I would like to set up a shot where the Phantom flies in a straight line, pans around a fixed point, then continues flying straight, but with the camera pointed back at the fixed point. I've attached a diagram of the shot using my formidable paint skillz. The blue arrow is the direction of the camera/drone, and the green arrow is the direction of travel. Is it possible to program a flight path like this using DJI or 3rd party tools? I've seen a couple 3rd party iOS apps that look like they might be able to do this, but I'm not sure.

To complicate matters, I eventually want to set this up with a moving boat. However, I want to learn how to set up the basic shot and flight path on dry ground with a fixed point, then adjust it for a moving point (which should just look like a much slower pan) and matching the speed of the boat with the drone and matching the straight path of the drone with the boat.

Yes. This is very possible with litchi app and can be fully autonomous. You can creat the waypoints and set the speed from each point.
I believe you can do it with DJI Go as well, but you have to manually fly the path with course lock?

It looks like one for litchi you can draw this on the litchi app with your finger or Apple Pencil.

Semi autonomous with Go app's intelligent flight mode -> Course Lock

But I guess you wont be able to half-orbit with this. Let us know how you go about it.

Yesterday I was flying manually In a straight line and got to to do a 180 and fly in reverse without slowing down. It was done just playing around but I could probably do it again if i tried.

Hawkeye54 Posted at 2016-10-24 21:07
Yesterday I was flying manually In a straight line and got to to do a 180 and fly in reverse without ...

I have done so many stunts with my bird which stunned everyone who watched, too! Too bad I could never succeed to retry

Aloha ryan,

     You note that you intend the final shots to be made over water using a moving boat.  In that case Waypoints may be your best bet.  If you use Litchi, as two of the other commentators note, you will have to be doing a lot of math with serious calculations to get it right and still you will have to go out and test it on site to really get it right.  With DJI Waypoints, you have to take it out and test it from the beginning.  That is one of the benefits to DJI Waypoints.  You can think of your diagram as the Litchi first step using the computer in the warm confines of your home.  The rest has to be testing in the real world ala DJI Waypoints.  Litchi could actually make the entire effort way more complicated than it needs to be and it is already a very challenging effort.

     As for practicing on land first in preparation for the water work, great idea.  Watch a few videos on DJI Waypoints and read what else is available.  As vandruten suggests, Course Lock could be used, but it does not allow for deviation from the straight line when you go around the target.  Maybe you could redesign your track to use Course Lock, many directors and camera men do.  But, if you really need the curve, Waypoints is the way to go.

     The nice thing about planning DJI Waypoint missions is you can take your time.  Set up your practice scene and give yourself plenty of room to maneuver.  Then start flying.  FPV is very important in planning out your shots so you get the best camera angles at each waypoint.  When you place each waypoint, the camera angle is very important because the computer will use its algorithms to smoothly move between each waypoint pointing the camera exactly where you had it when you placed the waypoint and then moving smoothly to the next waypoint.

     After you have done this as accurately as you can, then you can rerun the mission as often as you want to determine what speed will get the best shot.  The speed of the mission can be changed manually between waypoints, but the overall path speed is going to have a major part in the success of the final scene.  Unfortunately, the waypoints GPS coordinates cannot be changed, nor can the exact camera angle.  To do that you have to run a new mission.  But, you will have learned a lot in the process and had a lot of fun doing it!

     You can rerun each mission three ways.  One is based on the camera position at each waypoint as discussed.  The next is based on the direction of the path (which you may not be using at all) and the last is to man the camera angles yourself while the Phantom flies the route determined by the waypoints.  You should try each one so you can see what is available to you and then mess with them to see how far your creativity can stretch the tool.  But, be careful to not put the Phantom at risk of a crash into a barrier you did not see or notice.

     You can practice with the DJI Waypoints tool creating different missions using many different waypoint placements and camera angles, such as how many waypoints do you want in the arc?  You can even loop all the way around the target and then resume your course.  You can also change the altitude of each waypoint in each different mission.  Maybe you want to swoop down to the arc and then pass around the arc at a constant altitude and then swoop back up to the previous altitude.  You can create a mission like that to go with other missions using a common altitude and see what you like better.

     Once you have familiarized yourself with your scene options and the DJI Waypoints tool, you are ready to look at its application over water.  During this process, battery levels will be very important.  You may get carried away using the tool on land and the Phantom will return to you, but on water, this is not so easy and each safety feature has to be tested during a practice session.  

     If you want Return to Home to go to your Remote Controller, you have to enable it and test it.  Make sure you have "Follow Me" functioning properly first because it means your bird knows where your controller is.  Then do a manual "Smart RTH" to see where the Phantom goes and you can cancel it fast enough to stay out of trouble.  Set your RTH altitude high so you have enough time to keep your Phantom from landing on the water if things do not work out as anticipated.  Fortunately, many of these functions can also be worked out on land ahead of time so your water work is more manageable.  

     Then plan your water waypoints.  Since the boat is moving, these waypoints may be stretched out farther than the land waypoints.  There are many other issues you will have to figure out going from a static land environment to a dynamic aquatic environment.  But, if you plan and practice it will be a lot of fun and you will have a challenging video to show for your effort.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Just using the DJI app, using the POI function you can set it up to circle the centre point while always facing it, start it circling slowly, then you can use the right stick back to decrease the radius of the circle as you approach the boat, allow it to fly the half circle and then right stick forward to increase the radius of the circle as it flies away.

That doesn't give you the sharp turn into the circle, it will merge the straight and circle together, but it is easy to do and may give a good result.

If you want the sharp turns using the DJI Go app then I think you have to film it in three pieces and cut the pieces together in a video editor.  Do the straights flying normally and flying backwards and the circle using the POI feature.   Should give a good result but the sudden turn into the half circle probably wont look very natural.