DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

These guys built a giant DIY “pixelstick” and mounted it to a drone to light paint in the air

Dec 18, 2018 by John Aldred 1 Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

I’ve been following Ivan Miranda’s channel on YouTube now for a few months. It’s not a photography or video channel, though. It’s about 3D printing. As the year has gone on, I’ve been getting more into 3D printing myself, and Ivan shows off some fantastic projects that he creates on his channel. So it’s been a great one to follow.

Occasionally, though, he does a collaboration with somebody that takes things in a slightly different direction. This time around he’s working with fellow YouTuber Tom Stanton, to mount a huge strip of LED lights to a drone. This resulted in Ivan making what is essentially a 3 metre long DIY PixelStick (a really long stick covered in addressable LEDs).

As it’s a collaboration there are, naturally, two videos. One from Ivan and one from Tom. Ivan’s video goes over the construction of his 3-metre strip of LED lights. This is then programmed using software Ivan wrote to light up in sequence to reveal an image as the stick is moved across the frame of a long exposure shot.

If you want to see the image that this particular sequence makes, you’ll have to watch Ivan’s video!

Ivan based the software off some he’d written for a sand drawing robot earlier in the year (which is also a really cool project you should check out). It essentially takes an image, figures out how that should be expressed in a sequence of columns of pixels and, in this case, tells the stick which LEDs to light up, when, and in what colour. As the stick moves across the frame in a long exposure, the final image is made.

For Tom, the goal is to go a little further. Or, higher, to be more precise. He wants to make this thing fly. So he wants to put the LED stick on a drone for some light painting in the air. Ivan’s stick is a little long and heavy for a drone. Anybody who follows Ivan’s channel knows he doesn’t make anything small. So, Tom made his own version using Ivan’s software.

Instead of being 3D printed, Tom went with a light wooden frame. It’s a little shorter, too, coming in at 2 metres long. Despite the reduced length and weight, though, you can see in the video that a 2-metre stick strapped to a drone still causes it to wobble a little, but once it’s in the air and moving in a straight line, it moves very smoothly.

I love Tom’s sense of humour with the images he used. I might’ve actually laughed out loud a little when Marty McFly and Doc Brown came up on the screen with the DeLorean.

For two people who say they’re definitely not photographers, the results from both Ivan and Tom are pretty fantastic. So I hope they both stick with this and work their respective devices some more.

If you’ve never seen Ivan or Tom’s channels before, but you’re interested in 3D printing, making things fly and other engineering challenges, then you really should check them both out.

Images used with permission.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

This guy coordinated five drones to light paint a giant footballer in the night sky How I made my own DIY “Pixelstick” for $22 Light painting tools war: PixelStick Vs Magilight Light-paint the rainbow with these awesome DIY light tubes

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Ivan Miranda, LED Light, light painting, PixelStick, Tom Stanton

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« These portraits are entirely AI-generated, these people are not real
This website automatically removes background from your photos in a few seconds »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • Sony unveils three wireless microphones for content creators
  • This is why you should stop shooting music videos
  • First look at the Laowa Proteus Flex interchangeable flare optics
  • The Fotodiox RhinoCam Vertex shoots medium format images on L mount cameras
  • San Francisco filmmaker tracks stolen camera gear, police do nothing

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy