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Best method for long term construction 'hyperlapse'

Panoramic

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Hey all! First time poster here but I'm quite active in the 'InspirePilots' forum. I just recently snagged an M2 Zoom and I'm really loving it so far! Thought I wouldn't use it nearly as much as my I2 but I'm finding it is a lot more useful (and better quality) than I initially expected.

ANYWAYS

I've got a client requesting a construction 'hyperlapse'. Basically a hyperlapse that is exactly repeated 12 times over the span of a 6 month construction project and then cut together with some sneaky dissolves to make it (sort of) feel like the building is coming up before us.

I was going to do this with my Inspire, but I'm liking the built in hyperlapse feature on the M2, so I think I'm going to try it with both drones. My question is, has anyone successfully done one of these before, and if so what was your workflow? Did you shoot hyperlapse mode, photo mode or video mode? How did you get exactly repeated flights orbiting a POI, or were they just close enough?

Any help appreciated, thanks!
 
Likely your answer is as above with the caveat that some tweaking of frame centering likely will be needed in post. Be sure to remember your altitude and TO point as well as other settings. That way you can shoot a series of short vids and connect them in post production with a “fade into”
 
Thanks for that YouTube link! While it offers a good starting point I think it’s more helpful as he figures out what not to do. From my research it sounds like my best bet would be to shoot Hyperlapse mode around a set POI and simply attempt to set the POI identically every time. Ideally I’d like to have something more exactly repeatable - I’ve used litchi before with an I1 and while it offered a repeatable flight path, the gimbal pitch would be up to the operator and it was often off just enough to be jarring for the transitions.
I think I’ll experiment with litchi for this project as well though to see what works best.
 
I’d like to have something more exactly repeatable
That will not be easy as the precision of GPS and altitude sensor is limited. That will result in small and random difference in the angle of view between pictures. When these pictures are put together into a hyperlapse footage, the perspective change will end up in image jittering that cannot be corrected in post processing. One way to mitigate the problem is to position the drone further away from the subject and use a longer lens. That will be something that only your I2 can do.
 
That will not be easy as the precision of GPS and altitude sensor is limited. That will result in small and random difference in the angle of view between pictures. When these pictures are put together into a hyperlapse footage, the perspective change will end up in image jittering that cannot be corrected in post processing. One way to mitigate the problem is to position the drone further away from the subject and use a longer lens. That will be something that only your I2 can do.
Don’t you think this problem would be exacerbated by a longer lens? In my experience, slight changes in specific direction/altitude/pitch are much less noticeable with a wider lens and being closer to the subject. In this case my I2 would for sure be the better option as I can shoot it at 9mm
 
Don’t you think this problem would be exacerbated by a longer lens? In my experience, slight changes in specific direction/altitude/pitch are much less noticeable with a wider lens and being closer to the subject. In this case my I2 would for sure be the better option as I can shoot it at 9mm

You have to try it out to understand what I meant.

The image shift due to changes in the direction of the gimbal can always be corrected in post processing ( e.g. by using the image stabilization feature of video editors ) but change in parallax due to position shift of the camera canNOT be corrected.

For the same amount of position shift, the closer the camera is to the subject, the bigger the parallax error. For example, if you are shooting the sun and a moutain far away, you can travel a very long distance but still the position of the sun relative to the mountain in the picture will not change. If you are shooting a tree close to you with the sun in the picture, the effect of change in camera position will be a lot more drastic
 
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Just get as close as you can to the original flight/video position for each shoot. Use cross fade transitions in your video to mask the small variations.
 
Thanks for that YouTube link! While it offers a good starting point I think it’s more helpful as he figures out what not to do. From my research it sounds like my best bet would be to shoot Hyperlapse mode around a set POI and simply attempt to set the POI identically every time. Ideally I’d like to have something more exactly repeatable - I’ve used litchi before with an I1 and while it offered a repeatable flight path, the gimbal pitch would be up to the operator and it was often off just enough to be jarring for the transitions.
I think I’ll experiment with litchi for this project as well though to see what works best.
You can store your waypoint settings on the Mavic 2 Zoom and use them over and over as often as you want. Just launch from the same area and you are good to go, just have your batteries and remote charged. M2Z is a very impressive drone, happy flying!
 
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