2 Zoom As Days Go By

[Barbara]

This is a project that has been a year in the making. It's a fair bit different from my original concept, a more or less daily photo time-lapse of a nearby lake. It evolved as I learned what was, and was not, possible with both my software and the drone.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the result, but really curious what others may think. I welcome both questions about the process and constructive criticism on my video.

In closing, knowing what I now do, I would approach the project quite differently, which would take another year to complete.

 

[old man mavic]

nice video ,the cycle of life is great to watch, condensed into a short time frame

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Heck, you did a great job of that !
For a first attempt and not really knowing how to put it together, it turned out so well.
Not a big fan of the text or how it moves on the screen, suited a more subtle kind of text movement / fading in - out, I feel that's the only little thing not quite suited, but that's only in the beginning scenes anyway.

 

[Barbara]

nice video ,the cycle of life is great to watch, condensed into a short time frame

Thanks. Was a challenge to align the stills to get the effect right.

 

[Barbara]

Heck, you did a great job of that !
For a first attempt and not really knowing how to put it together, it turned out so well.
Not a big fan of the text or how it moves on the screen, suited a more subtle kind of text movement / fading in - out, I feel that's the only little thing not quite suited, but that's only in the beginning scenes anyway.

Thanks for the compliment and the feedback.

I think you're right about the text. I had my brain stuck on trying to create a fly through title effect for another video, something Pinnacle Studio cannot accomplish it seems. In retrospect I agree, something more subdued for the titles would better suit the overall mood of this video.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Thanks for the compliment and the feedback.

I think you're right about the text. I had my brain stuck on trying to create a fly through title effect for another video, something Pinnacle Studio cannot accomplish it seems. In retrospect I agree, something more subdued for the titles would better suit the overall mood of this video.

Even if the text moved slower, it might look more like you intended, I get where you were coming from since you mentioned it.

Great job anyway, a lot of time and effort went into that, and it shows.

 

[Chrislaf]

Cool project! I think it turned out quite well. I kind of agree with @MAvic_South_Oz about the text.

In the last year of work a few years ago I took a picture every day up to the day I retired. I thought of doing the same thing with a drone but I think it would almost be next to impossible because of weather. Today we have wind warnings in effect and winds are forecast to gust up to 100km/hr. They are already at 85km/hr

Chris

 

[Squidinc]

Great job. However I would dump the text up front IMO it was a distraction. Loved the rest! What software did you use? How did you align it so perfectly? I thought I saw some captures with the same sky but different coloured landscape? Overall a great effort!

 

[Dale D]

This is a project that has been a year in the making. It's a fair bit different from my original concept, a more or less daily photo time-lapse of a nearby lake. It evolved as I learned what was, and was not, possible with both my software and the drone.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the result, but really curious what others may think. I welcome both questions about the process and constructive criticism on my video.

In closing, knowing what I now do, I would approach the project quite differently, which would take another year to complete.

I am a long time time-lapse advocate and hobbies. We all want to know , how, exactly, did you get the drone to the same viewpoint/position each time? Was there a way to fly to the same coordinates? Sure we could all stand at the same spot, and fly the drone to the same exact height each shoot, but then, how to position the drone ?

Dale

 

[Chrislaf]

I am a long time time-lapse advocate and hobbies. We all want to know , how, exactly, did you get the drone to the same viewpoint/position each time? Was there a way to fly to the same coordinates? Sure we could all stand at the same spot, and fly the drone to the same exact height each shoot, but then, how to position the drone ?

Dale

There are many programs that can do this like Litchi or Dronelink. All you need to do is program a simple waypoint mission of one or two waypoints and re-run the mission each time you fly.

Chris

 

[Dale D]

Brilliant! I have a Mavic 2 Pro and have used Waypoints for multiple waypoints, but honestly, I never even thought of using it for this purpose. Is it that accurate to fly to the same height and location each time? Thank you so much.

Dale

 

[Barbara]

I am a long time time-lapse advocate and hobbies. We all want to know , how, exactly, did you get the drone to the same viewpoint/position each time? Was there a way to fly to the same coordinates? Sure we could all stand at the same spot, and fly the drone to the same exact height each shoot, but then, how to position the drone ?

Dale

There are many programs that can do this like Litchi or Dronelink. All you need to do is program a simple waypoint mission of one or two waypoints and re-run the mission each time you fly.

Chris

I used Litchi myself. Not tried Dronelink. However, having said that, and as much as I like Litchi, it was not as accurate at getting to the exact same spot/coordinates each mission as I had hoped. It quickly became apparent that it's actual location was varying by as much as several meters. My profile had it go to the photo coordinates at a low altitude, then ascend to the correct height, so it was easy to see that it was not always going to the same location before ascending

Also, take-off location (altitude) would affect it's final altitude. I used hand launches frequently through the winter and then ground launches once the snow iced up. It became apparent that the initial height at take-off influenced the final altitude.

Heading and camera angle seemed consistent enough throughout.

Fortunately, I could somewhat compensate for location/perspective issues in post, though some shots proved beyond fixing.

If you look at the trees in the foreground you can see the changes in perspective. The lake, islands and horizon were what I concentrated on aligning.

 

[Barbara]

Cool project! I think it turned out quite well. I kind of agree with @MAvic_South_Oz about the text.

In the last year of work a few years ago I took a picture every day up to the day I retired. I thought of doing the same thing with a drone but I think it would almost be next to impossible because of weather. Today we have wind warnings in effect and winds are forecast to gust up to 100km/hr. They are already at 85km/hr

Chris

Thanks! Yes, I quickly gave up on the concept of daily photos too. Tried to capture changes as they happened. Even that wasn't easy.

 

[Chrislaf]

Brilliant! I have a Mavic 2 Pro and have used Waypoints for multiple waypoints, but honestly, I never even thought of using it for this purpose. Is it that accurate to fly to the same height and location each time? Thank you so much.

Dale

With the M2P, it should be pretty good I would imagine as it has strong motors and excellent GPS. Wind is always going to be a factor that you cannot control and you will likely get some movement variations that you will probably have to fix in post. I would run a number of test missions first to see if you get your desired results before you start your project.

I use Dronelink to do light painting with my P3S (a low end drone with access to only one satellite system) and it flies an automated mission with precision every time to the same location on multiple days every time I run it.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

I used Litchi myself. Not tried Dronelink. However, having said that, and as much as I like Litchi, it was not as accurate at getting to the exact same spot/coordinates each mission as I had hoped. It quickly became apparent that it's actual location was varying by as much as several meters. My profile had it go to the photo coordinates at a low altitude, then ascend to the correct height, so it was easy to see that it was not always going to the same location before ascending

Also, take-off location (altitude) would affect it's final altitude. I used hand launches frequently through the winter and then ground launches once the snow iced up. It became apparent that the initial height at take-off influenced the final altitude.

Heading and camera angle seemed consistent enough throughout.

Fortunately, I could somewhat compensate for location/perspective issues in post, though some shots proved beyond fixing.

If you look at the trees in the foreground you can see the changes in perspective. The lake, islands and horizon were what I concentrated on aligning.

I have and use both Litchi and Dronelink. I much prefer Dronelink. Dronelink takes a different approach than Litchi and the user interface is different and takes some getting used to. There are also differences in the way the missions are run by the drone that I won't get into here.

Just after I retired, I did attempt to do a 360 Photo a day project with my drone but quickly abandoned it because as I said above the weather made it next to impossible to do. BUT your 'AS DAYS GO BY' project has inspired me to try again, but this time maybe not do it every single day since it would be next to impossible with the weather variations. We are fortunate where we live in Ontario that we have four distinct seasons, so a time-lapse project like yours would be be really cool if it could be done. The big problem with time-lapse is it takes so many shots to create a reasonable amount of video to watch. Now to find a good location and get started on Jan. 1st, 2022.

Thanks for inspiring me Barbara!

Chris

 

[Barbara]

Great job. However I would dump the text up front IMO it was a distraction. Loved the rest! What software did you use? How did you align it so perfectly? I thought I saw some captures with the same sky but different coloured landscape? Overall a great effort!

Thanks! The opening sequence was something I decided to add partway through the project, the text my little effort at a poem, was a last minute thing. At this time, I'm thinking of making a revised version with some changes to the opening sequence.

I used Corel PhotoPaint to do the alignment. It allowed me to move, rotate, stretch, distort and finally crop the photos. Each had to be done individually and manually. I tried Huggin, which has an alignment feature, but Huggin preffers straight lines and angles. Never got satisfactory results.

Good catch on the sky. Indeed, I animated the clouds in a couple of the stills using Photo Mirage then overlayed it on some of the stills. I was just experimenting initially and I kind of liked the effect, so used it. Was wondering if anyone would notice.

 

[GFields]

Very nice!

 

[monteolsen1]

This is a project that has been a year in the making. It's a fair bit different from my original concept, a more or less daily photo time-lapse of a nearby lake. It evolved as I learned what was, and was not, possible with both my software and the drone.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the result, but really curious what others may think. I welcome both questions about the process and constructive criticism on my video.

In closing, knowing what I now do, I would approach the project quite differently, which would take another year to complete.

Really terrific. One of a kind and beautifully made. Thank you.

 

[Barbara]

Really terrific. One of a kind and beautifully made. Thank you.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

[Barbara]

Very nice!

Thanks!