If you have flown a drone such as the DJI Mini series, one of the NEO’s or the Flip for example, I am sure you have taken a photo or video or two as well as enjoyed the thrill of the actual flying experience (and learnt a whole new set of skills in the process).

But just as using a camera like the DJI OSMO 360 is an entirely different ballgame to using an Action 5 or GoPro, so using the AVATA 360 needs a different mindset when looking at it from the aspect of film making.

Let’s ignore the use of the N3 Goggles and Motion Controller 3 for the moment, as that opens an entirely different can of worms, and stick to the RC2 controller.

Spherical Camera

The major difference of course is the camera employed in the AVATA 360, as it is a spherical 360 ° unit. This means it is recording video data from all directions simultaneously, effectively giving you an infinite number of cameras all at once.

In fact, unlike say a DJI Mini 5 Pro which is a drone with a camera, the AVATA 360 is in reality a flying camera!

This 360 ° shooting means you don’t have to be as precise with your framing, as EVERYTHING in the 360 ° sphere around the camera is in shot at all times.

Consequently, the editing after the shot is where the majority of the actual magic happens.

This is not to say you can send the drone up, hit the record button and it’ll take care of everything; you still need to plan your shots of course, and the normal rules apply re: composition, lighting, motion and depth.

Keyframes

You may have heard this term and may even have used them in your video editing package such as DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Vegas etc, but when shooting 360 ° footage, they are not just useful but it is almost mandatory you understand them as they are the key to  making it all work.

Simply, keyframes are the way you move between the different virtual camera shots caught by the 360 ° camera on the AVATA 360.

In Image 1, you can see the timeline with a clip on it and the current virtual camera view is shown in the Picture Viewer.

Note under the Manual Framing heading at the right are a number of icons, and these represent the current focal view that is being used. (Image 2)

In other words, on a “normal” camera, the lens length – ranging from Asteroid (spherical and often called “tiny planet”), Ultra-wide, Wide and Dewarp. The figures underneath give you the actual numbers for point off view, pan, tilt and roll angle. (Image 3)

The Dewarp setting needs a little explanation. The wider angle a lens becomes, some warping in the form of the image getting “bent” occurs. This is especially evident in action cameras where you see a curve in the horizon. (Image 4)

Image 4 and 5

Dewarping of footage from standard video is available via a number of different apps (I use either Prodrenalin or Mercalli from ProDAD), but DJI has seen fit to put it in DJI Studio as standard.

Camera Movement

This is where it gets tricky and can be downright confusing if not frustrating.

In my initial playing with 360 ° software, I found myself asking “why cannot I pan around at 180 degrees”. Try it and you’ll see what happened; the image will not rotate around a central point but will “flip”. This is not a bug, but a limitation forced by the software so that the final image when rendered into a usable movie doesn’t show any tears where the different images are stitched together.

And why keyframes are so important.

In order to create a smooth pan then, you need to do the following:

• Set the start angle and add a keyframe (Image 6)

  

• Move the timeline forward to the new location in the video (Image 7)

  

• Add a second keyframe (Image 8)

  

The software will then smoothly pan from keyframe to keyframe.

(Apologies for the wobbly footage. The poor little AVATA 360 was dealing with a 30kph very gusty wind here and under the circumstances, fared quite well! The location is Wyalup Rocky Point in Bunbury WA just below the Mantra Lighthouse Inn if anyone is interested).

You can repeat this process for a single clip on the timeline or add as many clips as you like. To trim a clip, you can either trim left, right or split a clip using the tools above the timeline. To remove a section after a split, select it and hitting delete.

To see the final movie you simply export it. Once that is done, if you want to do further editing that is beyond the scope of DJI Studio, you can import it as media into something like DaVinci Resolve.

I’ll be putting together a full tutorial on DJI Studio over the next days or so, so stay tuned. There are many more cool tricks that are available to you such as filters and tracking. Hopefully this will be enough to get you going and start using keyframes – it is a little daunting at first I agree, but having a play and getting used to it is the key.

Please leave this field empty

Keep up to date on all things video, photography, action cameras (GoPro), drones (DJI) and even 3D.

By registering, you'll get my free weekly newsletter emailed to you, but also my monthly e-magazine!

You'll also be able to get access to my free 60+ page GoPro and 32 page drone e-magazines

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.