Daily Time Lapse - How do I create precision images?

[s2seyecle]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

 

[Keule]

Use Litchi or Autopilot for your time lapse mission. Be advised that GPS accuracy may change each time you fly.

 

[JoostGT3]

Somwhat Keulemis suggesting; with the programs Litchi and Autopilot, you can create a “mission”; you program the entire flight of the Mavic, which is then uploaded to the bird (or the controller?) Anyway, once that is done, you can simply execute that mission every day, resultin in (more or less, not familiar with the accuracy) viewpoint/movie every time.

 

[s2seyecle]

Use Litchi or Autopilot for your time lapse mission. Be advised that GPS accuracy may change each time you fly.

Thanks... I'll look into both.

 

[s2seyecle]

Somwhat Keulemis suggesting; with the programs Litchi and Autopilot, you can create a “mission”; you program the entire flight of the Mavic, which is then uploaded to the bird (or the controller?) Anyway, once that is done, you can simply execute that mission every day, resultin in (more or less, not familiar with the accuracy) viewpoint/movie every time.

Thanks, to you, too. Might be worth the $$ to see how accurate is a mission repeat. Do either you or Keule know whether telemetry is recorded/readable on completed missions? I can't tell from the Litchi App description.

 

[Keule]

telemetry is recorded/readable on completed missions?

Both mentioned apps create telemetry data (flight logs) which are stored on the phone/tablet during execution of the mission.

 

[ftttu]

There are multiple videos where a drone is used for time lapse, but I love one in particular. It has a drone flying slowly over a wooded and hilly area, and as it makes a large circle around the area, it slowly goes through the seasons. I can't remember, but I think it was a member here or in the Phantompilots side.

 

[Simmo]

I think @Quoncussion did one like that around a tower??
You can also fly to a point and record a waypoint with Go4... (I've never done it, but its in the book!)

 

[StanTGM]

I think it is nearly impossible to recreate with any precision a previous position, heading and camera tilt. Probably easier to mount your camera on a lamp post in front of your house...

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I think @Quoncussion did one like that around a tower??
You can also fly to a point and record a waypoint with Go4... (I've never done it, but its in the book!)

You can't save the waypoint in Go for future flights unfortunately. You need a third party app or DJI Groundstation Pro (free).

 

[Simmo]

You can't save the waypoint in Go for future flights unfortunately. You need a third party app or DJI Groundstation Pro (free).

Yeah was thinking that. Plus GS is for iOS only too eh?
Litchi or Drone Harmony it is then...or a lamp post...

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I think it is nearly impossible to recreate with any precision a previous position, heading and camera tilt. Probably easier to mount your camera on a lamp post in front of your house...

It's doable. From a distance, with the Mavics wide angle lens, a little variance is barely noticeable and don't forget, you can stabilise the produced time lapse video with Resolve, Premiere or whatever you use. As long as you saved the waypoint and camera settings/direction it will work. The less wind the better of course.

 

[s2seyecle]

Looks like Litchi has most of the features I'm looking for. I spent some time on the App's website, and much more viewing some "tutorial" YouTube videos (not Litchi's... their's aren't too much help) from experienced DJI pilots. Very helpful so see some of the steps broken down into reality. It appears that the one feature that would be helpful is the "burst" photo mode. I could use multiple images from a burst shot in the editing process to adjust for the minor variations in position. Lacking such a build-in feature, I'll just take multiple single images and see if that works well enough. I realize that a video would provide a hyper burst-like image(s) to chose from, but that is a little overkill for this project. Check in with me in a year or so... I'll let you know how it goes ;-)

Thanks so very much for the responses.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

I use Auto Pilot for Progressive Construction Videos, You can program a flight with video, and you can also program way points and tell it the direction and angle to take a photo at each way point. If you shoot in 4K, then in PS you can adjust the horizontal and vertical alignment, and blow up/reduce each picture when editing to line up each shot. After all shots are in and if you have one frame showing a border, then you adjust the whole clip up to removed the border on that one frame. By using 4K you give yourself the ability to do these adjustment and not lose quality. Shooting 2-4 times a week over a 7 month period in high winds, sub-zero temps, and various other weather factors, the flight path has not varied over 1 foot in height. Any minimal distance variation will be corrected with the zoom adjustment in PS. So you should have no problems making your time lapse of your home.

 

[s2seyecle]

I use Auto Pilot for Progressive Construction Videos, You can program a flight with video, and you can also program way points and tell it the direction and angle to take a photo at each way point. If you shoot in 4K, then in PS you can adjust the horizontal and vertical alignment, and blow up/reduce each picture when editing to line up each shot. After all shots are in and if you have one frame showing a border, then you adjust the whole clip up to removed the border on that one frame. By using 4K you give yourself the ability to do these adjustment and not lose quality. Shooting 2-4 times a week over a 7 month period in high winds, sub-zero temps, and various other weather factors, the flight path has not varied over 1 foot in height. Any minimal distance variation will be corrected with the zoom adjustment in PS. So you should have no problems making your time lapse of your home.

Thanks... I'll take a look there, too. It looks like it'll come down to which features are the most efficient when I finally get to post production.

 

[dbyantis]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

You can use the Waypoint feature in GO4, fly to your desired photo location, go to Waypoints and save WP1, save the mission, the next day you can reload the same mission to get to the same location.

 

[stonecherub]

Yesterday, I tested 6 new SDHC cards by recording 3 minutes of video with my Mavic sitting on a table in my patio. It was shut down for card changes. Each new view of the patio on Google Earth imagery had the home point in a different place within a couple of meters, none was at the actual a/c position.

The kind of GPS accuracy needed to re-occupy a point in space for "time-lapse" photography is available but I sure as hell can't afford it.

 

[Qoncussion]

I want to take daily aerial images of my home from the same altitude, longitude, and latitude. I would eventually edit them together for a 365-second-video. Does anyone know of a process or software that would support this idea? [ Yes, there will be some missing days due to weather, etc., but the intent is to capture a year-in-the-life of the homefront.)

I find nothing in Go 4 "documentation" to support it. Are there any experienced Litchi users that can advise?

I also posted this question on the DJI Forum and only got advice on editing, which I'm not looking for
.... I'm interested in finding a way to duplicate the aircraft's position in the sky, in essence, launching to the same altitude, etc., hopefully with a flight software "solution."

There are multiple videos where a drone is used for time lapse, but I love one in particular. It has a drone flying slowly over a wooded and hilly area, and as it makes a large circle around the area, it slowly goes through the seasons. I can't remember, but I think it was a member here or in the Phantompilots side.

I think @Quoncussion did one like that around a tower??
You can also fly to a point and record a waypoint with Go4... (I've never done it, but its in the book!)

Yep - that was me, and here's the video:

Done with Go4, which will save a mission - but leaves too much room for error. I would definitely suggest Litchi to anyone who wants to replicate this.

 

[Qoncussion]

I think it is nearly impossible to recreate with any precision a previous position, heading and camera tilt. Probably easier to mount your camera on a lamp post in front of your house...

Quite easy, actually. Litchi will record and repeat altitude, position, direction, speed and camera tilt. Go4 does save missions. See my post above...

 

[s2seyecle]

You can use the Waypoint feature in GO4, fly to your desired photo location, go to Waypoints and save WP1, save the mission, the next day you can reload the same mission to get to the same location.

Thanks, I'll look into that as well. Winds are up around 23 mph today (at 12 feet!) so I'm going to wait for closer to ideal conditions to test.