Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

[RCHeliguy]

Another sort of flight sim.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Continuing on my path...

A little help looking at the camera.

Trying to reduce shadows on my face.

Short of makeup I think this is sort of dialed in now.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Another sort of flight sim.

View attachment 750299

Äh, Mark, i just noticed your picture is upside down

 

[stigs2cousin]

Short of makeup I think this is sort of dialed in now.

View attachment 750635

Man, you don´t need make up ( with the right camera and software)

(I´ll show myself out)

 

[RCHeliguy]

I finally got it pushed up.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Man, you don´t need make up ( with the right camera and software)

(I´ll show myself out)

Are you saying I have a face for radio ?

 

[stigs2cousin]

I'd never dare to be that impudent

 

[Elaphe]

Your face is not a problem. Your t-shirt is.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Your face is not a problem. Your t-shirt is.

There it is!

I was waiting for the first comment about the tee shirt

I had someone advice me against the tee shirt early on. Spoiler, I got a few more 3D t-shirts and cringe, I even have some Iron man, Spiderman, Captain America tee shirts

 

[RCHeliguy]

I had someone suggest that I try a teleprompter.

I found free software that will automatically scroll the text and highlight it as I read it that I can run on my windows laptop and then use my laptop's 2nd USB-C display for the teleprompter.

The funny part is that the free version won't flip the text, but windows has a display option to do just that

My laptop has a 2nd USB-C monitor that I've had for about 5 years and barely use.

I found a perfect fit stand for my display.

Amazon.com

And I found a replacement teleprompter tempered glass section that would be a great size for this.

Amazon.com

Ordered a yard of black fabric to use as bellow to keep overhead light reflections off the glass

Now I just need to design a 3D printed frame that holds that glass at 45degrees over the display and has support for some fabric to drape across the lens to keep overhead light reflections off the glass.

I got a few ideas for this here.

 

[metalnwood]

I am confused, they normally do this to make the teleprompter less visible for an audience.. No one except the camera is looking at you while you record so why go to all that effort with glass rather than just look at the screen?

 

[cnhoff]

Maybe there is an audience, we don't know for sure.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I am confused, they normally do this to make the teleprompter less visible for an audience.. No one except the camera is looking at you while you record so why go to all that effort with glass rather than just look at the screen?

I've never used a teleprompter, but I had a small 6" video monitor set up on a tripod just a few mm to the left of the camera lens for the video that got me the comments above. I kept looking at it and people noticed that I was looking a bit off to the side. Assuming I was looking about center of the monitor I was only looking about 4" off center of the camera lens and it was very noticeable.

I noticed my eyes looking to the side when I pulled it up into my NLE, but I didn't feel like re-recording it.

Just a few posts back, I posted that I put glasses on my camera to help remind me to look straight at the camera for my next video.

People notice if you are not looking directly at the camera, some more than others, but it is a source of annoyance.

So I moved the monitor down low and much closer to me. This makes it easier to verify sharp focus, then I turn off the camera AF. With the monitor far off the line of the camera, it is mostly useful for me to verify everything is right before I start talking. ( focus, composition, audio, rec status, 30min count down ) But being far off from where I need to look it doesn't draw my attention.

I've also gotten this comment.

I could hear that those swallows as well and didn't think much of it, but I should take the time to mute the audio when that happens. It is good practice to get some quiet audio from whatever location you are in so that you can mute yourself without making the audio perfectly quiet.

I'm learning as I go. I'm not even sure that I'll like using a teleprompter. It will definitely be more work. To date I have bullet points on paper just to get me started and to try to make sure I don't miss anything, but I generally run through an entire video just talking off the top of my head and I do miss things. That means sometimes I'll start recording realize I screwed something up and start over and then when I get a decent take, I realize that I missed a point or said something wrong as you've picked up on a few times, but I call it good enough

Ideally, taking time to script something to completion could save me time, make sure I have everything flushed out and allow me to get a video recorded in a single take making sure I covered everything. That could mean higher quality and possibly less time overall. Worst case, I look like I'm reading a script and it doesn't feel natural to someone watching.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I think the bigger question isn't why shoot the camera through glass, it's why bother with any of this?

It case it's not obvious, I'm experimenting and learning because it's interesting to me.

My audio quality was poor ( noisy, poor quality) Audio generally is more important than video quality for YouTube video. If the subject matter is interesting and the audio is clear, people will watch.

I learned NONE of my cameras have a decent audio preamp.
I tried boosting the signal to my camera so I could reduce in camera amplification, using noise reduction, and equalization, compression etc to make the audio sound better, etc.. I ended up with the Rode Wireless Pro which would have saved me a chunk of money if I had started there. It solved all my audio issues by recording 32bit audio that I could easily sync with the lower quality camera audio in post.

My audio is now noise free and natural sounding, short of my editing out any time I swallow, I'm happy with it.

My Videos were noisy and sometimes out of focus. I was running at higher ISO's because of poor lighting and I had no verification of my focus.

So I added lighting:
1. Replaced my dimmable media room lighting with bulbs that were less warm.
2. Added 2 and then 4 dimmable, color adjustable LED lights that I could match to the ceiling color temperature.
3. Starting playing with my soft box and umbrella.
4. Got a monitor to I could verify focus before recording a whole video out of focus.

Now I was well lit, in focus and my camera running at much lower ISO's making the video much cleaner.

Where I am shooting the lighting was distracting.

So I added a backdrop ( black, white, chromakey green )


Now that the audio and video quality are no longer distracting, the last remaining issue is how well I present whatever it is that I'm presenting. So I'm working on that. Plus I love designing and building things. So a DIY teleprompter is interesting to me. All in I'm at $70 out of pocket plus some PLA and maybe a bit of wood, so pretty cheap fun

All that said and knowing how I tend operate, another question is how long I continue making videos once I have this learning curve pretty well figured out.

I've already started and abandoned a number of videos simply because the effort in post production to make them was far too high for me. I also don't have a dedicated space for video creation, which means that I have to setup and tear down lighting, backdrop, cameras etc.. every time I decide to do something. Now add a teleprompter and the time to fully or mostly script a video and the fact that I'm only doing this because it's interesting and fun for me.

The bottom line is that as I increase my standards and effort required, I make the whole process more prohibitive. I won't bother to monetize my channel because the money generating potential is pitiful and the minute I look at the meager earnings I generated and my time to go into it, I would quit. Like many hobbies in my life, this is purely a passion project.

However, I like adding new tools to my toolbox and I find frequently that knowing how things work helps me gain insight into other things and that at least makes life more interesting and sometimes opens up opportunities.

 

[RCHeliguy]

There is an M6 bolt hole in the bottom of the support tray on both sides that I will bolt the bottom red supports to the tray with. The top yellow pieces will likely need more stabilization, but the idea is that I can use clips at the top to hold the black fabric over the lens to prevent reflections.

Fingers crossed

 

[RCHeliguy]

Obviously I need the top part in place to protect the glass, but I think this will work.
There is a front and back for this piece of glass, so I have some tape on the back in the bottom corner out of sight.

 

[RCHeliguy]

3D printed frame complete.

The top 3D printed parts stay with the glass and can be used to pull the glass out and put it back into the base. I can store it in the protective box it came in.

FYI, uncovered from this side is similar to through the glass uncovered.

Similarly covered the lens view is clear and this is sharp.

 

[Peter Winkler]

like the head-up display in my car
as always - amazing DIY stuff

 

[RCHeliguy]

like the head-up display in my car
as always - amazing DIY stuff

Now you are giving me more ideas.

 

[RCHeliguy]

And finally one that is readable

A couple more detail shots. M6 threaded insert matching up with the holes that came with the $25 laptop stand.