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Time lapse

Bob

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A friend of mine wants me to a video of his home being built from the land being cleared to completion.how do you do a time lapse over a period of 30 days for example. Not sure actually how long this will take.
 
A friend of mine wants me to a video of his home being built from the land being cleared to completion.how do you do a time lapse over a period of 30 days for example. Not sure actually how long this will take.
Hi Bob, I've this using a land based camera by setting a ground point and flag the frame edges so that you can position exactly.
Now the following is theory for aerial.
You could set a ground target with "crosshairs " ( a piece of painted plywood), located below the point you want to use. Fly to above the point , camera staight down and center the target then set an altitude that has the look you need. Record the altitude and if 30ft or less the accuracy of say a DJI P4 is pretty good. Hover and have an assistant set up flags just at the left , right and bottom edge of the frame.The flags need to be stable during construction on posts etc. Continue shooting each time period (day) from that location. You could shoot video and mix in post.
Another method might be to fly a line across the face of the home and have the final video move as a pan or POI as time passes. That would have a cool look.
Hope this gives you an idea.
 
Thanks it gives some idea of how to do this. Will be interesting project.
 
Hi @Bob...awesome username by the way...some day when there are hundreds of thousands of users on this forum a single user that grabbed the "Bob" username is going to be pretty prestigious! :D It's kind like securing the vanity license plate "POTUS" in the District of Columbia haha

As @BigAl07 mentioned above, Litchi (Litchi for DJI Mavic / Phantom / Inspire / Spark) is a great way to automate this type of application for near perfect repeatability over the period you are looking to lapse. Autopilot (Autopilot - Hangar) is another great option which is iOS only.

Best of luck with the project, and safe flying, @Bob :cool:
 
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Hi @Bob...awesome username by the way...some day when there are hundreds of thousands of users on this forum a single user that grabbed the "Bob" username is going to be pretty prestigious! :D It's kind like securing the vanity license plate "POTUS" in the District of Columbia haha

As @BigAl07 mentioned above, Litchi (Litchi for DJI Mavic / Phantom / Inspire / Spark) is a great way to automate this type of application for near perfect repeatability over the period you are looking to lapse. Autopilot (Autopilot - Hangar) is another great option which is iOS only.

Best of luck with the project, and safe flying, @Bob :cool:
Advexure would Litchi allow a flight at any altitude? eg.30 feet AGL
 
Advexure would Litchi allow a flight at any altitude? eg.30 feet AGL


I'm not speaking for @Advexure but I can say 100% that Litchi will allow flights at any altitude so long as it's within the aircraft's "allowable" altitudes. For instance you can fly over 400' AGL if you have the MAX Height set over 400' AGL but not if you don't. Also I have a progression shot (it's a video shot) that starts at at 2'AGL and slides back and up to 390'AGL while panning and revealing a huge neighborhood that we are working in.
 
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I'm not speaking for @Advexure but I can say 100% that Litchi will allow flights at any altitude so long as it's within the aircraft's "allowable" altitudes. For instance you can fly over 400' AGL if you have the MAX Height set over 400' AGL but not if you don't. Also I have a progression shot (it's a video shot) that starts at at 2'AGL and slides back and up to 390'AGL while panning and revealing a huge neighborhood that we are working in.
Well thanks BigAl07
I have always flown manually for track, dolly, crane shots,etc. so Litchi might be something I may add for repeatability.
This maybe perfect for the OP .
Thanks again
 
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Well thanks BigAl07
I have always flown manually for track, dolly, crane shots,etc. so Litchi might be something I may add for repeatability.
This maybe perfect for the OP .
Thanks again

I've always been a "manual" guy as well but that's because that is how we learned. Once I started using Litchi and saw how smooth it could be with a single operator doing complex shots I was hooked.

For those reading this, if you're using Litchi check out Virtual Litchi Mission (VLM) a try. It lets you do your programming with Litchi using your PC browser, upload it into Google Earth Pro and then "Fly" your mission virtually. It's been a game changer for some of my more complex clients lately. Here's an excellent thread created and "supported" by the generous guy who created VLM:

Virtual Litchi Mission
 
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I agree with BigA completely Litchi is so smooth, will fly to exact waypoints every time. I shoot a video with Litchi every week of a 145 acre job site. My client wants the exact same video each week, and each week Litchi flies it exactly as set up. It is an inexpensive app and will make your job so much easier.
 
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question, would you guys do the traditional time-lapse al la photos every 2s or would you video (slow down speed of AC to a crawl) and speed up video in post?
 
I fly my video at 24 mph because they want a short video, I would prefer to fly it around 15 but then the client complains that he feels it is too long. I don't like speeding up or slowing down videos because to me they then just don't look natural, but I'm sure no expert and still learning video techniques.
 
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I do have litchi, and thank all of you for your advice. Looking forward to trying this and may try a few different methods to see what works best for my skill set. Since it is for a good friend he wont be to upset if I mess it up.
 
I've always been a "manual" guy as well but that's because that is how we learned. Once I started using Litchi and saw how smooth it could be with a single operator doing complex shots I was hooked.

For those reading this, if you're using Litchi check out Virtual Litchi Mission (VLM) a try. It lets you do your programming with Litchi using your PC browser, upload it into Google Earth Pro and then "Fly" your mission virtually. It's been a game changer for some of my more complex clients lately. Here's an excellent thread created and "supported" by the generous guy who created VLM:

Virtual Litchi Mission
@BigAl07 Thank You for the VLM link I did not know about it easy to see why some clients would like it
 
Our house is officially starting construction and I am going to follow the advice above and record it using Litchi. Glad I looked in the forum today, THANKS MUCH GUYS!
 
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