How we put a Camera on a Bee

if you could put a camera on a be I bet

it would look a lot like

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this can you think of an impossible shot

no I mean there's not a lot left but I I

can think of one a camera mounted to the

back of a bee now that might not sound

that crazy right cuz we've seen cameras

on on like Falcons we've seen cameras

that can slide into blood vessels but I

mean a camera that would have to go on

the back of a be would be so

inconceivably small even if you could

capture the

footage you wouldn't be able to capture

the

bee finding a way to pull off this

impossible shot is our challenge today

because we've written an entire short

about a bee that escapes and causes

Havoc to pull off this video we're going

to need a camera so I'm going to talk to

Ren who is our FAA licensed drone pilot

expert to see which drone he thinks is

best for this this is the Ava 2 it's the

brand new drone from DJI it is better

than the Ava 1 in literally every single

way I think this is the perfect drone

for this project we filmed a lot of

drone videos in the past too a lot

Superman with the GoPro the magic video

last fall we've done drone Star Wars

video like smallest Empire smallest

Empire too yeah you're right there's so

many of these drone videos and the one

thing that all the drones have in common

is that they're all really

dangerous yeah they all have exposed

propellers if they run into you it's

going to hurt a ton and so we're filming

a video very specifically POV that is

going to have to go through tiny gaps

it's going to have to fly really close

to people this is legitimately going to

be perfect for this video and I can fly

this just like a bee I can fly it really

close around people it can survive all

kinds of crashes I don't know what type

of plastic it's made out of but they're

saying that like this thing will be very

difficult to destroy yeah I've been

flying this for several weeks now it is

actually surprisingly incredible so what

DJI has done with the avat 2 is made an

all-in-one fpv package so it actually

comes with the goggles 3 and it also

comes with the RC motion 3 controller

allowing you to basically use a joystick

in the air what's cool about the motion

controller is that now you can press a

button and it'll do a flip or a barrel

roll just for you got the easy flip the

easy roll and an easy 180° drift so you

can like spin around objects as you fly

past them they've upgraded the camera

from the Ava 1 significantly it shoots

4K 60fps with HDR it's got 155° field of

view so like super mega wide angle it

even shoots 10bit log footage and of

course they're well known for ludicrous

transmission distances you can fly like

a mile away and still have a super solid

reliable connection and at 60 megabits

that that footage is super Crystal Clear

directly in the goggles if you try this

out you're going to want to continue

flying fpv it's a it's a gateway drug to

cinematic flying I'm telling you it's

really cool well so the next thing we

have to figure out here is what are we

going to do about the bee you know we

could do the bee practically cuz in

Superman I just did green screen arms uh

then drone Star Wars that was practical

printed stuff we were able to get like a

really good element to put in front of

the footage uh I thought that worked

really well so maybe we can actually try

to put a real bee in front of this but

like how my my house is kind of like a

bee graveyard I have one freshly exed

corpse this bee I guess died of natural

causes I assume you know look we have

the real thing here so we should at

least try it no I'm actually super on

board with this I didn't know you got

like an actual real bee today for this

have you seen Mad Max Fury Road of

course you know the guys on the front of

the car yeah it's going to be kind of

like

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that this should be relatively easy to

try to do I think we can literally just

like CA glue it to a toothpick just a

tiny tiny droplet of glue will be enough

and then we can like maybe stick the the

toothpick in here and like put some hot

glue on it the p is now glued to the

Drone let's just see what this looks

like man I want to see I want turn it

on this is it this is the first hybrid

it's the latest in drone technology with

real organic flesh grafted to

it if a bee breaks his wings this this

is kind of like a bee wheelchair

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yeah so you can see how it's like it's

just so out of focus here out of focus

is okay I would say it's supposed to be

a real video the intention is to like

visually make this look as realistic as

possible this is really funny I yeah

it's twisted it's a little demented we

did it at least we actually put a camera

on a be did there's one major problem

here the bee's dead okay come on he's

dead he's not alive anymore he's dead

he's not not sleeping he's dead and in

the video unfortunately it's not about

like a dead zombie bee being resurrected

and flying around it's like a living

normal bee look for as morbid and as

like messed up as this is this is the

ultimate reference footage as well being

able to see what this be actually looks

like in front of the lens how out of

focus it is like where it's placed and

then just like seeing how it like shines

and like that you see like the Bas on it

and stuff like that it's like well you

want to know what a real bee in front of

this camera is going to look like like

here it is like I don't see a practical

version of this actually working yeah

but at least we did our B

diligence I think I've got my work cut

out for me we're going to have to make a

cgb so we've actually been in a similar

situation before our previous video

drone Star Wars was very similar to this

except we used an actual practical 3D

printed like cockpit replica which

allowed us to actually just practically

film it outside and match it up to the

footage however this time things are

going to be a little bit more difficult

so to do this here's how I'm feeling the

workflow is going to be we have hdris

for all our environments that's going to

help we're still going to have to track

our footage and have that camera track

Drive our B's motion because and then

from there we have to do wind F

simulations we do some wings flapping

maybe turning in a little you know a

little animation we have to bring it to

life and then we have to render it this

game's got a v1b a B1 B1 oh wao what the

wait looks really good already wa dude

the reflections on top of the B mhm I'm

really thinking hard about what this

would have to look like to be even like

watchable SL convincing it's just the F

to vibrate more more fur vibration it's

not bad I'm not a fan of the fake

vignette to be honest well it's gone I

think you can do a little bit of

vignette 50%

vignette well I bring back like a little

bit of the fish eyy and a little bit of

that distortion but I would just like T

it down I wouldn't quite cut into the

field of view quite as much yeah that

yeah exactly maybe have the bee's head

follow the path a little bit you know or

have the antenna go this is the sort of

work that has a pipeline behind it you

know it's like take the shot rinse and

repeat so the proof of concept isn't

perfect but people are responding pretty

well to it which is giving me the

confidence that we're ready to shoot and

that's going to be a pretty big

challenge cuz there's going to be a lot

of locations

here we have like our be escape and

Wilderness phase we have our fun hij

Jinks in the city phase and then we have

our big like office kind of hij Jinks

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phase Ren is going to be the main pilot

for the shoot we're going to be counting

on him to pull off a lot of really

difficult shots the biggest challenge

I'm going to face today is one not

destroy the Drone two not damage any

people not hurt anyone safety concerns

talk safety you guys have already seen

me fly around it's not too big of a deal

if it hits you it might like hurt a

little bit but it's not going to like

damage you or anything never try to like

poke it with your fingers

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this is all this is all good that works

that works the safe crew Safety

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First dude I almost hit the trees on the

exit there but it looked pretty sweet

yeah he was I was like oh man he's not

launching he's not launching this is

pretty cool what you're seeing in the

goggles is like crystal clear the

goggles also feature a pass through mode

so you can see the environment around

you you don't have to take the goggles

off and it also has picture in picture

with the Drone feed itself dude we're

doing some gorilla film making I think

we got it all right so we're good yeah

name something more terrifying than

being in a moving vehicle and a bee is

trying to sting you so this is the final

drone shot of the day at least me flying

and it's a complicated maneuver where

I'm going to be flying on the other side

of this house through some flowers

Nico's going to cut me off going to

hedge right and then emerge from the

brush over there and then go across the

field and ideally threw Jordan's window

into her car and the moment I'm inside

the car I'm going to kill the motors and

it should just crash in her car all

right

Jordan oh close so

close and your car is fine I think you

hit right below the window it was really

close I mean it was pretty close all

right one more in

action nice nice he AC it he it like you

said it oh my God

wow that's great it's

crazy so now that our shoot is finally

done our footage is in the can Ren's job

is finally over and he can rest easy but

for me well this is where the potential

nightmare can actually begin because now

I have to accomplish all the bgi that's

a that's a joke because what I meant is

CGI with a B I ran the numbers on the

edit guys we have 50 VFX shots for this

video with a B in it I thought I was

going to have to do this Lone Wolf style

like I usually do I heard a distant call

the call of an old

friend Cinema 40 and octane expert

Clinton Jones I'm hanging out we're

we're going to figure out this B video

I'm helping Sam I've been mostly using

Unreal these days but I'm going to have

to like shake off the dust a little bit

but we'll get there I I I trust most of

the work here is getting the work flow

figured out and like feeling happy with

these first few shots what's up dog how

it be going well we're this is day two

of the the official VFX days and I mean

things are moving I got like three shots

set up today Clint's got like a shot or

two set up today I'd say a good three

three shots buzzing along we're trying

to upgrade our B puns you know we're bfx

artists at this point Sam you were

telling me earlier that you had a joke

you've been working on for years can you

go ahead and tell me that again sorry

I'm a little

busy I really needed his help to kind of

list out all the VFX shots but honestly

listing these B is far more important at

this point so I came in yesterday Sam

had already made a shot basically

brought a shot to completion he had a b

he had it rigged he had you know the

right animation on it the right

controllers on it and he just kind of

caught me up to speed and then we each

took a shot and completed a shot and

made sure we were synced up on the

workflow every shot requires we got to

track it you got to drop the be in you

got to make sure all of the lighting is

in the hdri the sunlight is in and you

have to make sure the lighting is

matched to the background plate so

that's that's like default default as

you you

know that's like a basic shot that's a

basic setup where things get a little

bit more tricky is when there's big

lighting shifts like there's a couple

times where the Drone will flip upside

down 360 so we're going to have to

animate the sun and the and the hdri 360

as well to match or stuff like the bee

going through a tunnel I kind of set up

my lighting for this sunny and then

going through the trees here would just

be the manual work of setting up a tree

tunnel that literally cast a shadow over

the lighting that you set up on the the

second half of the shot so a lot of

shots require some manual light tweaking

and light matching to this extent shots

that are like stitched together that are

longer sequences Sam just did a shot

where like the be's going through a car

those are a little trickier shots but um

we got the workflow down like it's

moving with all the finishing touches

and pish put on it I think the video

turned out really well and I'm very very

proud of it so take a look at it right

now it's on cordor digital on our

website it's everywhere of course I got

to thank everyone who worked on this

project and especially DJI cuz these

guys keep hooking it up we love flying

drones and they got the best ones it's a

match made in heaven would happily do it

again and again