The joy of Icarus

The world of drones is a weird delight that I am still coming to terms with. I wanted to write something that testifies to my experience and journey.

“I’m walking in the air”

Drones are now everywhere

Somehow this technology has passed into the mainstream consciousness in the last five(?) years where the Ukraine situation has publicly mutated from a bully’s ground troop invasion into a weirdly digital “no-mans’ land” maintained and guarded by pilots with virtual head-sets. Animals now use drone netting to make nests.

The last Winter Olympics felt like the first drone-branded experience, and I thought it added something valuable and vital. We have all enjoyed those SkyCam shots during the World Cup.

My own interest in capturing outdoor adventures led me to the DJI door. I spent some time a couple of years ago using a HoverAir device which miraculously tracked its running/cycling object with amazing efficiency. Since that time have found my self leaning towards the Neo2 - a piece of technology that seamlessly bridges traditional drone tech with ordinary consumer expectations.

In the end I bought a B-graded second-hand DJI Neo 2 from CEX for the relatively small sum of £380. It was the Motion combo with the goggles and single-handed controller. It’s interesting that although autonomous tracking was the original doorway, FPV has become the main thing for me to the exclusion of almost all the other functions.

Here are some observations based on my experience.

I have a dream

I have dreamt of flying my whole life. The experience of putting on goggles and then being taken out of my own body and flying above rooftops, gaping at spires, skimming along tree lines, zooming down water slides and swirling among murmurations… is a thrill that has knocked me off my perch.

My friend made a bird mural which I captured… as a bird.

The first steps were nauseating.

Flying it round my house was almost too much - feeling dizzy I had to use a phone as a second screen because I found it so hard to adjust to the direct goggles sensation. I then bought (and returned) a more traditional controller to explore this option - but eventually I was drawn back into the intimacy and control of the FPV experience using DJI’s one-handed Motion Controller.

It’s interesting how at the start of all this I was primarily thinking of autonomous tracking options, but I got increasingly fed up with the ‘look-at-me” crowd on YouTube. Self-shooting clips have to be pared right down - no one cares to see your selfie beyond very brief contextualisation (I beg you: give us a sense of where you are and move on with the story!).

With the autonomous filming function also came the risk of losing the gear. However good the Neo2 is (and it is VERY good at this) I lost it a couple of times in mildly panic-inducing ways. I won’t go into the details but one of those instances did involve me cutting knee badly as I fell down a hill - I was trying to do too many things at once and almost paid the entire £380 price - which is a lot to lose.

In contrast, wearing those goggles and focussing on tiny detailed movements is a level of control that is hard to let go of. With tiny hand movements I found myself merging into the technology in Kafkaesque/Cronenbergian ways.¹

Now I am in this groove it just continues to delight and amaze. It changes the way I look at architecture. I am always thinking about what the top of a chimney looks like - or whether overhead wires might be a problem for this suburban Icarus. I am also more aware of the wind than I have ever been - and often sing my own version of that Mary Poppins’ song (exchanging the word ‘kite’ for ‘drone’ - go on, sing it).

It took several journeys to capture this murmuration - but what a thrill.

A dream requiring restraint

In the UK there are healthy restrictions on flying a drone - which I happily embrace - but it’s an easy situation to abuse and I fear for a culture where people will ignore those bounds. Once you take off and five metre heights become the new normal, you become painfully aware that the old world is breaking. Very few people ever walk around on stilts or carry a ladder unless they are repairing a roof - and yet it’s just a matter of time before our culture adjusts to these new wandering giants (the simple fact that drones are so noisy is a privacy blessing).

Personally I shudder to think where this might end up. Witnessing the ugliness of speakerphone abuse on public transport tells me that drones are a dream requiring restraint.

Where this has led me is to think creatively how to use this tech-gift to help others - to take it away from the look-at-me syndrome - and to elevate/enhance how others might experience the world. Over the summer I worked on a youth camp and used it to capture fun activities. It definitely added to the experience as we all laughed together watching water slide adventures and laser tag missions.

I suppose this is yet another example of where inward-focussing activities never yield as much satisfaction as community-orientated ones (e.g. playing bass alone in my room never compares to playing in the church band where 100 people in that room are singing their hearts out).

Here are some further reflections (in no particular order):

Treat each flight like it’s your last

Although this particularly forgiving drone is so robust (I have crashed it a lot) there is always the possibility that you might lose it. This is something to embrace and live with. It certainly means that while I fly it a lot, I never fly it casually.

It’s not a drone, it’s a (very) flexible camera

All those famous extended Hollywood crane shots that I grew up adoring are suddenly within some kind of tangible grasp and it feels intoxicating to have that ability. I visited a famous location in Derbyshire recently - Lud’s Church - a natural rock fissure where persecuted Christians in the 16th Century worshipped in secret. I was there to shoot an explainer video for work, and was able to do some exciting aerial entry shots that previously only existed in my imagination.

I had to trust that those pigeons had better collision avoidance than me

A safe scale

The size of the Neo2 means that anxieties about people losing body parts (thanks ER for that Romano-meets-helicopter episode) are no more. It is a tiny, enclosed and highly manoeuvrable gadget that easily moves through spaces opening up exciting cinematic opportunities.

Storytelling still sits enthroned

“Low-quality” footage serving a clear story disappears into a bigger vision.

This means that with skilled direction you can use any camera without worrying about the LUT or lens. Yes this doesn’t excuse the importance of understanding the unique contribution that each tool brings. A skilled craftsperson understands the nature of their toolkit - but it is too easy to obsess over upgrades when the biggest issue is taking time with a cheap biro² and thinking hard about what you are trying to communicate.

My head is spinning with possibilities and I am loving this era. How can this tool be used to invest in a narrative with deeper significance?³

Video requested the radio star

There is a truism among editors that sound carries more than 50% of the film experience. This has been borne out every time I’ve made something. With drones this carries special significance because (in general) footage arrives on the editing timeline as a silent artefact. It’s amusing that such extraordinary innovation has landed us into a curiously new silent era.

Always be charging

At first glance the Neo2 has such a tiny battery provision (each flight lasting less than ten minutes) that multiple backup batteries is the only sensible option. In the end I have four which I systematically cycle through. To date I have never needed them all in one session.

Instinctive tech - it is The Way

Something I have often talked about on this process blog is the importance of having technology that supports the creative instinct. The Apple Pencil (with properly set up keyboard shortcuts on Clip Studio Paint) is one such example - it complements the speed and instinct of the artist, allowing for ideas to develop as the work unfolds. The technology and the creative act aren’t separate moments - they facilitate each other simultaneously.

The DJI Motion controller has allowed me to do something similar. The tight feedback loop of flight/filming/thinking as I go feels seamless.

Can you tell that I am excited?

Note to my younger self

For years I have pushed shopping trolleys in supermarket aisles living out the secret fantasy of being the Millennium Falcon in that Asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. Responding to oncoming boulders in zero gravity (AKA old ladies next to the cheese counter). And so, here I am moving round the tree branches at my local park, or zipping through the abandoned car park in town. I AM Han Solo AND Chewbacca avoiding Tie-Fighters who have foolishly followed me into the dangerous debris field.

---

¹ Yes I am well aware of how disturbing that sounds. Trans-humanism - or the desire to expand the natural (and healthy) limits of humanity - has some disturbingly hollow Tech-Bro promises that have led into all sorts of icky directions. While it’s easy enough to sit at a distance and judge these changes harshly, I have seen things you humans wouldn’t believe… starships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Long live the new flesh. Yes I know. But do I?

² Or however you do your thinking. I guarantee that the cheap low-tech option is probably the most valuable.

³ In actuality I have done a lot of thinking about this already. In addition to filming stuff I have also been using this to explore reference imagery for an animated film I want to make that uses bird colonies.

RunNotes: increments with the format and process

I thought it was worth writing up some of my current process thinking. I have been able to complete three RunNotes films just recently and each time I have another go at these things I inevitably change the way I operate because it’s always so difficult to put them together.

Let’s start at the ending(s) shall we?

In late December I visited Nottingham for a work trip. I decided to run from Bramcote to the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. As it was due for decommissioning in September 2024, I felt even more compelled to go there. The route I planned (using the brilliant footpath application) took a twisty journey along the Trent river and Attenborough nature reserve.

Here’s the film I ended up with:

Then on Christmas Eve, no less, I decided to give Bognor Pier to Worthing Pier a go - picking my way along the coast line.

This is it:

And finally - in mid January - inspired by the idea of travelling from Pier to Pier I decided to go from Worthing to Brighton.

This was a lot shorter than the Bognor route (and more boring). So I wondered whether I might try something more adventurous. I came up with a Devil’s Dyke detour taking in some of the Three Forts route before concluding with a downhill approach into Brighton.

This was a terrific experience with plenty of memorable moments - not least the cows and gliders. Here is the final piece:

Process changes - in brief

Please excuse me if this is brief.

1: Filming: GoPro and iPhone

The principle is here about capturing things without any friction or interruption. I carry a GoPro in my running short pockets - no longer using any handles or added gizmos (just a spare battery in my backpack). If I see something I will film it quickly and easily without needing to stop. For more complex shots I might pause and get my iPhone out - for the clips above I used the superior lenses for key moments. Having both on me makes a difference.

2: Animating: Apple Motion and Affinity Designer

After that previous blog post about maps I now do the following:

• plan the original route in footpath, exporting to WorkOutdoors for a guide during the actual run

• bring the completed run GPX data from WorkOutdoors back to Footpath to use for reference

• produced my own large-scale blank canvas using the screenshotted images like so:

This is a screenshot in Motion. I actually used a grid to export tiles from Affinity Designer to make is easier when compositing as the pixel count is quite large…

• NOTE: the 1080p window is the small highlighted area in the bottom right corner

• I use PixelMator Pro to send SVG files into Motion (such a useful workaround)

• from here it was a mainly a matter of using the WriteOn function and animating the camera

• the route uses a duplicate vector underneath to achieve the thick black edge

• I export two versions - one in standard H264 and one with the 4444 codec to allow for occasionally superimposing the route above footage

The main change is to keep things moving in the edit. No one really cares about stopping and starting so I constructed a continuous moving line rather than having it slow down and pause at different destinations. It makes for a much quicker feel in the edit.

3: Editing: humanity behind those buttons

I am regularly amazed at how strenuous it becomes making these little films. I have tried to streamline the process (and to a certain extent I’ve made some progress) but it’s still true that editing is never simply a matter of pressing some AI button and trusting the result! There is human artistry in feeling the flow of imagery which cannot be handed over to a soulless workflow.

Where the process has improved for me - is having a sense of how to prepare the different assets so I can flexibly arrange them in the timeline. I love the idea of being aware of this now when I am running so I know what will translate well as I’m filming it. In the end, editing insights eventually influence the earlier production stages.

• arrange the material into usable compressed chunks on one timeline (this has tended to be up to about 12 minutes in length)

• create a much tighter highlights edit (30 secs up to a minute)

• final combo timeline combining everything (aiming for around 3-6 minutes ideally)

Other thoughts

These three films combine some incremental changes that I think make for a more entertaining watch:

• an overview map title at the start and end

• a super-fast highlights intro reel to whet the appetite without (I hope) killing curiosity

• a shorter running time of 4-6 minutes long (which seems really different compared to the Isle of Wight piece)

Finally - the big idea with these is to avoid the endemic YouTuber Army narcissism by focussing on the route experience rather than the runner. No one really needs to see more of me but we could all do with getting out more and exploring those sights, smells and general feels.

What’s next?

Now I have a good sense of what these pieces look like I have two projects on the horizon:

• next week I am heading to the so-called Jurassic Coast

• at the start of May I am reuniting with my old mate Gary Luigi to run from Eastbourne Pier to Brighton… a mere 27 miles…

Thanks for reading - hopefully some of this is useful - get in touch to let me know if you were helped in anyway.

Faster workflow for bespoke animated maps

I have been really enjoying developing storytelling with the use of animated maps over the last couple of years. One of my favourite pieces was the one created for the Prague walkabout:

The problem was that this was a huge effort that doesn’t feel particularly sustainable (these pieces are usually created in my spare time) so I need to find a method that works a bit better. I found myself stumbling across the SnazzyMaps site which enables you to customise google map data.

Here is my process:

1: Data capture

Using the WeWorkOutDoors app on my watch (I’m certain there are other ways of capturing .GPX file data but this is what I find most useful for now) I record the route. I love this data input method - it’s so direct and unselfconscious. Perhaps one day I shall use it for more than an outline route but for now this is golden.

Here’s one I recorded for a St. Malo run in the summer:

2: GPX export into Footpath

Footpath is an app I happily subscribe to. I use it a lot to create journey plans and to get a sense of what is possible if I am visiting a new place. For me the killer feature¹ is that you can import and export GPX data. Usually the route I might take is planned here before being exported out to the WeWorkOutdoors app, but in this case I am going the opposite way.

Here is the path I took along the Birmingham Canal in the Summer:

3: Planning the useful sections for animation

From here I can do a bit more detail planning. I might do a crude screen capture of the Footpath route and drop that into my video edit - or I might take a bit of time using it as a basis for designing and drawing a more bespoke map. It is here that SnazzyMaps becomes really useful.

Last Easter I found myself visiting North Wales for 24 hours and had some time to do a run around the Llandudno peninsula - it was a fun little adventure where I saw some gorgeous stuff (and seals!):

The main issue for me at the time was that I didn’t want to spend ages recreating a map in the way that I had with Prague so I used SnazzyMaps to create some blank areas that I then tweaked in a fraction of the time.

Here is a section of the Wales coastline that I exported from SnazzyMaps. I was delighted that you could remove all the usual map labels.

Then I manipulated the texture before adding in the key details.

This took a fraction of the time.

POST SCRIPT

If only design were as concise as this blog post makes out. In reality the SnazzyMaps approach had limited value this time round. Although it works really well in providing accurate faceless imagery for tweaking - you still have to do the tweaking! For my latest series of overdue RunNotes videos (Birmingham, St Nic, Angers and St Malo) I spent a while playing with the original method before ditching it for the following:

• create a panorama of routeless screenshots from Footpath

• hand drawn a vector route using my original footpath data as a reference guide

• use a combination of layers in Motion - the pixel panorama, svg-exported vector route

In the end editing is largely a smoke-and-mirrors kind of situation - loads of what happens is effectively an illusion that falls apart when you look closely. It’s important to return to the idea of what the audience needs to see and finding the most economical way of hitting that perception.

---

¹ there is another killer feature which makes this an essential app for me - I create a route and it maintains that route without the ‘intelligent’ rerouting that you get with Apple Maps. This means that it functions a bit like an old-school paper map. I can wander wherever without constantly being guided or cajoled. I love this sense of planning/freedom. The added fact that you can use GPS with your phone in airplane mode is good. Better battery and just simply being able to wander as you will.

Adventures in animation

I am making some exciting steps into the world of animation and I’m not sure I want to look back.

And when I say animation I mean indie-animation: where I have been involved in my own idiosyncratic way with local tools. There is something quite wonderful about being able to make something move and live on the screen. Yes it takes ages and yes I sometimes hate it, but there is an undeniable magic when you see life reflected in those moving lines.

For me the steps have been threefold:

1: being aware of the classic principles

2: getting into how animators think

3: figuring out software and hardware hacks that work

I have tried to outline a few of my steps below - sorry it’s brief but better that I capture some kind of a trail than not at all.

1: Awareness of the classic principles

There is actually quite a lot of material about this online - and a few decent books on how Disney developed the basics in the early days. I love how these principles crop up everywhere. This video is perhaps the most beautiful I have seen, although Alan Becker also did a great job of explaining them. The big takeaway for me is that there are well-established conventions that are a helpful starting point.

2: Getting into the thinking process of an animator

Some examples that I have found really really helpful:

• Alex Grigg - some of the most helpful and beautifully designed learning videos on animation I have seen. These gave me a lot of confidence and helped me to eventually evaluate my software and hardware needs against the kind of things he models.

• Ben Marriott - although he focusses a lot on the use of Adobe products, I have found his step by step process videos really helpful. I studied him make this house jump, and this illustration walk many times - often replaying and rewatching until I can get the gist of how he is planning and framing things.

• Gabriel Gareso - he’s not just a really great animator but he created a bunch of painstaking workflow videos that give a realistic sense of what it takes to get something across the line. I have watched them a lot.

• JustGoscha’s #30dayanimator course - this was well worth the money. I still haven’t covered everything but to have someone spend a bit of time documenting how they create the illusion of life is invaluable. It was a scaffolding experience that I am hugely grateful for. When you first see how to animate a flag waving it can be quite special.

3: Figuring out software and hardware hacks that work

The options that I considered were - Rough Animator, Toon Squid and Clip Studio Paint. In the end I went with CSP because it is such a brilliant drawing tool and has pretty good animation functionality built into it. I know it can feel a bit fiddly - but if you start with a strong idea of what you need there is hope in an endless tunnel!

On that point Reuben Lara has a terrific paid course leading on from his free YouTube videos that was exactly right for me in getting a better intentional grasp of CSP. His course is a really useful insight into using bespoke recorded actions and (hardware) keyboard shortcuts to speed up and benefit the whole activity.

So this is where I ended up for the listening film:

Hardware - an iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil 2 and a Logitech K811 Bluetooth Keyboard. For compositing I have gotten used to exporting assets out and bringing them into Motion on a mac.

Software - Clip Studio Paint specifically on an iPad Pro for the bulk of my work - for some reason it’s not as quick on an M1 MacBook Pro (I know, right!? No idea why but hey). I will use it on the Mac when I want to set up complicated timelines or edit and tweak particularly tricksy edits that need better screen space. Nothing beats the iPad set up though - it has all of my favourite tools and a superior drawing feel. I get a little anxious about how invested I am in this particular product - hopefully Elon won’t buy it.

For me the essential thing was having a reliable workflow pattern in place. Reuben Lara was very helpful in encouraging me to think about how to get those things sorted out in CSP. Animation is such a painful thing to think about you want to have your process ironed out before you step into more involved projects - the cognitive load is just too great once it all gets going - a handful of times I’ve tried to fix a problem and it got so depressingly complicated that all my animating mojo was gone - these are things that a reliable set up solves.

A streamlined and reliable approach that spotlights creative thinking has to be the priority.

Dedicated to Declan - you are uniquely talented and I hope this helps a lot.