So, we recently came across a rather mind-blowing piece of time-lapse awesomeness filmed from the International Space Station…

Once we managed to retrieve our jaws from the floor, we decided to hunt down the best time-lapse videos around and stick them all in one convenient place. The result is what can only be described as an orgy of existential wonder, and everyone’s invited.

BEST SKYPORN TIME-LAPSE:
The Mountain

This stunning sequence was filmed by Norwegian photographer Terje Sorgjerd from El Teide, a 12,000ft volcanic mountain in Tenerife. He spent a week filming the Milky Way and the surrounding landscape, sleeping for less than 10 hours during his stay.

BEST ABSTRACT TIME-LAPSE:
A history of the sky

The sky stars again here, with images captured from the roof of the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco over the course of a year. This time, however, the photos are taken during the day, and a mosaic layout is used to create a totally original take on the time-lapse format.

BEST SEASONS TIME-LAPSE:
One Year in 40 Seconds

Staying with the nature theme, this short film is one of the archetypal time-lapse staples. Its pureness and simplicity is hard to beat.

BEST SNOW TIME-LAPSE:
2010 blizzard

We’ve seen the changing seasons condensed into 40 seconds, now let’s take a look at 20 hours from one very snowy day, also in 40 seconds.


BEST NERD TIME-LAPSE:
Oh Gorgeous Skyrim

Skyrim has received high praise indeed from critics and gamers alike, and this video gives you an idea of exactly why people are raving about it so much.


BEST DARK TIME-LAPSE:
Ants in my scanner

Kind of disturbing but also weirdly beautiful, we were completely captivated by this Giger-esque time-lapse of an ant colony doing its thing in a scanner. And the psytrance soundtrack works a treat…

BEST HAIRY TIME-LAPSE:
The Longest Way

Epic, funny, moving and gorgeously photographed, this is the story of one man’s journey through China accompanied by an increasingly gnarly beard.

BEST FUNNY TIME-LAPSE:
Trapped in an elevator for 41 hours

If all humour is based on Schadenfreude – enjoying the suffering of others – then there’s plenty to laugh at here. But it’s also quite scary to know that people can get stuck in lifts for nearly 2 solid days. More importantly though, why do we never see him take a leak??

BEST CONSTRUCTION TIME-LAPSE:
Ark Hotel Construction

Marvel at the ingenuity of your fellow man with this brilliant hotel construction time-lapse.


BEST URBAN TIME-LAPSE:
The City Limits

And look what happens when we build lots of things. We get, like, cities, and they look, y’know, epic. Fill them with humans and the results are even more impressive.

Hope you enjoyed this one 8Ballers. Let us know if there are any great time-lapse films we missed…