Vision Plus Camera & Adobe After Effects

[Davekyn]

Hi,

I'm, relatively new to Video editing and was hoping if anyone here is using after effects with the vision plus camera, that you may be able to offer some help - No matter if your not using the same camera.

I must admit that I don't really like the Vision Plus camera. I know it's just entry level but given they charge around a grand just for the camera, I think it actually kind of sucks for that price. Anyways - it's a camera in the sky and its a start. Best I can do is learn when the best times are to shoot, learn to fly smooth and get the angles right. Screen flikr also seems like a hug issue - lots of flaring and so on. Still new to all this so learning the weaknesses is still in progress - there seems to be many with this camera.

ANYWAYS - in the interest of getting better video with the Vision Plus camera ... please do join me with your own opinions and ideas.
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Ive been using the Youtube Render settings of:

H.264 (6-9Mbps) 1920X1080 -

I think I could do better - but not sure which way to go.

More about the Vision Plus Camera Quality:
I notice the quality changes a lot with the type of player one uses to view the footage - Taking the SD card dtraight from the camera and insering into my TV looks much better than using Quicklime on the PC - Quick time looks relay pixalated to me - BIG TIME! - media player a little better - but still not what I would call HD ... perhaps High Depth Pixels that jump about. I love nature - but this thing camera suffers badly with tress, grass and the like - I'm kind of begging my wife to make the editing process much better by actually looking towards getting a camera that does not suffer like a glorified HD web cam as how I am more and more coming to see this Vision plus camera.

sorry I can't butter up my disappointment on that score. Seems cloudy days are my only hope - Overcast conditions seem to help this camera and make it worth actually trying to video something and then uploading. Early morning and evening before it gets to dark. That's how I try to do it, although I do have some midday footage with all the screen flikr one commonly gets with this camera.

Quesiton - Do you find shooting in 1080i 60fps helps keep out the washed out brightness. I know one is not suppose to shoot towards the sun - but this thing suffers terribly even side on - almost useless around midday during summer I'm thinking. Colder temps definitely help - I wonder on humidity as well - I live on the coast.

I tired shooting in the 60fps - but have since learned that they are not full frames - the frames are interlaced with two frames making up a full picture (does that sound right) I don't want to get tooooo complex with all this, however a learning curve I must undertake no doubt. I need to do more tests yet - I was hoping the quckier frame rate might help to eliminate the dreaded washed out affect that I get on bright hot days - BUT - after I render with adobe after effects, the footage looks a bit jerky to me - AND I cant seem to find where to render at 60 frames per second -

I'm thinking it does not record at 60 frames per-second as it's not progressive - WHAT IS THE BENIFIT of shooting on Interlace then??????? Specifically when I can only render at 30fps or 29. whatever ... The ISO setting only relates to the photos I think so no help there cutting down on the washy over bright smear that spoils the video.
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I know how to fix the buggy fishey distortion without to much fuss by using "Optics compensation" under erects/distort -

I have even played with Warp Stabilization to make up for my inexperience and gps flying --- unfortunately if things were not pixly enough - the stabilization edit makes it even worse. I do love that feature though. To over come this - I will try to learn more about flying in course lock -

Course lock - I don't want to do flips and tricks - I just want to fly smoothly in a straight line yet have the ability to slowly turn whilst traveling in the same direction. I don't know, but I think learning to use course lock might be able to help me with that???????? I have not yet enable Nazzi mode - I will soon do this once I get over practicing video ... hard for me to get out of a rut - but I'll get there. I really wish warp stabilization did not make it even worse than it already is. Perhaps I can just downgrade to 720p when using warp stabilizer ... don't know yet ... Shooting Property from high up require full screen viewing and what I am primarily using the drone for.

definitely going to sell this Vision Plus and get a different setup with the a go-pro ...

ANYWAYS -------- Would love to know if there is a special way to Render 1080i in Adobe after effects and keep the 60fps - if indeed there is such a stat ... seems like its not really 60fps to me and cant for the life of me find how to render at those 60fps.

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Currently the best I can think of to improve things - is to pick my times - avoid flying anywhere in the direction of the sun whatsoever. I know this might sound out of the ordinary for someone living in a cold climate who's got great footage in whatever conditions - BUT - conditions have everything to the success of getting clear footage with the vision plus camera as far as I can tell. If only I could have control of aperture, iso and all the rest - but its just not that kind of camera - again - a glorified HD web cam as far as I can see.

Are there any other people out there that understand my frustration with this camera?

Not to worry - I work with what I have - multiple shoots over different times of the day from different directions and so on is where I am at - keeping a check on the angle of camera maybe ... I think adding a hood will complicate the trouble of Gimbal issues when in flight. (lets just call that "Gimbal Tilt Syndrome" - happens on a smooth run sometimes, but could be a gust of wind) - I'm not the only one with that either and seems pointless to keep sending it off for repairs - I just do what I can to learn that as well. Hmmm - just reaching out here ...

I wish I could render at the original file format whatever that may be - I thought just rending at lossless would be the trick but nope - ended up with like a 10 gig file doing that ... ???? The less messing with the original footage I think is key for this camera.

That's my feedback on this camera - if you have any ideas or would care to comment - please do.

TY.

 

[Davekyn]

I really need to fly in a straight line without budging the camera - (should I stop flying in GPS mode and learn ATTI???) Sure the giambal helps, but I still mess up with side movements and I would rather not use stabilizing edits - but fly smoother instead.

Is course lock the way to go for that - if so - could anyone link me to a dummies guide - I don't want full manual control just yet - just a few tips on how to get smoother "runs"

I'm also trying to perfect swooping in slowly - changing altitude smoothly over a run.

Any tips for rewinding in AAE - editing to rewind a shot might look better then trying to fly backwards - I'm thinking forwards would give me better control not to crash - and use rewind somehow to get the flying backwards effect.

I have a lonnnng way to go -

please do share your tips.

TY.

 

[Gary567]

If you have After Effects, I'm going to assume you also have Premiere Pro. Premiere will be easier to edit in unless you're doing some kind of special effects that Premiere can't handle.

1080p 30fps probably should be your standard setting for video unless you have a specific reason for shooting differently. This is the only setting I use.

You have rightly discovered that when the sun is overhead (coming through the props) you will get flicker in the video. You can use a small piece of black electrician's tape to create a hood over the camera lens that should not interfere with the gimbal in any way. Also, you have discovered that when the lens is pointed toward the sun, you will get washed out colors and sometimes lens flares. I like to shoot in early morning or late afternoon to avoid these problems as well as to get the shadow details and the golden light that mostly happens at those times of day.

After importing your footage into Premiere, start by correcting any fisheye problems by going to Video Effects > Distort > Lens Distortion. Drag and drop this effect onto your footage and then play with the settings until you're satisfied. You can eliminate much of the fisheye effect in your footage while you're shooting by selecting the narrow field-of-view in the camera app before you take off. This will also help keep the props, landing gear, and prop guards out of your video.

There's lots of different ways to make your videos "pop" and reduce the washed out look, but here's one of the easiest. Go the Video Effects > Color Correction > Fast Color Corrector. Drag and drop this onto your footage. In the Fast Color Corrector settings panel, scroll down below the color wheel to the slider labeled "Input Levels". This is similar to the Levels command in Photoshop. Play around with these two pointers on this scale until you're satisfied. I rarely change the "Output Levels", but you can give that a try, too.

Just a little above the "Input Levels" slider, you'll see a control for "Saturation". Try increasing that to about 120 - 125, then adjust to your preference.

I usually do all of the above on the unedited video clip on my timeline. Once you've applied these settings to your clip, you can cut it up on the timeline any way you want and each of the resulting clips will have the same settings.

Eventhough the PV2+ has exceptionally stable video, you may want to apply the Warp Stablizer effect to the clips to smooth them out even more. This is a machine-intensive operation, so I usually do it only to the clips that need it. However, if you have a high-powered computer, you could apply this effect to the entire footage before you begin to edit it.

You mentioned "rewind" in your post, but I think you probably mean "reverse". To play a clip backward in Premiere Pro, right click the clip on the timeline, choose Speed/Duration. The default speed is 100%. Change this setting to -100% and your clip will play in reverse.