Stitching and panorama photo

[mrtom]

Hi all,

New guy here! So a couple weeks ago I took a photo of a series of photos of some skaters, and I managed to get a sort of timelapse of one guy doing a trick. My question here is: How do I stitch the photos together so that the skater as the subject appears in the photo at every stage of his trick? Also, because he was moving, this would have to be a panorama photo as well. I am a complete noob with GIMP, I've only ever needed to use darktable for editing until this very moment, and I can't seem to find any videos or other information that can help, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

[rich2005]

Just an initial thought. The Pandora script from https://www.shallowsky.com/software/pandora/ This is ancient but might be more appropriate than the more usual Hugin panorama stitcher. All depends what you want.

A bare-bones demo. https://youtu.be/VRhIsWiekaQ duration just 2 minutes.

Even if it is not what is required, it does show layer masks in action.

[denzjos]

It is possible to make a composition from several pictures. Is rich2005 mentioned, the key is using masks. There are a few situations :
1 - the photos are made from the same viewpoint using a tripod
Load the different photos in gimp (File / Open as layers)
Add a layer mask on every layer except the first layer
Whipe out the unwanted by using the masks (use the paintbrush tool to blend the contours of the moving object)
   
2 - the photos are made from a different viewpoint
Load the different photos in gimp (File / Open as layers)
Add a horizontal guide
Enlarge the canvas (Image / Canvas Size)
Shift and rotate the photos on the different layers to line them according to the background 
Add a layer mask on every layer except the first layer
Whipe out the unwanted by using the masks (use the paintbrush tool to blend the contours of the moving object and the overlapping layers)
3 - the photos are made while staying in the same place but turning the camera to the moving object
This is a real panorama
Load the different photos in gimp (File / Open as layers)
Add a horizontal guide
Enlarge the canvas (Image / Canvas Size)
Shift and rotate the photos on the different layers to line them according to the background 
Add a layer mask on every layer except the first layer
Whipe out the unwanted by using the masks (use the paintbrush tool to blend the contours of the moving object and the overlapping layers)
4 - the photos are made with different camera focal points
Load the different photos in gimp (File / Open as layers)
Add a horizontal guide
Enlarge the canvas (Image / Canvas Size)
Shift and rotate the photos on the different layers to line them according to the background 
Add a layer mask on every layer except the first layer
Whipe out the backgrounds using the masks, except from the first photo, just hold the person visible (or/and use the gimp selection tools to select the moving object)
If it is a panorama, try to merge the backgronds from the different layers (better about right than total wrong)