I’ve been to the space a only a few times - a little over a year ago around when Arch2 was being built I think.
Long story short, I’d like help dropping a football from a drone!
Without getting too boring and personal, I suppose I stopped coming to the space because there was a fun bbq and I decided I had enough social interaction to last a year and 6 months???, and I had a job that made it possible to never leave my house. Had.
Again long story slightly-less-short I need to drop a football from an Inspire 2 for an ad for a potential new job. I already have a pretty good idea how I’d do it, and have ‘prototyped’ (read: ghetto-rigged) a smaller version, but since it could be a legitimate safety risk I figured I shouldn’t let pride stand in the way of me asking strangers for help.
It was a while ago and only a few times, but I met some very interesting and intelligent people here before I decided to go on a vitamin D fast. I once brought down my drone and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest. So if you’d like to help a reclusive mathematician drop a 1kg object from a drone (but for non-military purposes) let me know.
Do you really need to? Why not CGI? That cuts out a lot of variables- weather, light, wind etc. You could also go hybrid and drop something smaller - e.g. a tennis ball and track that in post, attaching a football to the tracker. Another way of doing it in post would be compositing - e.g. kick a football high into the air and film it falling. Then combine that footage with footage of a drone - then it looks like a done dropping a football - it could cut out a lot of production complexity. Keeping something that’s actually falling in frame isn’t easy and could look shitty if not done well. If it is done well, you may just be showing a football appearing suspended in mid air (think ending of Koyaanisqatsi), CGI gives you perfect camera control and camera angles to get it just as you want.
If you really do need to actually drop a football, what’s the shot? Is it showing the football being dropped by a done or simply the football falling? From what kind of height? Any particular location?
AFAIK, The Inspire 2 is a great camera mount, but it’s not designed to carry a payload. If you have an Inspire 2, I’d consider hiring a second basic drone to do the dropping and use the Inspire for air to air filming. It would be much more dynamic and dramatic than just filming it from the ground.
Mounting stuff to the inspire I guess but also moral support.
I’m thinking of putting all the extra stuff in a box hanging off the bottom of the drone. So I’d only need to put a clamp/bracket on the bottom of inspire, below the battery compartment. with a hook so I could then hook on the release mechanism and everything else below it.
Except not sure if I could find a clamp with a hook that’d fit exactly - would be great to have help making something custom for example, or welding a hook to an adjustable clamp.
Luckily it’s a person we’re aiming for (again non-military I swear), and I think the player will be able to run to the ball. so doesn’t have to be perfectly on target.
I’d likely come down to the space today at ~1pm unless that’s not a good time(?). Honestly the drone is quite large but I’ll do my best not to take up space !
in all means come to slms anytime, I’ll be in later in the afternoon and happy to make you a cuppa, just its not guaranteed there will be someone with relevant expertees is all (higher chances to find someone at those electronics nights) - but you can try today for sure!
edit: maybe i misunderstood, i thought youre coming down to chat with someone about the project.
Ahh yeah you’re right - I’d wanna come both for the space and to find people, but even if no one’s there I’d come today (probably) and more often - like start being a proper regular due-paying member again
