

[@Maleick]

I love this im inspired

[@xmen5698]

Thanks very good tutorial ! ^-

[@Yourauthenticweb]

Great tutorial. Thanks! I love the legos too.

[@robnelsonfilms]

Thanks! :)

[@jackyzhao3552]

Jesus!! thx for the tutorial!! This video is quiet useful for me!!!

[@rohanchavan4211]

WoW!!! You are amazing

[@pixelmasque]

really enjoyed this thankyou !. so can tilt shift time lapse be done to video footage? why do most people do time lapse or tilt shift with photograph sequences instead of a video camera or video recording?

[@konstapelwalander]

A quick tip on an issue I always run into and that I saw 1:49 in this video. When you apply blur, the edge pixels will become transparent, showing the layer behind (I believe it is the clip with your hair?). This is easily fixed by scaling the clip up. Thanks for a great tutorial. Cheers!

[@robnelsonfilms]

Great tip! Thanks Magnus. I do that too.

[@phatfil77]

Great video!! Subbed!

[@rdrgsprayart]

nice thanks for this tutorial.

[@naveenkumar-gx6vs]

thanks for the wonderful tips , i am miniature artist i am working on a project in which i need to make a miniature park playing stop motion characters , i am not able to figure out what is best way to start shooting , any tutorials for shooting miniature objects like seen in between of the video

[@10MinutestoRouletteFortune]

Many thanks for my portfolio....... It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

[@zeitraffer851]

this is very cool

[@the_officials38]

Very informatif!

[@pixelmasque]

what aperture should you shoot at? are there rules to adhere to with aperture? (you mentioned shutter speed 1/60th plus)..

[@abhijitbhowmick221]

Awesome tutorials. Immediate subscribe

[@1houroflove186]

I like this guy. He's got 52 things for us to learn. I can't even do 1.

[@robnelsonfilms]

Nah - I bet you could do at least one...

[@1houroflove186]

ha ha. Is BEER CHUGGING one of your 52?

[@1houroflove186]

No way! You mean Beer Chugging is one of them?!!

[@richardnewton3869]

Love this

[@Luk2811]

What's the song from the beginning?

[@DerDon18]

Great Tutorial. :-) Where did you get that chest with the miniature gorge? Thanks!