Idaho Airships, Inc.

We’re presently working on a presentation about cranes-specifically, about some of the challenges of operating heavy mobile cranes-and we’re using aerial photography as our graphic base.

There are many reasons why we’d opt for aerial photography over 3D modeling in this exercise, particularly the complexity of modeling a crane and its construction site context. Additionally, the use of aerial photography cuts production time drastically: if the images are shot “correctly” to support edit decisions, the amount of time in Photoshop and After Effects is minimized.

Shooting a drastic aspect is great for getting attention, and shooting against a relatively homogenous background smooths the process of selecting the crane and rigging for isolation. ”Steep,” close imagery of relatively small subjects is most often acquired using a jet helicopter: preferably a dual-engine jet helicopter.

Occasionally, cranes are shot by blimp. This one was, with a wide-angle lens. For effect, not for the thrill. Trust me.

 

This still image could have been shot with our 71′ mast (which also shoots video), but it wasn’t. While not a crane, this very heavy trencher has some of the same operating challenges on loose soil and steep terrain. Note the depth of the tracks in the soil between the bucket and the tracks: that’s not a stable surface…

While steep aspects are remarkable for their cognitive impact, occasionally they are hostile to the characteristic we are attempting to display. For example, to demonstrate the vertical metrics of tall things, we image them from the side. We’re not keen on extreme low-level aerial work at night because things jump up and grab your helicopter. So embarrassing.

Sometimes it’s not necessary to pull subjects into After Effects (where masking can be tedious and rely upon Photoshop anyway) to isolate them. This effect was generated entirely in Photoshop, and this photography won “Best Construction Aerial” as selected by the membership of the Professional Aerial Photographers Association, International, in Las Vegas, in March of 2011. The crane and its base are effectively isolated from the cluttered construction context. Isolating elements also facilitates the animation of all elements independently, such as the “Ken Burns Effect.”

The manipulation of images for this particular interactive video involves the animation of soil compression, water, and even problems associated with outriggers (the adjustable “feet” of the machine) on soil. The following two images demonstrate the ability to photograph a unit in a complex environment and remove it from that environment with no trace.

Crane, present.

Crane, absent.

The use of static photography versus aerial videography (very expensive) or 3D modeling (very expensive, very time-consuming) is saving us perhaps $12-15,000 and 30 hours of production on this 4 minute video, with no signficant sacrifice of the subject material.

L