GIMP Version: 2.6.7
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: Ubuntu 9.10
GIMP Experience: Intermediate Level

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Does anybody know of a good plugin or program (that runs on Ubuntu Linux) to record a timelapse? I can't imagine the best approach is to export a few hundred .png or .jpg's as I move along.

Bound to be one somewhere, (probably a script) but I have not come across one that will capture a series of images and output straight to video.

First thing, is this from a webcam or a desktop capture?

From a webcam, Cheese has an option (burst mode) to capture "x" images at "y" intervals. Works ok.

For a desktop, back to command line I fear, and 'scrot'

while [ 1 ]; do scrot -q 100 `date +%s`.jpg; sleep 3; done

This takes a <file_number>.jpg screenshot every 3 seconds until ctrl-c is pressed in the terminal. Note the back tics `: normally next to the 1 key.

Both cheese and scrot are in the ubuntu repo.

Making them into a video: Kdenlive will take a load of images and drag'n'drop into the timeline. Very easy. Default is something like 5 seconds per image.

If you are into command line ffmpeg can render an image:

for f in *.jpg; do ffmpeg -loop_input -i "$f" -r 15 -t 5 -qscale 2 "$f".avi; done

This makes an avi file framerate 15 fps length 5 seconds and names it <same-as-the-jpeg>.avi Then join them all together to make a "new.avi"

mencoder -ovc copy -o new.avi `find-name`*.avi

Both ffmpeg and mencoder are in the ubuntu repo if you do not already have them installed.

A screen shot (LM9 64 bit) of the output http://i.imgur.com/f9mrn.png

happy capturing!

Using scrot sounds like exactly what I need, actually . Thanks for the suggestion.