rtRenameFiles - Utility to Rename Files in Bulk

When you are ready to convert your thousands of timelapse images into a movie, it's necessary to have your images named properly.

For example, your timelapse software (or camera) may begin numbering images at some value other than zero. Then, it may flip - like an odometer - back to zero after it runs out of numbers.

This situation can cause ffmpeg, MEncoder, and other processors to process the images in the wrong order.

So occasionally, you may need to rename all of your images for a particular timelapse session so they sort upward alphabetically according to the time they were taken.

I wrote a file-renaming utility for just this reason. It's free, so feel free to download it here:

rtRenameFiles

Usage

To rename all of the files in the current directory so they sort properly by ffmpeg and MEncoder, just rename them according to their modification date. Make sure that the year is first, then the month, then the day, etc. so the final file names looks like this:



Once you download the utility, you can issue this command to rename all of the JPG files in the current directory in this format:



If you prefer to have the files named sequentially from 1 to 10000 (or whatever is your total number of images), follow the above command with this command:



Now your files will be renamed sequentially (starting at 1) according to the date they were modified. It's best to use the last-modified date because this is the date the files were last written to and usually reflects the actual date the picture was taken. The creation date can change if the image is simply copied from one location to another.

If you have any problems, feel free to contact me.

Good luck with your timelapse movies. Be sure to post them here on this forum.