Show what you filmed - Post Your Video Here
- Thread starter Droider
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CopterCam
Member
Chuck,
Welcome ! This is a great Forum to hang out...........
Very impressive work, great subject matter, beautifully captured and artistic editing really conveyed the sentiment ....... making me rethink my approach to AV.
Can you elaborate on your platform and cameras ?
Sid
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Av8Chuck
Member
I don't do this to make money, so any comments and feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks.
For the aerial photography I'm using a Gaui 330X on a custom Vic20 450MM frame - its just a slightly longer and stronger frame for more stability, and a GoPro mounted using the tripod adapter with a Sunex lens with approximately 70 degree FOV.
With the narrower FOV of the Sunex lens I shoot 1280x720 60P which is better for stabilizing, more frames means smoother motion and more information, once I have it stabilized I use a utility, in my case Cinema Tools to convert the frame rate to whatever my timeline is, 30FPS or 24FPS. This has the added effect of slowing the footage down by 50-60% so you need to consider how your going to use the footage and whether your trying to match the motion of something else. I switched to the Sunex lens because I don't like the fisheye of the stock lens, if I use the stock lens I can shoot 1920x1080 30P. I don't know what level of detail you guys want to get into but a note about frame rate conversion that can make a huge difference to your image quality, Cinema Tools does not do any image processing, it changes the header information of each frame so that it plays back in at the requested frame rate. If you simply take a 60FPS clip and drop it into a 30FPS timeline and context click on the clip you'll see that you have the option to turn frame blending on or off, if you have this option it means your NLE is interpolating the footage or processing the footage and it will be softer and usually have these strange shudders where there's motion blur. So if your on a Mac use Cinema Tools if your on a PC find an equivalent utility.
Regarding image stabilization, this is motion tracking by a different name, the software tracks either points you've assigned or automatically assigns them for you then applies the converse translation to "stabilize," so it helps to know something about motion tracking. There are primarily two types, point tracking and 3D or shape tracking. Both types can work spatially, point to point or temporally evaluating some number of frames over time. Trackers like Smoothcam in FCP and After Effects tracker are point trackers, although I have not looked to closely at the new Warp Tracker in AE5.5 I'm guessing its a temporal point tracker, these are good trackers that will work a large percentage of the time if you have "relatively" smooth footage to begin with without a lot of motion blur or rolling shutter. Mocha is a shape tracker that evaluates foreground objects and background objects relative to each other in 3D space this is the best type of tracker in my opinion but has quite a steep learning curve.
The reason for bringing this up, if you research how these things actually work it will make you a better pilot. Editors make good directors because they instinctively shoot for the edit, AP pilots who understand image stabilization fly for the shot, they instinctively know to move over five feet so to get more separation from that foreground tree or fence post, for example and the background object. This will generally give you more options in post and lead to a better composed shot anyway even if you don't need to stabilize it.
I'm starting to work on building a larger quad for my GoPro and a stabilized camera gimbal and a hex with gimbal and FPV for a DSLR.
Hope this helps.
For the aerial photography I'm using a Gaui 330X on a custom Vic20 450MM frame - its just a slightly longer and stronger frame for more stability, and a GoPro mounted using the tripod adapter with a Sunex lens with approximately 70 degree FOV.
With the narrower FOV of the Sunex lens I shoot 1280x720 60P which is better for stabilizing, more frames means smoother motion and more information, once I have it stabilized I use a utility, in my case Cinema Tools to convert the frame rate to whatever my timeline is, 30FPS or 24FPS. This has the added effect of slowing the footage down by 50-60% so you need to consider how your going to use the footage and whether your trying to match the motion of something else. I switched to the Sunex lens because I don't like the fisheye of the stock lens, if I use the stock lens I can shoot 1920x1080 30P. I don't know what level of detail you guys want to get into but a note about frame rate conversion that can make a huge difference to your image quality, Cinema Tools does not do any image processing, it changes the header information of each frame so that it plays back in at the requested frame rate. If you simply take a 60FPS clip and drop it into a 30FPS timeline and context click on the clip you'll see that you have the option to turn frame blending on or off, if you have this option it means your NLE is interpolating the footage or processing the footage and it will be softer and usually have these strange shudders where there's motion blur. So if your on a Mac use Cinema Tools if your on a PC find an equivalent utility.
Regarding image stabilization, this is motion tracking by a different name, the software tracks either points you've assigned or automatically assigns them for you then applies the converse translation to "stabilize," so it helps to know something about motion tracking. There are primarily two types, point tracking and 3D or shape tracking. Both types can work spatially, point to point or temporally evaluating some number of frames over time. Trackers like Smoothcam in FCP and After Effects tracker are point trackers, although I have not looked to closely at the new Warp Tracker in AE5.5 I'm guessing its a temporal point tracker, these are good trackers that will work a large percentage of the time if you have "relatively" smooth footage to begin with without a lot of motion blur or rolling shutter. Mocha is a shape tracker that evaluates foreground objects and background objects relative to each other in 3D space this is the best type of tracker in my opinion but has quite a steep learning curve.
The reason for bringing this up, if you research how these things actually work it will make you a better pilot. Editors make good directors because they instinctively shoot for the edit, AP pilots who understand image stabilization fly for the shot, they instinctively know to move over five feet so to get more separation from that foreground tree or fence post, for example and the background object. This will generally give you more options in post and lead to a better composed shot anyway even if you don't need to stabilize it.
I'm starting to work on building a larger quad for my GoPro and a stabilized camera gimbal and a hex with gimbal and FPV for a DSLR.
Hope this helps.
Captain Chaos from Cannonball run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5S1hqPbZZU&feature=related
Av8Chuck
Member
This is a bit off topic but when I first started in the entertainment industry a friend of mine was editing something with Robin Williams and Dom DeLuise came in, I don't think I recognized the comic brilliance playing out in the edit bay at the time but its something I have never forgotten.
Yes Canonball Run is a must see again... "You, me, the hamsters and HIM!"
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
well, i'm finally getting around to modifying my MKTR camera mount to improve the video that I can get with it. I've made three modifications so far and this is the result. I've still got to tweak the software settings but I think I'm making progress compared to what I started with. I converted the original file to .wmv format so the picture quality is pretty weak. The video is just me flying around to see if the mods improved the video quality at all.
Bart
Bart
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Redhotpearl
Member
Bart it looks good. Pretty much where I'm at unstabilized it looks like. That extra jittering when you're still is from the mount adjusting itself being so high in the MKtools. Try lowering both the tilt and roll and see what it does. Try the roll at half what you have just to see what happens. Having the roll turned down real low is only bad in wind when in Position hold I've found. Def. turn down tilt so it's not constantly adjusting.
BTW you can't tell if the camera is straight(not tilting left) by adjusting it when it's on the table. You actually have to pick it up, try and hold it level and then adjust it. The MK can lean with the MKTR on the table. Don't ask me how I know. Also why you never calibrate the MK with it sitting on the MKTR. Just another issue.
BTW you can't tell if the camera is straight(not tilting left) by adjusting it when it's on the table. You actually have to pick it up, try and hold it level and then adjust it. The MK can lean with the MKTR on the table. Don't ask me how I know. Also why you never calibrate the MK with it sitting on the MKTR. Just another issue.
jeffscholl
Member
Following the water:
Cheers,
Jeff
Cheers,
Jeff
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Redhotpearl
Member
Looks great! What camera/cameramount are you using?
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Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
jeff,
nice video, you're a credit to the multi-rotor breed. what format are you using for your final videos? I've tried a few different ones but haven't settled on anything i like.
@eric, the credits on vimeo say it's a GH2 and GoPro. I'd also like to know what camera mount.
thanks,
bart
nice video, you're a credit to the multi-rotor breed. what format are you using for your final videos? I've tried a few different ones but haven't settled on anything i like.
@eric, the credits on vimeo say it's a GH2 and GoPro. I'd also like to know what camera mount.
thanks,
bart
jeffscholl
Member
Thanks all!
I used a GH2 and a modded AV130 mount. For format I'm using the VimeoHD preset in CS5.
H.264, VBR around 5Mb, 29.97 at 720. (no frame blending) I think my aerial video is smoother on Youtube, but still need to do a thorough comparison.
It's a hard perspective to compress since pretty much every pixel is being changed/refreshed.
Another shoot from today:
Cheers,
Jeff
I used a GH2 and a modded AV130 mount. For format I'm using the VimeoHD preset in CS5.
H.264, VBR around 5Mb, 29.97 at 720. (no frame blending) I think my aerial video is smoother on Youtube, but still need to do a thorough comparison.
It's a hard perspective to compress since pretty much every pixel is being changed/refreshed.
Another shoot from today:
Cheers,
Jeff
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