A QGIS plugin for creating timelapse animations from satellite and aerial imagery using Google Earth Engine. Supports NAIP, Landsat, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1, MODIS NDVI, and GOES weather satellite imagery.

• Multiple Imagery Sources:

  • NAIP: US National Agriculture Imagery Program (2003-present)
  • Landsat: Long-term satellite archive (1984-present)
  • Sentinel-2: ESA multispectral satellite imagery (2015-present)
  • Sentinel-1: ESA SAR satellite imagery (2014-present)
  • MODIS NDVI: Vegetation phenology animations
  • GOES: Weather satellite animations

• Flexible Area of Interest Selection:

  • Draw a bounding box directly on the map
  • Use the current map extent
  • Use the extent of a loaded vector layer

• Customizable Output:

  • GIF animations with adjustable dimensions and frame rate
  • Optional MP4 video export (requires ffmpeg)
  • Date text overlay with customizable font and color
  • Progress bar visualization
  • Configurable loop settings

• Advanced Options:

  • Cloud masking for Sentinel-2 and Landsat
  • Orbit selection for Sentinel-1 (ascending/descending)
  • Multiple band combinations
  • Adjustable temporal range and step size

• Plugin Management:

  • Built-in update checker with automatic installation
  • About dialog with version info and links

👉 Watch the Earth Change: New QGIS Plugin Creates Satellite Timelapse Animations in Seconds

1. QGIS 3.28 or higher
2. Google Earth Engine Account: Sign up at earthengine.google.com

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

Close and re-open your terminal (or reload your shell) so pixi is on your PATH. Then confirm:

pixi --version

Open PowerShell (preferably as a normal user, Admin not required), then run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Close and re-open PowerShell, then confirm:

pixi --version

Navigate to a directory where you want to create the project and run:

pixi init geo
cd geo

From the geo folder:

pixi add qgis geemap earthengine-api pillow ffmpeg

pixi run earthengine authenticate

1. Open QGIS using pixi run qgis
2. Go to Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins...
3. Go to the Settings tab
4. Click Add... under "Plugin Repositories"
5. Give a name for the repository, e.g., "OpenGeos"
6. Enter the URL of the repository: https://qgis.gishub.org/plugins.xml
7. Click OK
8. Go to the All tab
9. Search for "Timelapse"
10. Select "Timelapse" from the list and click Install Plugin

1. Download the latest release ZIP from https://qgis.gishub.org
2. In QGIS, go to Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins
3. Click Install from ZIP and select the downloaded file
4. Enable the plugin in the Installed tab

1. Clone or download this repository
2. Copy the timelapse folder to your QGIS plugins directory:
   • Linux: ~/.local/share/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
   • Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\QGIS\QGIS3\profiles\default\python\plugins\
   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
3. Restart QGIS and enable the plugin

python install.py --uninstall
# or
./install.sh --uninstall

qgis-timelapse-plugin/
├── timelapse/                    # Plugin folder (installed to QGIS)
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── timelapse_plugin.py       # Main plugin class
│   ├── metadata.txt
│   ├── core/                     # Core functionality
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── timelapse_core.py     # Earth Engine processing
│   ├── dialogs/                  # UI dialogs
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── timelapse_dock.py     # Main dock widget
│   │   ├── update_checker.py     # Plugin update checker
│   │   └── about_dialog.py       # About dialog
│   └── icons/                    # Plugin icons
├── install.py                    # Cross-platform installer
├── install.sh                    # Unix/Mac installer
├── package_plugin.py             # Package for distribution
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md

1. Click the Timelapse button in the toolbar or go to the Timelapse menu → Create Timelapse

2. Define Area of Interest (AOI tab):

   • Choose a method (draw on map, use map extent, or use vector layer)
   • For drawing: Click the "Draw Bounding Box" button, then click and drag on the map

   

3. Configure Imagery Settings (Imagery tab):

   • Select imagery type (NAIP, Landsat, Sentinel-2, Sentinel-1, MODIS NDVI, or GOES)
   • Set the date range (start year to end year)
   • Adjust imagery-specific options (bands, cloud filtering, etc.)

   

4. Set Output Options (Output tab):

   • Choose output file path
   • Set animation dimensions and frame rate
   • Enable MP4 conversion if needed

   

5. Customize Visualization (Style tab):

   • Configure text overlay, progress bar, title, and vector overlay

   

6. Click Create Timelapse and wait for processing to complete

Imagery Type: NAIP
Start Year: 2010
End Year: 2023
Year Step: 2

NAIP provides high-resolution (1m) aerial imagery for the United States. Images are typically captured during the agricultural growing season.

Imagery Type: Landsat
Start Year: 1990
End Year: 2024
Start Date: 06-01
End Date: 09-30
Bands: NIR, Red, Green (False Color)
Apply Cloud Masking: Yes

This configuration creates a 34-year timelapse combining Landsat 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 data.

Imagery Type: Sentinel-2
Start Year: 2018
End Year: 2024
Start Date: 06-01
End Date: 09-30
Bands: NIR, Red, Green (False Color)
Max Cloud: 20%
Apply Cloud Masking: Yes

This configuration creates a summer timelapse with vegetation highlighted in red.

Imagery Type: Sentinel-1
Start Year: 2018
End Year: 2024
Polarization: VV
Orbit: Both Ascending and Descending

SAR imagery is useful for monitoring changes regardless of cloud cover or lighting conditions.

Imagery Type: MODIS NDVI
Satellite: Terra
Index: NDVI
Start Year: 2010
End Year: 2023

Creates an animation showing vegetation phenology over time.

Imagery Type: GOES
Satellite: GOES-17
Scan: full_disk
Start Date: 2021-10-24
End Date: 2021-10-25

Great for visualizing weather patterns and storms.

The plugin includes a built-in update checker:

1. Go to Timelapse menu → Check for Updates...
2. Click "Check for Updates" to see if a new version is available
3. If an update is found, click "Download and Install Update"
4. Restart QGIS to apply the update

"Failed to initialize Google Earth Engine"

• Ensure you have an active Earth Engine account
• Log in to your Earth Engine account at https://code.earthengine.google.com to get your Project ID
• Open the QGIS Python Console (QGIS -> Plugins -> Python Console) and run the following Python code to authenticate and initialize Earth Engine. Make sure to replace your-ee-project with your actual Earth Engine Project ID.

import ee
ee.Authenticate()
ee.Initialize(project="your-ee-project")

"No images found"

• Verify the area of interest is within the imagery coverage
• For NAIP: Only covers the United States
• For Sentinel: Expand the date range
• Check that coordinates are in WGS84 format

"Module not found" errors

• Ensure required dependencies are installed (see the Installation section above)
• Ensure you're using QGIS's Python environment

MP4 not created

• Ensure ffmpeg is installed. If you used the Pixi setup (pixi add geemap pillow ffmpeg), ffmpeg should already be available. Otherwise, install it system-wide (e.g., sudo apt install ffmpeg on Linux or download installers from ffmpeg.org).

• Start with smaller areas for testing
• Use lower dimensions (512-768px) for faster processing
• Limit the date range initially
• Higher cloud percentage thresholds reduce processing time

To create a distributable ZIP file:

python package_plugin.py

This creates dist/timelapse-{version}.zip ready for upload to the QGIS plugin repository.

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

• Based on the geemap timelapse module by Qiusheng Wu
• Uses Google Earth Engine for satellite imagery processing
• Built with QGIS and PyQt

If you use this plugin in your research, please cite:

@software{qgis_timelapse_plugin,
  author = {Qiusheng Wu},
  title = {QGIS Timelapse Animation Creator},
  year = {2025},
  url = {https://github.com/opengeos/qgis-timelapse-plugin}
}

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions