In November 2013 I purchased a GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition to play with video recording, but almost immediately became enthralled with taking sequences of photos over long time periods.
The GoPro can be configured to take a picture every 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds. I’ve found that I like taking pictures every 2 seconds, and then converting them to video at 30fps (Frames per second) which gets me an easy to convert time scale. 1 second of video came from 1 minute of photos, 1 minute of video came from 1 hour of photos.
GoPro has a freely available software package to edit videos, as well as creating videos from sequences of images. Because of my past familiarity with FFMPEG I wanted a more scriptable solution for creating videos from thousands of photos.
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Create%20a%20video%20slideshow%20from%20images has nice instructions for creating videos from sequences of images using FFMPEG. What it glosses over is that the first image in the sequence needs to be numbered zero or one. Another complication in the process is that the GoPro uses the standard camera file format where no more than 1000 images will be stored in a single directory. This means that with the 1800 images created in a single hour, at least two directories will hold the source images. An interesting issue I ran across is that sometimes the GoPro will skip a number in its image sequence, especially when it has just moved to the next directory in sequence. This is why I had to write my program using directory listings as opposed to simply looking for known files.
The standard GoPro battery will record just about two hours worth of photos. If the GoPro is connected to an external power supply, you can be limited only by the amount of storage space.
Here’s yesterday morning’s weather changing in Seattle.
Here’s a comparison of cropping vs compressing the video. I took this video on a flight from Seattle to Pullman last weekend. You can see much more of the landscape in the compressed version, and see that the top of the propeller leaves the frame in the cropped version.
Compressed:
Cropped:
I’ve written a program that takes three parameters, copies all of the images to a temporary location with an acceptable filename sequence, runs FFMPEG to create a video, then deletes the temporary images. The GoPro is configured to take full resolution still frames, 4000×3000, and I convert those to a 1080p video format using FFMPEG. Because the aspect ratio is different, and the GoPro uses a fish eye lens to begin with, both vertical and horizontal distortion shows up. I run FFMPEG twice, once creating a compressed video and a second time creating a cropped video. This allows me to chose which level of distortion I prefer after the fact.
The three parameters are the video name, the first image in the sequence, and the last image in the sequence. I am currently doing very little error checking. I’m presenting this code here, just to document what I’ve done so far. If you find this useful, please let me know.
Here’s some helper functions I regularly use.
using namespace std;
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
CString FindEXEFromPath(const CString & csEXE)
{
CString csFullPath;
CFileFind finder;
if (finder.FindFile(csEXE))
{
finder.FindNextFile();
csFullPath = finder.GetFilePath();
finder.Close();
}
else
{
TCHAR filename[MAX_PATH];
unsigned long buffersize = sizeof(filename) / sizeof(TCHAR);
// Get the file name that we are running from.
GetModuleFileName(AfxGetResourceHandle(), filename, buffersize );
PathRemoveFileSpec(filename);
PathAppend(filename, csEXE);
if (finder.FindFile(filename))
{
finder.FindNextFile();
csFullPath = finder.GetFilePath();
finder.Close();
}
else
{
CString csPATH;
csPATH.GetEnvironmentVariable(_T("PATH"));
int iStart = 0;
CString csToken(csPATH.Tokenize(_T(";"), iStart));
while (csToken != _T(""))
{
if (csToken.Right(1) != _T("\\"))
csToken.AppendChar(_T('\\'));
csToken.Append(csEXE);
if (finder.FindFile(csToken))
{
finder.FindNextFile();
csFullPath = finder.GetFilePath();
finder.Close();
break;
}
csToken = csPATH.Tokenize(_T(";"), iStart);
}
}
}
return(csFullPath);
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
static const CString QuoteFileName(const CString & Original)
{
CString csQuotedString(Original);
if (csQuotedString.Find(_T(" ")) >= 0)
{
csQuotedString.Insert(0,_T('"'));
csQuotedString.AppendChar(_T('"'));
}
return(csQuotedString);
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
std::string timeToISO8601(const time_t & TheTime)
{
std::ostringstream ISOTime;
struct tm UTC;// = gmtime(&timer);
if (0 == gmtime_s(&UTC, &TheTime))
{
ISOTime.fill('0');
ISOTime << UTC.tm_year+1900 << "-";
ISOTime.width(2);
ISOTime << UTC.tm_mon+1 << "-";
ISOTime.width(2);
ISOTime << UTC.tm_mday << "T";
ISOTime.width(2);
ISOTime << UTC.tm_hour << ":";
ISOTime.width(2);
ISOTime << UTC.tm_min << ":";
ISOTime.width(2);
ISOTime << UTC.tm_sec;
}
return(ISOTime.str());
}
std::wstring getTimeISO8601(void)
{
time_t timer;
time(&timer);
std::string isostring(timeToISO8601(timer));
std::wstring rval;
rval.assign(isostring.begin(), isostring.end());
return(rval);
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Here’s a routine I found useful to parse the standard camera file system naming format.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
bool SplitImagePath(
CString csSrcPath,
CString & DestParentDir,
int & DestChildNum,
CString & DestChildSuffix,
CString & DestFilePrefix,
int & DestFileNumDigits,
int & DestFileNum,
CString & DestFileExt
)
{
bool rval = true;
DestFileExt.Empty();
while (csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1] != _T('.'))
{
DestFileExt.Insert(0, csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]);
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1);
}
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1); // get rid of dot
CString csDestFileNum;
DestFileNumDigits = 0;
while (iswdigit(csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]))
{
csDestFileNum.Insert(0, csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]);
DestFileNumDigits++;
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1);
}
DestFileNum = _wtoi(csDestFileNum.GetString());
DestFilePrefix.Empty();
while (iswalpha(csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]))
{
DestFilePrefix.Insert(0, csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]);
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1);
}
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1); // get rid of backslash
DestChildSuffix.Empty();
while (iswalpha(csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]))
{
DestChildSuffix.Insert(0, csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]);
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1);
}
CString csDestChildNum;
while (iswdigit(csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]))
{
csDestChildNum.Insert(0, csSrcPath[csSrcPath.GetLength()-1]);
csSrcPath.Truncate(csSrcPath.GetLength()-1);
}
DestChildNum = _wtoi(csDestChildNum.GetString());
DestParentDir = csSrcPath;
return(rval);
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
And here’s the main program.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
int _tmain(int argc, TCHAR* argv[], TCHAR* envp[])
{
int nRetCode = 0;
HMODULE hModule = ::GetModuleHandle(NULL);
if (hModule != NULL)
{
// initialize MFC and print and error on failure
if (!AfxWinInit(hModule, NULL, ::GetCommandLine(), 0))
{
// TODO: change error code to suit your needs
_tprintf(_T("Fatal Error: MFC initialization failed\n"));
nRetCode = 1;
}
else
{
CString csFFMPEGPath(FindEXEFromPath(_T("ffmpeg.exe")));
CString csFirstFileName;
CString csLastFileName;
CString csVideoName;
if (argc != 4)
{
std::wcout << "command Line Format:" << std::endl;
std::wcout << "\t" << argv[0] << " VideoName PathToFirstFile.jpg PathToLastFile.jpg" << std::endl;
}
else
{
csVideoName = CString(argv[1]);
csFirstFileName = CString(argv[2]);
csLastFileName = CString(argv[3]);
int DirNumFirst = 0;
int DirNumLast = 0;
int FileNumFirst = 0;
int FileNumLast = 0;
CString csFinderStringFormat;
CString DestParentDir;
CString DestChildSuffix;
CString DestFilePrefix;
CString DestFileExt;
int DestFileNumDigits;
SplitImagePath(csFirstFileName, DestParentDir, DirNumFirst, DestChildSuffix, DestFilePrefix, DestFileNumDigits, FileNumFirst, DestFileExt);
csFinderStringFormat.Format(_T("%s%%03d%s\\%s*.%s"), DestParentDir.GetString(), DestChildSuffix.GetString(), DestFilePrefix.GetString(), DestFileExt.GetString());
SplitImagePath(csLastFileName, DestParentDir, DirNumLast, DestChildSuffix, DestFilePrefix, DestFileNumDigits, FileNumLast, DestFileExt);
std::vector<CString> SourceImageList;
int DirNum = DirNumFirst;
int FileNum = FileNumFirst;
do
{
CString csFinderString;
csFinderString.Format(csFinderStringFormat, DirNum);
CFileFind finder;
BOOL bWorking = finder.FindFile(csFinderString.GetString());
while (bWorking)
{
bWorking = finder.FindNextFile();
SplitImagePath(finder.GetFilePath(), DestParentDir, DirNum, DestChildSuffix, DestFilePrefix, DestFileNumDigits, FileNum, DestFileExt);
if ((FileNum >= FileNumFirst) && (FileNum <= FileNumLast))
SourceImageList.push_back(finder.GetFilePath());
}
finder.Close();
DirNum++;
} while (DirNum <= DirNumLast);
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "First File: " << csFirstFileName.GetString() << std::endl;
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "Last File: " << csLastFileName.GetString() << std::endl;
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "Total Files: " << SourceImageList.size() << std::endl;
TCHAR szPath[MAX_PATH] = _T("");
SHGetFolderPath(NULL, CSIDL_MYVIDEO, NULL, 0, szPath);
PathAddBackslash(szPath);
CString csImageDirectory(szPath);
csImageDirectory.Append(csVideoName);
if (CreateDirectory(csImageDirectory, NULL))
{
int OutFileIndex = 0;
for (auto SourceFile = SourceImageList.begin(); SourceFile != SourceImageList.end(); SourceFile++)
{
CString OutFilePath(csImageDirectory);
OutFilePath.AppendFormat(_T("\\Wim%05d.JPG"), OutFileIndex++);
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "CopyFile " << SourceFile->GetString() << " to " << OutFilePath.GetString() << "\r";
CopyFile(SourceFile->GetString(), OutFilePath, TRUE);
}
std::wcout << "\n";
CString csImagePathSpec(csImageDirectory); csImagePathSpec.Append(_T("\\Wim%05d.JPG"));
CString csVideoFullPath(csImageDirectory); csVideoFullPath.Append(_T(".mp4"));
if (csFFMPEGPath.GetLength() > 0)
{
csVideoFullPath = csImageDirectory + _T("-1080p-cropped.mp4");
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << csFFMPEGPath.GetString() << " -i " << QuoteFileName(csImagePathSpec).GetString() << " -y " << QuoteFileName(csVideoFullPath).GetString() << std::endl;
if (-1 == _tspawnlp(_P_WAIT, csFFMPEGPath.GetString(), csFFMPEGPath.GetString(),
#ifdef _DEBUG
_T("-report"),
#endif
_T("-i"), QuoteFileName(csImagePathSpec).GetString(),
_T("-vf"), _T("crop=in_w:3/4*in_h"),
// _T("-vf"), _T("rotate=PI"), // Us this to rotate the movie if we forgot to put the GoPro in upside down mode.
_T("-s"), _T("1920x1080"),
_T("-y"), // Cause it to overwrite exiting output files
QuoteFileName(csVideoFullPath).GetString(), NULL))
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] _tspawnlp failed: " /* << _sys_errlist[errno] */ << std::endl;
csVideoFullPath = csImageDirectory + _T("-1080p-compressed.mp4");
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << csFFMPEGPath.GetString() << " -i " << QuoteFileName(csImagePathSpec).GetString() << " -y " << QuoteFileName(csVideoFullPath).GetString() << std::endl;
if (-1 == _tspawnlp(_P_WAIT, csFFMPEGPath.GetString(), csFFMPEGPath.GetString(),
#ifdef _DEBUG
_T("-report"),
#endif
_T("-i"), QuoteFileName(csImagePathSpec).GetString(),
// _T("-vf"), _T("rotate=PI"), // Us this to rotate the movie if we forgot to put the GoPro in upside down mode.
_T("-s"), _T("1920x1080"),
_T("-y"), // Cause it to overwrite exiting output files
QuoteFileName(csVideoFullPath).GetString(), NULL))
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] _tspawnlp failed: " /* << _sys_errlist[errno] */ << std::endl;
}
do
{
CString OutFilePath(csImageDirectory);
OutFilePath.AppendFormat(_T("\\Wim%05d.JPG"), --OutFileIndex);
std::wcout << "[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "DeleteFile " << OutFilePath.GetString() << "\r";
DeleteFile(OutFilePath);
} while (OutFileIndex > 0);
std::wcout << "\n[" << getTimeISO8601() << "] " << "RemoveDirectory " << csImageDirectory.GetString() << std::endl;
RemoveDirectory(csImageDirectory);
}
}
}
}
else
{
_tprintf(_T("Fatal Error: GetModuleHandle failed\n"));
nRetCode = 1;
}
return nRetCode;
}
WimsWorld 