New to lrtimelapse and a little confused with the workflow and a couple of other things...

I have my folder of images set up in LRoom. Now before I do anything should I launch lrtimelapse and initialise? I already removed some spots on about 10 frames, so will these be lost? Im a little confused over this. Is it ok to use the spot tool and then sync them across images/frames affected?

Is there a list of what items are and are not supported? EG I see from the basic tutorial that gradients within LR are not supported, and neither are curves if used on the tone map, but are supported using the sliders.

Keyframes...So if I add a keyframe and then edit the image in LR, the edit will then get transitioned up to the next keyframe? If its an intermediate keyframe say half way through, how do I determine how the edit gets transitioned? Confused about if it is blended towards the first image, and the last.

The tutorials say 'save metadata', I presume I select all images and then "save metadata to file".

The preview uses original files, not edited files, so once you make any changes, add keyframes and transitions etc, how do you know its going to look right? Educated guesses?

Fade in/out? How is this done? Again using a keyframe and fading it from black across frames of about 1 second duration?

Sorry for all the questions, but trying to figure it all out....

I have my folder of images set up in LRoom. Now before I do anything should I launch lrtimelapse and initialise? I already removed some spots on about 10 frames, so will these be lost? Im a little confused over this. Is it ok to use the spot tool and then sync them across images/frames affected?

First initialize, all edits go after that. If you want to use the spot tool, do it at the very end of the workflow and synchronize only the spot tool then to all images.

Is there a list of what items are and are not supported? EG I see from the basic tutorial that gradients within LR are not supported, and neither are curves if used on the tone map, but are supported using the sliders.

Sure.
http://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-what...htroom-acr
And gradients ARE supported.

Keyframes...So if I add a keyframe and then edit the image in LR, the edit will then get transitioned up to the next keyframe? If its an intermediate keyframe say half way through, how do I determine how the edit gets transitioned? Confused about if it is blended towards the first image, and the last.

Yes, you can use multiple keyframes and will then get smooth transitions. You will see the curves in LRTimelapse.

The tutorials say 'save metadata', I presume I select all images and then "save metadata to file".

Yes

The preview uses original files, not edited files, so once you make any changes, add keyframes and transitions etc, how do you know its going to look right? Educated guesses?

No, you see all edited keyframes in Lightroom, and the curves in LRTimelapse. The intermediates will then be automatically calculated. You can see them in Lightroom after the last "Load metadata from files" before rendering.

Fade in/out? How is this done? Again using a keyframe and fading it from black across frames of about 1 second duration?

I would rather do this in video editing when combining different sequences. It does not make much sense to fade out in the preprocessing of a single sequence.

Sorry for all the questions, but trying to figure it all out....

You are welcome!

I have my folder of images set up in LRoom. Now before I do anything should I launch lrtimelapse and initialise? I already removed some spots on about 10 frames, so will these be lost? Im a little confused over this. Is it ok to use the spot tool and then sync them across images/frames affected?

First initialize, all edits go after that. If you want to use the spot tool, do it at the very end of the workflow and synchronize only the spot tool then to all images.

Is there a list of what items are and are not supported? EG I see from the basic tutorial that gradients within LR are not supported, and neither are curves if used on the tone map, but are supported using the sliders.

Sure.
http://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-what...htroom-acr
And gradients ARE supported.

Keyframes...So if I add a keyframe and then edit the image in LR, the edit will then get transitioned up to the next keyframe? If its an intermediate keyframe say half way through, how do I determine how the edit gets transitioned? Confused about if it is blended towards the first image, and the last.

Yes, you can use multiple keyframes and will then get smooth transitions. You will see the curves in LRTimelapse.

The tutorials say 'save metadata', I presume I select all images and then "save metadata to file".

Yes

The preview uses original files, not edited files, so once you make any changes, add keyframes and transitions etc, how do you know its going to look right? Educated guesses?

No, you see all edited keyframes in Lightroom, and the curves in LRTimelapse. The intermediates will then be automatically calculated. You can see them in Lightroom after the last "Load metadata from files" before rendering.

Fade in/out? How is this done? Again using a keyframe and fading it from black across frames of about 1 second duration?

I would rather do this in video editing when combining different sequences. It does not make much sense to fade out in the preprocessing of a single sequence.

Sorry for all the questions, but trying to figure it all out....

You are welcome!

Thanks for your reply Gunther.
I downloaded your ebook which has helped, and I have more questions if I may?
Once I have all my images in a folder and brought into LR, I will in most cases want to use one image to export an image, which may involve different edits. I can easily create a Virtual copy for this to preserve the original, but is there a way I can exclude this from LRT? I don't want it to be included obviously in the time lapse.

Key frames. In my sequence of 400 images of a sunset, if I want (for e.g.) the sun to increase in brightness from frame 250 to 300 how do I do this? Im confused about how to ensure edits are blended in intermediate frames, if possible. If I set a keyframe at 250 and 300 and make edits, how do I ensure its blended from 1 to 250 and 300 to the end? Would I set keyframes at 1, 250, 300, and the last image, and then manipulate the curve so that the animation is constant up to the point I want?

Is there a way around not being able to use the brush tool? In the example above using the brush to brighten one area would be useful. I could upgrade LR4 to 5 and use circular gradients?

What do I do if I don't have any edits that need to be animated in LRT? If my images only need exist that can be synced over all images (spot, sharpen, noise) what do I do about keyframes etc? Use the Keyframe wizard but do nothing with them?
If I need to spot remove from just a few frames does LTR still use this metadata? Im presuming that LTR needs the metadata to be able to animate/blend, but edits that are not animated are used just in the final export of images.

Cropping. If I want to add movement then I have to use key frames to crop the start and the end. But if I just want a static video, can I go ahead and crop all my images in LR. I read that LRT will export the video at 16:9, but if I want to crop in LR first so i can decide which parts are cropped, is this ok? Should I initialise first on LRT, then crop in LR, or just go ahead and crop in LR before using LRT?

Video editing. I have no experience editing video, for fade in/out, compiling clips together, adding titles etc. What would you recommend as a good app for mac? I have iMovie but no idea if it is suitable.

Again sorry for all the questions some of which may be dumb, always a headache trying to learn something new!

Once I have all my images in a folder and brought into LR, I will in most cases want to use one image to export an image, which may involve different edits. I can easily create a Virtual copy for this to preserve the original, but is there a way I can exclude this from LRT? I don't want it to be included obviously in the time lapse.

Virtual copies will not be seen by LRTimelapse and they will not be exported via LRTExport-Plugin either.

Key frames. In my sequence of 400 images of a sunset, if I want (for e.g.) the sun to increase in brightness from frame 250 to 300 how do I do this? Im confused about how to ensure edits are blended in intermediate frames, if possible. If I set a keyframe at 250 and 300 and make edits, how do I ensure its blended from 1 to 250 and 300 to the end? Would I set keyframes at 1, 250, 300, and the last image, and then manipulate the curve so that the animation is constant up to the point I want?
[quote]
Keyframes will always be automatically set to the first and very last image of a sequence. You can then add more keyframes, for example at 250 and 300 in your example. Edit those keyframes in Lightroom from left to right, save, reload in LRTimelapse, apply the auto transitions and observe the curve for the parameter you changed - you will then see how the auto transition animates the intermediate values.
[quote]
Is there a way around not being able to use the brush tool? In the example above using the brush to brighten one area would be useful. I could upgrade LR4 to 5 and use circular gradients?

Yes you can use up to 2 circular gradients with LR5 and animate them and up to 3 llinear gradients.
If you really have to use the brush tool do it as a very last step before rendering the video - apply it to the first image and then sync only the brush to all images. It will than be applied to all images, but obviously not be animated. I don't recommend that.

What do I do if I don't have any edits that need to be animated in LRT? If my images only need exist that can be synced over all images (spot, sharpen, noise) what do I do about keyframes etc? Use the Keyframe wizard but do nothing with them?

You can then omit the keyframes wizard. After initialization the first and last frames are keyframes. Just edit the first then in Lightroom, copy all settings to the last, save.., reload... and apply the autotransition in LRT. This will make all edits the same.

If I need to spot remove from just a few frames does LTR still use this metadata? Im presuming that LTR needs the metadata to be able to animate/blend, but edits that are not animated are used just in the final export of images.

Do this at the very end as well like with the brush.

Cropping. If I want to add movement then I have to use key frames to crop the start and the end. But if I just want a static video, can I go ahead and crop all my images in LR.

Normally you would just apply the desired crop to the first keyframe and then take it with you to the next ones when copy-pasting settings. This will give you a static crop.

I read that LRT will export the video at 16:9, but if I want to crop in LR first so i can decide which parts are cropped, is this ok? Should I initialise first on LRT, then crop in LR, or just go ahead and crop in LR before using LRT?

You can turn off the initial 16:9 cropping in the LRTimelapse settings. LRT3 can render in other aspect ratios as well. I recommend always following the workflow, juet set your desired crop to the key frame and copy/paste it to the next.

Video editing. I have no experience editing video, for fade in/out, compiling clips together, adding titles etc. What would you recommend as a good app for mac? I have iMovie but no idea if it is suitable.

I don't know iMovie but I heard that it's not that good for time lapse editing.
For beginners Premiere Elements is not that bad.

Again sorry for all the questions some of which may be dumb, always a headache trying to learn something new!

You are welcome.