Time Lapse How-to
A How-to Guide to Creating Time Lapse Videos for Puzzles
Written by Brittany Routh / March 13, 2026 / Profile photo: Flowing Puzzle
There are many ways to document one's puzzling hobby, whether by photographing and posting images to social media, logging them in an app, or tracking them using a spreadsheet.
My favorite method is to film a time lapse of the assembly process.
A time lapse is a photographic technique where many images are taken over time that when put together as a video makes the time appear shorter or faster than it actually was. It is often used to showcase small and slow movements over time, like plants growing or stars moving, but can also be used to showcase large projects like construction sites, and in our case, smaller projects like jigsaw puzzle assembly.
Personally, I like the visual aspect of filming and creating a time lapse. I can revisit a puzzle I’ve previously completed without needing to actually put it together again and I can share that assembly process with others. I began filming puzzle time lapse videos two years ago and launched a YouTube channel sharing my videos in January of 2024. I enjoy styling my desk workspace to look aesthetically pleasing with the puzzles that I work on and I like to set my video footage to relaxing lo-fi music.
I’ve written this guide to provide a starting point for filming your own jigsaw puzzle time lapses and to pass along some tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of the more complex filming options (like using a camera with an intervalometer), or post-production editing, but I’ll cover the basics, the most user-friendly options out there and some technical details.
Let’s talk about planning.
One of the most useful things that I’ve found for getting good time lapse footage is by doing a little planning before you even start filming. There are some basic questions you might want to ask yourself which will define how you set up for your shots.
For instance, will you be the only person to view this video or do you want to share it with others on socials or YouTube? There is certainly a bit of flexibility if you plan on being the only person to watch them.
- If you want to share them on Social Media (Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube shorts), then an ideal format to shoot with is a vertical 9:16 format (your phone will be positioned vertically).
- For YouTube long-form videos, a horizontal footage 16:9 (your phone will need to be turned on its side) is required.
Some questions you might ask yourself before starting:
- Do you want just one single shot, or do you want to move the camera around and focus on certain areas throughout the build?
- Do you want it to be just your puzzle shown in the video, or do you want to set up the scene to be a bit more aesthetic?
- Do you want some elements of your video to be in real time or is all of it sped up?
Knowing the answers to these questions will help with setting up your space and planning filming. When your camera is all set up, make sure that your puzzle will actually fit within the shot and take note of how much of your working area is visible so you’ll know when pieces are outside of the shot or within it.
A little planning goes a long way, but don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by it! Perfection is the enemy of done, after all.
Equipment
The bare minimum that you will need is a camera to shoot the footage. This doesn’t need to be a standalone camera, as most of the recent cell phones will have a time lapse feature built into their camera (e.g. Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel phones, etc) and there are apps you can download (like Camera FV-5 Lite) which will provide you with time lapse functionality if your phone doesn’t come with one. If you don’t want to be separated from your phone for such a long time, there are DSLR and Point-and-Shoot cameras that have time lapse functionality built in and there are dedicated time lapse cameras out there whose primary function is to take time lapse footage. If you are just starting out, I’d recommend starting with your cell phone before spending too much money on a dedicated camera.
Tripod/Camera Mount
You’ll need something to mount your camera onto to position it above your puzzle. Most of the basic tripod or desk mount clamps will work, but if you're looking for a good overhead shot, you’ll want a mount which allows your camera to be positioned up and then over your table/desk. I love the compact nature of a camera mount that clamps to your desk and initially, that was what I purchased when I wanted to start filming time lapses. I quickly found out that you need to have a very sturdy tabletop or you need to mount it on something that isn’t likely to be moved. With the clamp style of mount, when attached to your workspace, any leaning or bumping of the table could shake the camera. A good test before buying a camera mount is to press your weight down on the table with your elbows while sitting. If it moves under your weight you may not want to have a clamp style camera or a mount that sits directly on your table. In that case, to have the most camera stability, I recommend a camera stand whose base extends down to the ground and has an arm that extends over the table. These stands typically need a counter weight to hang on the arm opposite the camera to balance the camera pulling on the mount/stand.
Things to Consider:
Power + Overheating
Depending on how quickly you can assemble your puzzle, one thing to take into consideration is making sure your camera has enough power for however long you’re filming. It’s not unusual for me to film an 8+ hour session all in one go. Filming for this length of time, even using camera software which dims the screen after a set period of time, will still eat up a lot of battery. Due to this, I chose to have a power cable plugged directly into my camera. One could also choose to have spare batteries on hand if you were using a regular camera, but I’ve found that the hassle of having to remember to swap them out is a bit of a pain, plus it tends to move the camera mount. Nothing is more frustrating than finishing a puzzle build to find that your camera ran out of power an hour before, so make sure you take this into account.
I feel like this is a good time to point out that filming for such long periods of time can put a strain on your camera. I filmed using my cell phone for just under 2 years before I invested in a dedicated camera (the GoPro Hero13). Towards the end, my phone was struggling with overheating. Not everyone is going to have that issue, it really depends on the age of your phone, as well as how frequently you are filming and for how long, but it is something to be aware of. It should be noted that having your phone plugged into the charger for hours on end can also affect your battery life. This can be an issue for non-cell phone cameras as I’ve seen overheating reports for cameras like the GoPro. When GoPro’s are used in a stationary manner, there have been reports of overheating as they are designed to be action-cameras and the airflow (from being attached to a moving item, like someone on a bike or on a car) cools the camera while it films. This isn’t something I’ve experienced with my own GoPro yet, which I’ve been using for several months now, however a common fix is to point a fan directly at the camera when it films and make sure it stays out of direct sunlight. Dedicated time lapse cameras like those built for filming long term projects like construction projects and plant growth are built to be operated for long periods of time and likely will be less prone to overheating.
File Size and Storage
Despite the fact that time lapses show long periods of time in a condensed manner, they can still take up a lot of data storage on your camera. There are several factors to consider when setting up your camera to film which will affect storage, namely the quality of your footage and the speed and duration that your camera is filming. For my cellphone (Google Pixel 7) I had two options for quality, HD (High Definition) which is a 1080p resolution and Ultra HD which is a 4K resolution. I chose to film my own time lapses in 4K because I want the highest quality footage possible for my YouTube channel and for people viewing the videos on a TV. For those of you who are keeping the videos for yourself or for posting on social media, you might find that regular HD is sufficient for your needs. Nevertheless, 4K footage adds up quickly. You can easily surpass 1 Gb of data with a single minute of video. As of writing this, a midrange phone will likely have around 128 Gb’s of storage. It can be quickly eaten away with time lapse footage depending on which settings you choose. I solved this by purchasing an 18TB external hard drive to transfer my files to and upgraded my cloud storage.
Lighting/Weather
Lighting is very important to consider when filming your time lapse. Inconsistent lighting might not seem like much when viewed in real time, but when time lapse footage is sped up, the changes in lighting show up as flashes of light. Sudden changes in the brightness of the footage can be jarring on the eyes and can even cause issues with viewers who have light sensitivities. I like filming using natural light and for the most part this works out well. However, it does mean on days when the weather isn’t great (or even just partially cloudy) I can’t film. Bringing in additional lighting can help ensure that the lighting remains stable.
If you are using a phone to film, one way to counter slight changes in lighting is to lock the light settings on your camera. To do this on most phones, hold your finger down on the screen in an area within your viewfinder that you know is unlikely to change often until you see a small lock icon. This will lock the lighting and the focus so that area always remains in focus and the lighting within that area remains consistent. One note of warning, you’ll want to choose an area that is unlikely to have a lot of motion within it. The camera will try to compensate anytime that you move into that area which can cause your lighting to be just as flashy as a cloudy day or can cause your puzzle to be out of focus.
The Technical Settings
I’m now going to get into some of the more technical details which make it sound complex, but I promise it’s easier than it seems. If you find yourself unsure of which setting to work with, start with your camera’s default settings first, see how it looks and then use the information below to help you adjust the settings so that you can get future footage that works for your needs.
Speed Settings vs Interval Settings
Your Time Lapse camera software is likely going to offer one of two different types of settings:1) the overall speed of filming (5x, 10x, 30x, 120x or Auto); or 2) filming by the interval of time the camera takes in between shots (e.g. 1 second, 5 seconds, 60 seconds, etc). The camera and software that you use will determine which settings are available to you and if you’re lucky it’ll offer both.
Filming Speed Settings
For me personally, I like to have a lot of control of the speed of my videos when I edit in post production. I started off using my phone, which had the setting that allowed you to speed up your footage overall (5x, 10x, etc). 60 minutes of filming on 5x would net you approximately 12 minutes of footage. To compare, 60 minutes on 10x would get you 6 minutes of footage and so on. You can see how this style of time lapse speed can give you a lot of control when it comes to how much footage you end up with. This is ideal if you are looking for longer time lapse videos or want to control the speed of specific portions of your footage by speeding them up at different amounts.
Time lapse vs Hyperlapse/Time Warp
I want to touch on hyperlapse videos for a second (Time Warp is the GoPro term for a hyperlapse video). Hyperlapses are time lapse videos where the camera is in motion (think someone filming from a moving car). The camera software uses anchor points and stabilization to create smooth footage. Now, typically with jigsaw puzzle time lapses you wouldn’t use a hyperlapse because your camera is stationary, however, don’t discount using the hyperlapse options if they are available in your camera software. I found that time lapse software outside of cellphones, typically use interval settings, however, Time Warp/Hyperlapse settings sometimes offer you the alternative 5x, 10x, etc options which in my opinion offer you more flexibility with your output. I personally have been using the GoPro’s Time Warp option for all of my time lapse videos for the past several months and have found it very similar to my Pixel 7 camera’s functionality.
Interval Duration Settings
If your camera gives you the option to set the interval between shots, something to keep in mind is that the lower the interval (e.g. 1 second) the slower and longer the video file. The longer time in between the shots (e.g. 20 seconds), the quicker the video and the faster it will appear to go. To give you an example, with an interval setting of 1 second and filming a 60 second clip, you would end up with 60 frames in total. When played at 30 FPS (frames per second), you would therefore end up with 2 seconds of playable footage.This type of time lapse setting works great if you are trying to catch slow, subtle movements over long periods of time (think plants growing, stars moving, long term construction builds).
For a vast majority of people, this speed of footage is going to be just fine, especially for those who want to share their time lapse on social media, where brevity is recommended. One hour of filming would be condensed into about 2 minutes of footage when using the minimum one second interval and played at 30 FPS.
To give you an idea of my filming process, I prefer to start out filming my videos in real-time to show off the puzzle box and the moment when the pieces are poured onto the table. From there, I switch the camera to film the time lapse portion at a speed of 5x for the remaining part of the puzzle build, except for the final piece which, again, I film in real-time. Eventually, I’ll speed up various parts of the time lapse in post production.
Remember: you can always speed up footage, but you can’t slow it down (without visibly losing quality).
FPS (Frames per Second)
For most people, you likely won’t need to adjust FPS settings and the default is typically 24 or 30 FPS. The basic definition of FPS is Frames per Second, which means the number of images shown within a single second of video. This is important to consider if you are using a time lapse interval option on your camera as discussed above, as it affects the speed and duration of your video footage.
Let’s use an example of a camera set to take photos on a 1 second interval. In this case, the camera is taking one photo per second. After one minute of filming, your camera will have taken 60 images. If your FPS is 30, you will have 2 seconds total of video footage. If your FPS is 60, you will have 1 second total of video footage. The higher your FPS, the smoother your time lapse can look, but it also means the faster/shorter your video will be.
Let’s consider a different interval. If you were filming with your camera set with a time lapse interval of 5 seconds (the camera takes a photo every 5 seconds), after a minute of filming, you would end up with 12 images. If you had an FPS of 60, it would take five minutes of filming to have a single second of video (5 minutes of filming would equal 60 images). Whereas it would take two and a half minutes of filming when set to 30 FPS to get a second of video and two minutes of filming if set at 24 FPS.
Post Production
So now you have your time lapse footage, but how to make it into a single watchable video? If you are working with multiple large files I’d recommend editing your videos together on a laptop or desktop computer rather than using a cellphone. I personally use Adobe Premiere, but that’s an expensive choice for most people. There are many video editing software programs out there, including but not limited to: DaVinci Resolve, Capcut, Clipchamp, and Adobe Express. All of these programs will let you combine and adjust the speed of your video clips, add music if you desire and can output them into one single video.
When I get to editing my footage, I like to speed up the bulk of the assembly process anywhere from 700% to over 10,000% depending on how long of a video I want to end up with and how long it took me to build the puzzle. A puzzle that could be completed within two hours is going to have much less footage to work with than a puzzle that took over fifteen hours. If I want to end up with a 2 minute long video, I’m going to need to speed up the footage of the fifteen hour puzzle significantly more than the two hour puzzle. I also like to slow down the time lapse portion towards the end of the build so it doesn’t end in a jarring manner. Depending on the setting you use and your personal preferences, you might not need to adjust the speed at all!
The number one tip I can give you is to just try it out. Grab a puzzle, grab your phone, set the camera to time lapse mode, point it at your puzzle and press record.
Have fun! You can fine tune later. Getting a basic understanding of the procedure can demystify the process a lot. Know that you might not get your ideal footage to start, but you’ll take in a few things like: does that camera angle work? Is the default setting too fast or too slow? Do you like seeing yourself on the screen? How much memory does that footage take up? Did the camera turn off mid-video? Is the footage too shaky or are there too many flashes of light when sped up? All of these things can be compensated and adjusted for.
In the end, I hope that you’ll give it a go and start making your own puzzling time lapse videos. The process can seem overwhelming and technical at first glance, but I promise once you try you’ll see that there isn’t much to it. It can be incredibly rewarding and a fun creative outlet and it’s an excellent way to revisit a puzzle you’ve finished. The world needs more puzzle-related content and I hope you’ll give it a go.
All photos & videos in this article is taken by Brittany Routh
Get to know the Author: Brittany Routh
Brittany Routh is the founder of Every Little Piece, an online jigsaw puzzle shop dedicated to puzzles featuring real, human-made artwork. Since January 2024, she's been sharing her love of puzzling through time-lapse videos on YouTube and on Instagram as @FindEveryLittlePiece. When she's not sorting pieces, you'll find her spending time with her husband and son.