11/10/2023
Let’s talk Hyperlapse!
A Hyperlapse is like a time-lapse but it needs Ritallyn to function as a normal member of society.
It’s a neat form of photography and here’s how it works.
We take a bunch of still pictures of something that’s moving and then we stitch those still together to make a video. The result is like timelapse only better because it’s hyper! 24 stills go into each second of the finished video. So this 15-second video is made from 375 individual stills.
That's pretty simple, right?
But now we add in the flying camera and the fun starts.
Not only is the subject moving but now the camera can move, very precisely, as well. This opens up a world of possibilities and creativity! Pans, tilts, zooms, rakes, follow, and much more can now be executed with accuracy never before available to us. It’s all guided by GPS technology too. The drone can remember a point in space down to pinpoint accuracy and this includes camera settings too like angle, shutter, and more, everything. It’s like having a cameraman that doesn’t complain or show up drunk, at 400 feet. These are called waypoints, and we use these to pre-program motion into the drone and its camera that can then be repeated over and over.
I could go back over here tomorrow for example and fly this exact same path under different lighting for example. I may actually do just that. The possibilities are nearly endless and it’s a TON of fun.
Here I’m doing a movement that I’m calling the ‘up-down-up with a slow pan’. The drone covers nearly a ½ mile along the highway from north to south in over 25 minutes time. I’m actually walking along underneath it during this time keeping an eye on it too. During that time it also descends from 400 feet, down to about 150 feet at around halfway, and then going back up to 400 feet for the end.
The 375 frames are then tweaked just a tad (this IS me after all) and then put into more software that stitches them together and stabilizes them for the final output that you see here.
It’s super nerdy and super fun too!
I don’t know that there are many commercial applications for Hyperlapse, maybe stock footage for commercials or TV shows, or establishing shots and such and I don’t care either. I love this art form and my only complaint is that we can’t do hours-long Hyperlapses (HyperlapSI?) with the drone, but the batteries wouldn’t last nearly long enough. Because of this, we’re limited to a final output of around 25 seconds of video using current technology. Someday though, our drones may be able to fly ‘tethered’ to the ground with ultra-fine lightweight power and data cables, and then we’ll be able to fly almost indefinitely. Someday. For now though, here’s what ya get!
