doing timelapse over multiple days with waypoint

[zillion]

Hello everyone,

I have been following closely threads on this group while waiting for my Mavic that I now happily have. I have been wanting to set up a waypoint mission and have the mavic repeat it mornings and evenings on different days and then mix from one to the next. I do not seem to be able to find any examples of people doing this. Does any one here know of some videos like this? is is quite doable or challenging? any tips to get it right?

 

[halley]

I imagine the position and orientation may be slightly different between frames. You will want to perform some stabilization after collecting all the frames, either manually or automatically with timelapse tools. Otherwise, it's all doable.

 

[zillion]

ha! "stabilisation" and "frame by frame" are words I was hoping to not see... will it make any difference what app I use to do the mission? will I likely always have differences from one flight to the next that will make it hard to mix? Is this not kind of the point of waypoint missions?

 

[halley]

GPS has a positional accuracy under 8 meters. If you combine multiple GPS receivers, you can generally halve or quarter that figure, but it can still vary a bit. If you ask the Mavic to stay on point with GPS, then it can use Kalman filtering to address the variation and stay locked into a much smaller area, but if you fly home and fly back the next day, that Kalman filtering doesn't help you at all. Your waypoint tomorrow will be within a few feet of the previous day.

 

[zillion]

Thanks Halley. Makes sense. I guess that I why one does not see a lot of videos that do this cool effect. I guess a challenge ahead. If anyone has some examples of this being achieved I would be most grateful.


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[maikm]

Interesting idea. The GPS variance shouldn't matter much if your subject is far enough away that the difference in perspective isn't obvious. The compass will be responsible for the angle accuracy, so that could work out in theory. But I think your results will be best if you frame each picture manually, using visual anchors.

Remember to use DNG for the photos so you have some headroom for white balance and brightness adjustments later.

 

[zillion]

I guess my use of the word timelapse is misleading as I was thinking of doing this as video and just gradually change opacity from one to the next. Indeed if far enough away I think I can get away with some cross-disolve


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[maikm]

I was thinking of doing this as video and just gradually change opacity from one to the next. Indeed if far enough away I think I can get away with some cross-disolve

I see. Note that the latest Final Cut Pro X version has a new feature called "Flow Transition", designed to smooth out jump cuts by filling in frames. I'm not sure how that would perform with this project, but you could try it out using the free FCPX trial version.

 

[halley]

I guess my use of the word timelapse is misleading as I was thinking of doing this as video and just gradually change opacity from one to the next. Indeed if far enough away I think I can get away with some cross-disolve

If you really are doing a cross-dissolve from two frames, then alignment is pretty easy. Or better yet, use one of those 1990s "morphing" tools that will let you identify specific tree trunks, light poles, building corners, etc., and let the whole image shift as it interpolates.

 

[zillion]

Brilliant idea!! Thank you. Will look for that tool as I think that could create an awesome effect.


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[Dragonfly]

You could also do this quite easy in litchi app by setting markers/POI around your mission and have mavics camera focus on those POIs. Then if the mavic is out by 15 or 20 feet it wont matter as the distance and FOV will be negilble.

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[Pablo]

I'd be really interested to see how this turns out. Suppose we'll all have to wait a while to find out

 

[zillion]

I'd be really interested to see how this turns out. Suppose we'll all have to wait a while to find out

I will try to do a proof of concept within the next week and then to get the award winning version with 4 seasons might take a little longer


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[zillion]

I can use this for inspiration:

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[Alex Baxter]

GPS has a positional accuracy under 8 meters. If you combine multiple GPS receivers, you can generally halve or quarter that figure, but it can still vary a bit. If you ask the Mavic to stay on point with GPS, then it can use Kalman filtering to address the variation and stay locked into a much smaller area, but if you fly home and fly back the next day, that Kalman filtering doesn't help you at all. Your waypoint tomorrow will be within a few feet of the previous day.

From the manual..
GPS Mode GPS / GLONASS
Hover Accuracy Vertical:
+/- 0.1 m (when Vision Positioning is active) or +/-0.5 m
Horizontal:
+/- 0.3 m (when Vision Positioning is active) or +/-1.5 m

I'm doing exactly the above, a time-lapse mission (over the local woods over 4 seasons), I'd say accuracy with my P3P is within a metre at waypoints, the trouble for me is threefold, I've got a rubbish computer for post processing, overcast and sunlight days are a headache, and my mission is overly ambitious (ten minutes). I've started another, simply orbiting a big old beech tree using Litchi, maybe 100 orbits over the year, then 1 second segments stitched together, I'd love to do a house being built, that would be a brilliant time lapse project but not much of that in rural Ireland at present

 

[halley]

Alex, the manual's figures are in line with what I wrote. Combined multiple GPS receivers on the Mavic (pretty common in today's GPS systems-on-a-chip) improves the accuracy, and staying in one spot (not going home and coming back the next day) improves it even more. Relying on the vision positioning system can really only be useful during a single flight; there's no capability for it to compare waypoint flights once you swap batteries.

 

[dmyers7]

I can use this for inspiration:

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That's crazy awesome. For a quick example and experiment with this that you can easily play with.... I did a sun rise one morning over the snow in a local park with interesting land scape. Launched before the sunrise and had my P3S at the time sit framed with the sun rising for the full length of 1 battery. 20 minutes or so. You could potentially relaunch with a second battery and continue. Stitch the video and do a simple fast forward effect in iMovie or similar. Good practice and shows what you need to focus on during the effect. You'd be amazed at just how much the camera does wonder a bit over 20 minutes in fast forward. Altitude and compass drift. Nothing that can't be worked with but interesting to see and understand. At normal speed you never notice it, but sped up it appears.


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[Mike_in_Letcombe]

I'm doing this exactly at the moment - flying a Litchi mission several times but different times of day, plus changing the camera away from POI to forward / reverse / outer, etc. By nature of this, it will take several days of good weather and I'm at work weekdays, plus I'm in hospital for some biopsies on Friday - so will need a few days to get over it and start filming again. But I hope to get a small video out in early Feb.


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[Matisse13]

I see. Note that the latest Final Cut Pro X version has a new feature called "Flow Transition", designed to smooth out jump cuts by filling in frames. I'm not sure how that would perform with this project, but you could try it out using the free FCPX trial version.[/to QUOTE]
Agree flow transition is a great way to avoid using cross dissolves far more subtle

 

[zangezur]

I have been trying this. My experience so far is that the photos vary by too much. I tried my house and also some rural landscapes, and it wouldn't work for a real timelapse. This was because the perspective changed due to the location of the Mavic. I tried it both as a time-lapse, by combine photos, and by taking video, to do a transition during flight over the same route at different times of year.