Make any piece of video into a time lapse video, and then use a video effect to reverse it.
Time lapse videos have the incredible power to show us -- at a very rapid pace -- the effects that time can have on the growth of plants, the movement of the sun and stars, and pretty much anything that involves motion. With the use of a little video magic, you can also show those processes in reverse. Some of even the most basic video editing programs, including Mac's iMovie program, offer the "reverse" option as a standard effect. Thus, you need only access the effect to make your time lapse video work in reverse. These instructions assume that you've already imported your video to your video editor and compiled your time lapse footage -- though you will need to do a bit more work with the time lapse video before you can reverse it.
Instructions
iMovie
1. Export your video by selecting "File," and then "Export," and then export your video in the MPEG-4 format. This step is important; since your time lapse video is likely a series of clips, you need to save it as one piece, so that when you try to reverse it later, it reverses the whole thing as one.
2. Import your newly created version of the video, and drag it to the iMovie Timeline.
3. Double-click on the click from the Timeline. This will open the Clip Inspector. You will see three options listed at the top of the popup window; be sure you're on "Clip."
4. Look for the box that says "Direction" and place a check mark in it. This reverses the clip.
5. Drag the slider next to the "Speed" selection to the right -- toward the rabbit icon -- to speed up the video.
6. Click "Done" at the bottom of the window. Your video clip is now reversed.
Adobe Premiere
7. Export your time lapse clip by clicking "File," and then "Export," and then exporting your video as a .mov or MPEG-4 file. This is important, as you want your time lapse video to be recognized as a whole unit and not a series of clips when you go to reverse it.
8. Import your new clip and drag the time lapse video to the Premiere Timeline.
9. Place a check mark in the "Reverse Speed" box.
10. Increase or decrease the speed of your video by placing a percentage in the "speed" box. For example, if you want to double the speed of the existing clip, put "200%" in the box.
11. Click "OK" to apply the effect.
Tags: time lapse, lapse video, your time, your time lapse, time lapse video