Creating a timelapse clip with avconv

avconv must be installed

Make sure you have a list of JPEG files in one directory and that they are named sequentially i.e.

DSC_5015.JPG
DSC_5016.JPG
DSC_5017.JPG
...
...

Some versions of avconv will insist on the files starting with ‘0000’ somewhere in the first file. To rename the files, use the following command:-

ls *.JPG| awk 'BEGIN{ a=0 }{ printf "mv %s myfile%04d.JPG\n", $0, a++ }' | bash

This will rename all your files to:-

myfile0000.JPG
myfile0001.JPG
myfile0002.JPG
...
...

If you wan to create a clip with the original resolution (4256 x 2832 in this case) with high quality, use the following command:-

avconv -y -r 10 -i myfile%4d.JPG -r 10 -vcodec libx264 -q:v 3  -vf crop=4256:2832,scale=iw:ih tlfullhiqual.mp4;

-y forces avconv to overwrite any file
-r 10 creates a clip with 10 frames per seconds (for some versions of avconv you have to specify it twice)
-i specifies the input file(s). %4d means any 4 decimal numbers
-vcodec specifies the video codec to be used (H.264 in this case)
-q:v specifies the quality, value ranges from 1 (best) to 31 (worse)
crop= specifies which area of the images will be cropped
scale= indicates how much scaling must take place (in the above example iw:ih indicates that the output width and height will be that of the in width and in height)
the last parameter is the output file

To create a clip that is a quater of the height and width as the original with less image quality, use the following command:-

avconv -y -r 10 -i myfile%4d.JPG -r 10 -vcodec libx264 -q:v 20 -vf crop=4256:2832,scale=iw/4:ih/4 tlsmallowqual.mp4;

To create a .flv file

avconv -y -r 10 -i myfile%4d.JPG -r 10 -vcodec libx264 -q:v 3 -vf crop=4256:2832,scale=320:-1 -c:v flv tlsmallest.flv;

Here I moved the quality up, because the resolution is low