Timetracks4D vs Parallaxly

Timetracks4D is a camera that cuts time out as if it were space. Think of video as a cube stacked in three directions: width, height and time. Ordinary playback cuts that cube straight across time and shows you the slices one after another. Timetracks4D tilts the cut. Once it is tilted, every place on the screen shows a different moment: whatever held still comes out as it was, and only what moved is twisted. ■ Two ways to shoot [Movie] Records while the cut turns. The tilt changes from frame to frame, so the picture keeps moving. Angle, Speed and Window Time change how it twists. [Still] Builds one picture by stacking narrow bands, one at a time. Each band was taken at a different moment, so the finished picture reads as the flow of time from top to bottom. This is the slit scan, the way the first Timetracks worked. It saves a long picture: eight screenfuls joined end to end, each at the camera's own resolution. Both are made from the same camera feed, but they treat time differently, so each one has its own settings. ■ Main settings - Camera (Back / Front), Zoom (Lens), Resolution, Frame Rate - Transform (Shear / Rotate) and the edge time runs along (Long Edge / Short Edge) - Auto Rotate speed, Angle, Window Time - How the band moves (One-way / Palindrome / Wave / Fixed / Drift / Random) - Interval between bands, from single frames to hours - Scan Width - Full Screen, Show Buttons, Touch Gestures, Prevent Auto-Lock - Add Location There is a button that randomizes the settings. If you are not sure what to touch first, press that. ■ Getting a good result Hold the device still. If the device moves, the whole picture moves with it and you cannot tell that apart from the subject moving. A tripod or a table is the sure way. Point it at something that moves. A still subject seen from a still device gives the same picture at every moment, so nothing happens. People walking, a hand, water, traffic, anything swaying in the wind - these work well. Once you have the feel of it, try moving the device instead. That is where the more complicated shapes come from. ■ Pricing Everything except recording is free. Play with the camera and the settings as much as you like; the picture you would get is on the screen already. Try it first. Full Access (a one-time in-app purchase) removes the ad and lets you save movies and stills. If you have already bought Timetracks, you do not need to buy anything. Full Access turns on by itself when you update.

Turn the frames you already have into a wigglegram — an aligned, looping GIF or video where your subject stays still and the world around it rocks in 3D. Parallaxly starts from frames, not from the camera. Import a scan from a multi-lens film camera (the frames side by side on one strip), or 2 to 6 photos taken a small step apart. The app finds the frames, lines them up on your subject and plays the loop right away. • SPLITS YOUR SCAN — one scan with 2, 3 or 4 frames side by side is split automatically at the gaps between frames. Adjust any split line, or change the number of frames. • ALIGNS ON YOUR SUBJECT — tap the point that should stay still (or let the app pick one). Every frame is registered on that point to a fraction of a pixel, so the subject holds steady while the background and foreground move. Edges that aren't in every frame are cropped away, so the loop never shows an empty border. • EVENS OUT EXPOSURE — film frames scanned one by one differ in brightness and color. Match exposure brings every frame to the same look, so the loop doesn't flicker. • STRAIGHTENS HAND-HELD SHOTS — an optional correction for a small tilt between phone photos. • YOUR LOOP, YOUR WAY — back and forth (1-2-3-2-1) or a straight loop, speed from 40 to 400 ms per frame, and crops for posts and stories: original, 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16. Reorder or remove frames at any time. • GIF OR MP4 — a GIF that loops forever, or an H.264 video that repeats the loop for about 6 to 10 seconds, so it plays smoothly where videos don't loop on their own. Save to Photos or share. • PRIVATE — everything happens on your device. No account, no upload. Works with scans from multi-lens film cameras such as the Nishika N8000, Nimslo 3D and Reto3D, from any stereo pair, and with photos from your phone: take 2 or 3 shots of a subject, stepping a few centimeters sideways between them. What it doesn't do: it doesn't invent depth. You need at least two frames taken from slightly different positions; a single photo can't become a wigglegram here. Importing, aligning and the animated preview cost nothing. A one-time purchase unlocks exporting the GIF and MP4 files. Questions: overlapmarr@gmail.com