DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Drone time lapse with the drone not moving - fixed position in the sky - "dancing buildings' problem - how to fix?

SnowFlow

New Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2021
Messages
3
Reactions
0
Age
44
Location
Canada
Hello, I'm trying to make a time lapse video with my Mavic Mini, showing downtown buildings in the distance. I fly the drone to the spot I want, then have it take a photo every 5 seconds, and I do not move the drone - the drone is in a fixed position. I import the photos into Photoshop, and auto-align the images, and export the video. The problem is that the buildings are "dancing" in the video - they bounce up and down, check out the short video I made (look at the buildings at the top of the video. The problem must be that the drone is moving slightly in the air due to wind. Are there any clever techniques to fix this problem? Photoshop did a great job aligning the roads, and smaller buildings, but not the tall buildings. You might need to watch this video in full screen to see the problem - it's only 2 seconds long.
 
Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona!

I don’t see anything moving as far as structures... there is the moving shadows of the clouds.
If it occurs again in your eyes try posting a longer video so folks can see more.
 
Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona!

I don’t see anything moving as far as structures... there is the moving shadows of the clouds.
If it occurs again in your eyes try posting a longer video so folks can see more.
Hi Thomas, if you're watching the video on a phone you might not see the movement of the buildings. If you make the video larger, you can see the buildings "dancing" up and down - look a the top of the tallest building, at the top of the video.
 
Hi SnowFlow Welcome to Mavic Pilots.
Sorry but the video is far to short for me to make any judgment.
Considering if you took a time laps with a normal camera it would be on a sturdy tripod so with a flying camera attempting to stay rock steady I wouldn't be surprised to see movement in stationary objects.
If the drone was flying rather than stationary it would cut down the bouncing buildings or at least it wouldn't be noticeable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Thomas B
Hello, I'm trying to make a time lapse video with my Mavic Mini, showing downtown buildings in the distance. I fly the drone to the spot I want, then have it take a photo every 5 seconds, and I do not move the drone - the drone is in a fixed position. I import the photos into Photoshop, and auto-align the images, and export the video. The problem is that the buildings are "dancing" in the video - they bounce up and down, check out the short video I made (look at the buildings at the top of the video. The problem must be that the drone is moving slightly in the air due to wind. Are there any clever techniques to fix this problem? Photoshop did a great job aligning the roads, and smaller buildings, but not the tall buildings. You might need to watch this video in full screen to see the problem - it's only 2 seconds long.
Use DaVinci Resolve stabilization perspective with the freeze camera option enabled.
 
Hello, I'm trying to make a time lapse video with my Mavic Mini, showing downtown buildings in the distance. I fly the drone to the spot I want, then have it take a photo every 5 seconds, and I do not move the drone - the drone is in a fixed position. I import the photos into Photoshop, and auto-align the images, and export the video. The problem is that the buildings are "dancing" in the video - they bounce up and down, check out the short video I made (look at the buildings at the top of the video. The problem must be that the drone is moving slightly in the air due to wind. Are there any clever techniques to fix this problem? Photoshop did a great job aligning the roads, and smaller buildings, but not the tall buildings. You might need to watch this video in full screen to see the problem - it's only 2 seconds long.
That time laps was soo fast i hardly seen the video.
 
Use DaVinci Resolve stabilization perspective with the freeze camera option enabled.
Thanks brett8883. Question is, would you import the 100+ photos into DaVinci Resolve? Or would you first take the un-aligned photos into photoshop, use photoshop to render a video from the individual photos (no alignment, so it will be very shaky), and then import that video into DaVinci? OR maybe it's best for me to record a video (instead of a photo every 5 seconds) from my drone, and stabilize the drone video in DaVinci? Cheers!
 
Thanks brett8883. Question is, would you import the 100+ photos into DaVinci Resolve? Or would you first take the un-aligned photos into photoshop, use photoshop to render a video from the individual photos (no alignment, so it will be very shaky), and then import that video into DaVinci? OR maybe it's best for me to record a video (instead of a photo every 5 seconds) from my drone, and stabilize the drone video in DaVinci? Cheers!
I would import the unaligned photos into Resolve. If you took the photos in RAW I’d even just import the raw photos as a RAW image sequence into Resolve and edit it there.

If that didn’t work I would align them with Photoshop and try it that way.
 
Hello, I'm trying to make a time lapse video with my Mavic Mini, showing downtown buildings in the distance. I fly the drone to the spot I want, then have it take a photo every 5 seconds, and I do not move the drone - the drone is in a fixed position. I import the photos into Photoshop, and auto-align the images, and export the video. The problem is that the buildings are "dancing" in the video - they bounce up and down, check out the short video I made (look at the buildings at the top of the video. The problem must be that the drone is moving slightly in the air due to wind. Are there any clever techniques to fix this problem? Photoshop did a great job aligning the roads, and smaller buildings, but not the tall buildings. You might need to watch this video in full screen to see the problem - it's only 2 seconds long.
Finally, I see someone else is having the same exact problem I went through a year or so ago. I tried repeatedly to film a timelapse sunset from my driveway, with absolutely no wind around. I put the Mavic 2 Pro up about 65 feet, and started the timelapse at 2 second intervals. I processed the RAW files as I always do (LRTimelapse5). The drone generated timelapse was awful. The resultant films (both drone generated, and processed and stabilized) films were very "bouncy." I repeated it the next night. Same bouncy results. I had a long running discussion in this forum, with all of the usual suggestions, including flying the drone slowly towards the sunset. Nothing worked. So I assumed it was something wrong with my drone. I sent it back to DJI Texas and got a brand new ("refurbished") drone. Different serial number. I repeated the timelapse again. Same bouncing. Also tried stabilization in post without any help.

My interpretation is that there is no way to stabilize the drone in the air from small gusts of wind. Timelapses are best done on a stable tripod, and cannot be done with a drone.

Dale
Miami
 
Finally, I see someone else is having the same exact problem I went through a year or so ago. I tried repeatedly to film a timelapse sunset from my driveway, with absolutely no wind around. I put the Mavic 2 Pro up about 65 feet, and started the timelapse at 2 second intervals. I processed the RAW files as I always do (LRTimelapse5). The drone generated timelapse was awful. The resultant films (both drone generated, and processed and stabilized) films were very "bouncy." I repeated it the next night. Same bouncy results. I had a long running discussion in this forum, with all of the usual suggestions, including flying the drone slowly towards the sunset. Nothing worked. So I assumed it was something wrong with my drone. I sent it back to DJI Texas and got a brand new ("refurbished") drone. Different serial number. I repeated the timelapse again. Same bouncing. Also tried stabilization in post without any help.

My interpretation is that there is no way to stabilize the drone in the air from small gusts of wind. Timelapses are best done on a stable tripod, and cannot be done with a drone.

Dale
Miami
I told you at the time Dale, import them into premiere pro, and change your stabilisation method from ‘smooth motion’ to ‘no motion’
 
Hi Showflow,

- Import your images as RAW into photoshop or lightroom to edit the images. (Ie, increase contract, saturation etc)
- export your files as JPEG’s
- don’t use the image align in, photoshop, just edit the pics and export as jpegs
- import these JPEG files into either premiere pro or da Vinci and stabilise in there
- I use premiere pro so I cannot comment on da Vinci, but in PP, use ‘warp stabiliser’ and change the stabilisation mode from ‘smooth motion’ to ‘no motion’ (given your timelapse is static)
- this should smooth the motion, without the buildings wobbling
- if you don’t want to invest in da Vinci or premiere pro, there is a free image stabilisation by google, just research it and it should come up
 
Hi Showflow,

- Import your images as RAW into photoshop or lightroom to edit the images. (Ie, increase contract, saturation etc)
- export your files as JPEG’s
- don’t use the image align in, photoshop, just edit the pics and export as jpegs
- import these JPEG files into either premiere pro or da Vinci and stabilise in there
- I use premiere pro so I cannot comment on da Vinci, but in PP, use ‘warp stabiliser’ and change the stabilisation mode from ‘smooth motion’ to ‘no motion’ (given your timelapse is static)
- this should smooth the motion, without the buildings wobbling
- if you don’t want to invest in da Vinci or premiere pro, there is a free image stabilisation by google, just research it and it should come up
Yep same thing as in Resolve.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lens
Dkhune:

Here are the two screen shots. Please tell me what to click on, step by step please. Do I draw warp stabilization on to the clip, then, where do I click in the next window? (sorry I duplicated the 2nd window-ignore it).
 
Dkhune:

Here are the two screen shots. Please tell me what to click on, step by step please. Do I draw warp stabilization on to the clip, then, where do I click in the next window? (sorry I duplicated the 2nd window-ignore it).
Oops- I just found it! Can't wait to try it out and I'll let you know.

Dale
Screen Shot 2021-04-20 at 10.31.48 AM.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: brett8883
In addition to wind, the GPS accuracy is not good enough to hold a praise position. The spec is +- 16 ft, 95 % 0f the time. This isn't good enough for good steady time lapses. Various software stabilizations available in the NLE packages can help, but many times are not good enough.
 
The drone is not able to stay perfectly still to the mm so the minor variations in angle for each shot makes it appear the buildings are jumping a bit. If you can, take the shots while the drone is not airborne. Shot a great sunset/moonrise while it sat on top of my BBQ. Since it's not flying...battery lasts much longer as well. You can stitch together several series to make a longer film. Otherwise, it just adds to the effect. If it is too obvious to the series, aftermarket software is the way to go.
 
Warp stabilizer or Resolve perspective stabilization will do the trick just as long as the camera is pointed in the general direction. I’ve had clips where the camera literally pans to the left or right and it was able to correct it so everything is perfectly stationary. You’ll pick up a bit of a crop but you have to crop to get it to a video aspect ratio anyway.
 
The drone is not able to stay perfectly still to the mm so the minor variations in angle for each shot makes it appear the buildings are jumping a bit. If you can, take the shots while the drone is not airborne. Shot a great sunset/moonrise while it sat on top of my BBQ. Since it's not flying...battery lasts much longer as well. You can stitch together several series to make a longer film. Otherwise, it just adds to the effect. If it is too obvious to the series, aftermarket software is the way to go.
Unfortunately, you cannot put a tripod up as tall as the drone can reach! Duh! Why would anyone use a drone to do a fixed timelapse when the same thing can be done with a super duper camera on a sturdy group based tripod.

I have seen good stable sunsets and sunrises on this forum without wobbling. The mystery is, how do they do it.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,601
Messages
1,554,302
Members
159,608
Latest member
carlos22