Timelapse in Flair¶
[BOTH] Flair was designed for motion picture cameras, not DSLRs or single-frame cameras, so timelapse requires understanding how Flair's Move FPS relates to exposure time and camera triggering. This guide covers both shoot-move-shoot (step-and-shoot) and continuous motion timelapse approaches.
The key distinction is whether the robot stops for each photograph. Shoot-move-shoot stops, exposes, then moves. Continuous timelapse keeps moving during the exposure to create motion blur. In this guide, a frame window is the total time Flair allows for one photograph; the camera's exposure must fit inside it.
Key Concept: Move FPS Is Your Frame Window¶
In Flair, the Move FPS setting (bottom of the screen) controls how long Flair allows for each frame — it does not set playback speed. Setting Move FPS to 0.5 fps means Flair treats each frame as 2 seconds long. During that 2 seconds Flair "thinks" the shutter is operating — the rig stays stationary — and then moves between frame positions when it thinks the shutter is closed.
Your camera's actual exposure is set independently on the camera itself. The trigger pulse from Flair fires within that frame window.
Approach A: Shoot-Move-Shoot (Step and Shoot)¶
Best for: fast rigs, tight framings, or subjects where motion blur between steps would look wrong.
Setup steps¶
- Plan your move — determine the final playback frame rate (e.g. 25 fps) and the number of frames in the finished clip.
- Set Move FPS (bottom of screen) to a slow value — 0.5 fps is a good starting point (= 2 seconds per frame).
- Set your camera to the correct exposure (typically well under 2 seconds). Disable autofocus and auto iris.
- In External Camera setup in Flair, configure the trigger pulse to fire at the correct moment within the 2-second frame window. Set pulse length to suit your camera.
- If the rig is still vibrating when the shutter fires, add settling time under SFX / Film Effects.
- If your rig is fast and GOTO moves are causing vibration, lower the GOTO speed in Miscellaneous Settings.
- Use Digicam (if required) to download images and step automatically, or press Step manually.
Interval calculation
The effective interval between frames is the GOTO time plus the frame window time (e.g. 2 seconds). The GOTO time will vary with step size and rig speed. Allow enough frame window time that the GOTO always completes before the exposure fires.
No timing warning
At 0.5 fps you will not see the "0.006 seconds" timing warning. Two seconds is far more than the rig needs.
Approach B: Continuous Motion Timelapse¶
Best for: long duration timelapse (many minutes or hours) with slow, smooth rig movement. The rig moves throughout the exposure, naturally producing motion blur proportional to the movement — mimicking the 180-degree shutter rule of cinema.
How to think about it¶
A 5-second Bolt move at 25 fps (1/50 s shutter) has 125 frames. To replicate that look over 25 minutes:
- 25 min × 60 s = 1500 s total
- 1500 s ÷ 125 frames = 12 s per frame
- For 180-degree shutter: exposure = 6 s
At a 6 s exposure over a 6 s interval, the camera is continuously exposing while the rig continuously moves — creating the same proportional motion blur as the real-time move. In this mode, Moving Step mode is generally not required, and the continuous movement during the long exposure makes the result look fluid and natural.
For single-frame stop-motion work where you still want motion blur on each individual frame (rather than one continuous move), Moving Step is the equivalent stepped technique: the rig prerolls backward, gets up to speed, triggers the camera exactly as it passes through the target frame position, then postrolls to a stop back at that position — matching the speed the rig would have had if it were running one continuous move. See Moving Step Mode — Motion Blur in Stop Motion for the full setup.
From the community
"The biggest mistake one could make shooting timelapse is creating staccato movements in any way. Be it from the shutter angle or the (non-existent) motion blur... Timelapse is all about finding the sweet spot in the exposure and interval settings." — @Sebastian
Setup steps¶
- Programme your move in Flair at the desired total duration.
- Set fairings to zero to remove the acceleration and deceleration portions from the recorded section. Flair will start moving before frame 1 (preroll) and continue after the last frame (postroll) so it is already at constant speed during the shot. Ensure there is enough physical travel and clear space for both.
- Set camera interval and exposure in-camera. Flair runs the rig independently; the camera fires on its own interval timer.
- Optionally use Flair's External Camera trigger to synchronise exposures to rig position.
Fairings and preroll
With fairings at zero, the rig prerolls at the start and postrolls at the end to reach and leave at speed. Allow for this in your framing. If you need a gradual ramp-in, set fairings to a small value and accept a reduced constant-speed window.
Alternative: Timelapse Delay and Frames-per-Take Fields (Film Effects)¶
Two further fields in Special Effects tab > Film Effects let you extend the pause between frames without touching Move FPS. These apply when using Continuous Step stop motion (Flair doing a take, then a goto, repeated — not a real-time move; see Stop Motion in Flair):
- Timelapse (delay field) — adds a fixed delay before each frame is taken, on top of whatever Move FPS/pulse timing is already set. Because Flair is doing a take-then-goto rather than running a move, this value can be changed live, mid-shoot — for example a few seconds for a short per-frame delay, or a minute or more for a long-duration timelapse.
- Frames per Take — achieves a similar practical effect to lowering Move FPS, but leaves Move FPS itself unchanged. Example from the field: at 24 fps, setting Frames per Take to 50 gives just over 2 seconds of "shutter open" time per frame (50 ÷ 24 fps ≈ 2.08 s) — comparable to setting Move FPS to 0.5 fps, without changing the FPS value.
How to actually run it: dial in the Timelapse delay value in Film Effects and Apply (a demonstrated example used 5 seconds). Then, instead of pressing Shoot, press Forward Step with the step mode set to Continuous (not Single) — Flair will advance to the next frame and trigger the camera automatically at the delay interval you set, with no further input needed. Switching step mode back to Single stops the automatic advance.
Very long exposures — cameras needing separate open/close pulses
Some specialist cameras built for very long exposures use a separate pulse to open the shutter and a separate pulse to close it, rather than a single trigger pulse. Flair's External Camera setup has a Pulsed trigger option for this (distinct from One Pulse) — confirm the exact field name/behaviour against your current Flair version before relying on it, since this option is not yet covered in the External Camera Settings field guide.
Running Only Part of a Long Timelapse (Part Runs)¶
A Part Run lets you run and shoot only a sub-section of a programmed move, without deleting or re-editing the move itself. This is useful for a long timelapse: to re-shoot a section that failed, test exposure/timing changes on a short segment, or continue after a stoppage without repeating everything from frame 0.
- On the frame timeline, set a start and end frame for the section you want (for example, frame 30 to frame 60) — the timeline highlights this sub-range while still showing the full move range either side of it.
- Press Forward Run and Flair goes to the start of the highlighted range (frame 30 in the example) instead of frame 0, ready to shoot from there.
- Press Shoot to run the whole sub-section, or use Forward Step to advance through it one frame at a time (see Approach A above).
- Part runs work in both directions: Back Run runs the same sub-section in reverse (frame 60 back to frame 30).
The full move (frame 0 to its end) is unaffected — clearing the part-run range returns you to running the complete move.
Assigning hardware buttons
Forward Step, Back Step, Forward Run, and Back Run can each be assigned to a button on a handheld box, gamepad, or other connected USB device, so an operator can advance a long timelapse or animation take without touching the keyboard.
Removing Acceleration (Constant Speed)¶
If you want the rig to move at constant speed throughout — no ramp up or ramp down — set the fairings to zero. The rig will preroll and postroll, so the programmed move extent will be smaller than the total rig travel. As @peter notes: "Just set the fairings to zero, and the rig will preroll at the start and postroll at the end."
Related Guides¶
Related Tutorials¶
▶ The Animation, Timelapse & Part Run options in Flair 7 ▶ 00:30 — Part Runs (Stop Motion): setting a start/end sub-range on the timeline and running just that section ▶ 04:58 — Forward and backward Part Run ▶ 05:12 — Timelapse via the Film Effects delay field, driven with Forward Step in Continuous mode
Source: Programming Timelapse in Flair — talk.mrmoco.com