Timelapse of new construction site...need advice.

[Paul Harvey]

Hello all. There is new construction in my area and I'd like to take a timelapse of its progress over time. I've never done this before and am not sure of the best way to do it. The work is predicted to take two years. Here are some questions I have and any other tips are welcome:

1. How often should I go there? (once a week, once a month, etc.)
2. How long should each video be?
3. What settings should I use? (I'm in Arizona and it's usually pretty sunny here)
4. Should I always shoot from the same spot? (the construction area is pretty big and I'd have to fly very high to get it all in frame) Or should I use waypoints? (can you shoot timelapses in waypoint mode?)

That's it for now. Again, any additional tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Cafguy]

I can answer number 1...Talk to the contractors and the superintendent often. When I was erecting steel There were times I could throw up quite a bit of steel in a day or two. and when it came time to deck We went until the whole thing was covered. You may miss something "cool" going on if you don't keep in the know.

 

[Ted B]

I always fly job sites on Sunday mornings as there is almost never anyone on property.

 

[LeeB]

I would recommend that you create a waypoint mission (perhaps 2 or 3 to get different perspectives). This way you get pretty much the exact same path every time. When done the editing fun starts. Take a couple of seconds of each flight (some simple math will tell you how long each clip will be) where each successive clip starts where the previous one ends. Take you time with this.
Your first flight should be prior to any construction/demolition activity and the last flight is the finished project. At the beginning of the project there is a lot of infrastructure work where your flights could be less frequent. Once a structure starts to go up and get finished, you may want to fly more frequently.
Like Cafguy said, talk to the contractors to get an idea of their schedule. You will want to have a good relationship with them.
I would also recommend that you take several still photos each time you fly. You could create a waypoint mission for these as well.

 

[DISC]

Sounds interesting with some good advice there. Just tagging this so I can follow your progress. Good luck!

 

[Paul Harvey]

I would recommend that you create a waypoint mission (perhaps 2 or 3 to get different perspectives). This way you get pretty much the exact same path every time. When done the editing fun starts. Take a couple of seconds of each flight (some simple math will tell you how long each clip will be) where each successive clip starts where the previous one ends. Take you time with this.
Your first flight should be prior to any construction/demolition activity and the last flight is the finished project. At the beginning of the project there is a lot of infrastructure work where your flights could be less frequent. Once a structure starts to go up and get finished, you may want to fly more frequently.
Like Cafguy said, talk to the contractors to get an idea of their schedule. You will want to have a good relationship with them.
I would also recommend that you take several still photos each time you fly. You could create a waypoint mission for these as well.

Hi and thanks! Is timelapse possible with waypoint missions?

 

[LeeB]

Hi and thanks! Is timelapse possible with waypoint missions?

Yes but you have to do the editing yourself. For instance, you could take 5 seconds from each waypoint flight. The first flight would be the first 5 seconds, the second flight would be the second five seconds and so on. The finished video looks like one waypoint flight that changes over time.

 

[WilliamDaugherty]

I've done this numerous times and yes, waypoints are the key. One "gotcha" I've encountered: I launched from different locations, depending on weather/time of year/access and I made the unpleasant discovery that while the long/lat aspects worked as expected, the varying launch altitude rendered some of my shots incompatibile with others due to a difference of sometimes 8-10m in AGL. In other words, the launch point sets your "zero" AGL altitude and should be as similar as possible for each mission. Also, some editing software is better than others at morphing one clip into another, i.e., you may need to "transform" key points from one clip to the next to make the transition match more closely. These issues tend to diminish with altitude/distance from target/subject.

 

[Paul Harvey]

I've done this numerous times and yes, waypoints are the key. One "gotcha" I've encountered: I launched from different locations, depending on weather/time of year/access and I made the unpleasant discovery that while the long/lat aspects worked as expected, the varying launch altitude rendered some of my shots incompatibile with others due to a difference of sometimes 8-10m in AGL. In other words, the launch point sets your "zero" AGL altitude and should be as similar as possible for each mission. Also, some editing software is better than others at morphing one clip into another, i.e., you may need to "transform" key points from one clip to the next to make the transition match more closely. These issues tend to diminish with altitude/distance from target/subject.

Thanks William!