Timelapse : Instructional Guides and Practice Image Sets

Don't panic!

The number of guides may give the impression that Timelapse is difficult to use. It isn’t. The Quick Start Guide is likely all you need to get going, where you can try it out on the Practice image set.

Once you have tried Timealpse, you can then peruse the other guides (the Reference Guide and the Template Guide) to get a sense of other available features. The Image Recognition Guide is of value only to those who want to use image recognition (which is done by Microsoft's Megadetector program). The Database Guide is likely of interest to only a handful of people who want to access data held in the database directly rather than through exported CSV files.

Part 1: Timelapse QuickStart Guide

This starter guide explains how to download Timelapse, and how to use Timelapse to load, inspect, and tag a practice set of image and video files. Its purpose is to get you started quickly, where it demonstrates a small subset of basic Timelapse features within a simple workflow. Download the practice image set as well so you can try the exercises in this guide.

Part 2: Timelapse ReferenceGuide

This is a reference guide to the Timelapse application. It continues where the QuickStart guide leaves off, where it explains all the functions available in detail. We highly recommend you read (or at least scan) it, as it includes features that may help you create an even more efficient workflow. Download the practice image set as well so you can try out various features as explained in this reference.

Part 3: Timelapse Template Guide

This is a reference guide to Timelapse templates, and how to create them with the Timelapse Template Editor. It is essential reading for those who plan to create and/or edit templates.

Part 4: Timelapse Image Recognition Guide

This guide explains image recognition, how to submit your images to an image recognition system, and how to use image recognition data within Timelapse to make your workflow even more efficient. If you want to use image recognition, read on. Otherwise ignore this guide. Download both the guide and the image recognition practice set so you can follow along with its workflow explanation.

This video, which is somewhat oriented to wildlife ecologists, explains image recognition: what it is, its fallibilities, and how it can still be incorporated for more efficient image tagging by adjusting your workflow. If you are curious about whether image recognition can help your tagging efforts, this is a good primer.

Part 5: Timelapse Database Guide

This guide explains the internal structure of Timelapse database tables. If you want to access the database directly (rather than the exported spreadsheet), read on. Otherwise you can ignore this guide.

Example Image Sets

Timelapse provides several image sets as a zip file for you to practice with. When uncompressed, you will see a folder containing a template and perhaps a few other files, one or more subfolders containing various image and video files, all captured from camera traps. Image sets are used by the different manuals above to illustrate the use of Timelapse. Note: These images sets only work with Timelapse version 2.3.0.0 and later, released August 2022

  • Practice Image Set [~476mb zip file download] contains image and video files and a template that mirrors what is in the Timelapse Quick Start Guide and the Timelapse Reference guide above.
  • Image Recognition Practice Set [~240mb zip file download] contains a folder of image files, a template file, and a recognition file. Its contents mirrors what is in the Timelapse Image Recognition Guide above.