FIELD GUIDE · SINGLE-FAMILY HOME · GAUSSIAN SPLAT CAPTURE

Three Orbits,
Eight Cascades

Circle the house three times, top to bottom for the setting, then climb its faces eight times for the close-up detail. Orbits sell the neighborhood; cascades build the house.

3 ORBITS 8 CASCADES 360° COVERAGE GROUND → TOP ORBIT
The three numbered orbit rings and eight vertical cascade columns around a wireframe house, drawn to scale from the flown mission

The standard mission, to scale — every pyramid is a camera position. Three orbits step down the ladder, each tighter than the last; eight cascades climb the faces and corners of the house from a few feet up to just below the low orbit.

THE THREE ORBITS
200FT The community Sky in the top third; house on the bottom-third line 200–300 ft out
−18 to −24° 100FT The neighborhood Same composition, ~100 ft closer — the immediate streets fill the frame 100–200 ft out
−15 to −21° 50FT The house In tight, just outside the roofline — sliver of sky, house in the bottom half cascade diameter
−22 to −28° ×8 The cascades Four faces + four corners — rise from ~3 ft up to just below the low orbit ~30 ft off the house
+10 → −35°

Fly the ladder top-down — 200, 100, 50 ft — then work the cascades around the house in one lap. Shoot on a steady interval through every movement; pause the camera while you reposition. Set the POI on the high orbit and keep it: the gimbal holds the composition for you all the way down. The reference photos on this page come from a taller version of the ladder flown over a large site — the frame checks are exactly the same.

GIMBAL ANGLES — WHY THEY CHANGE

The gimbal does two jobs: framing the story and feeding the splat. The model needs the house and its ground seen from many different angles — shallow on the high orbits, steep down low, and a continuous sweep on every cascade. Set the angle by the frame, not the number.

200 FT · −18 TO −24°Shallow. Sky fills the top of the frame, the house rides the bottom-third line while the community does the talking.
100 FT · −15 TO −21°Same composition as the high orbit — keep the POI and the gimbal follows on its own. Sky holds at the top, the nearby streets fill the middle.
50 FT · −22 TO −28°Close and modest — a sliver of sky stays at the top, the house sits in the bottom half with the roof and the sides in view.
CASCADES · +10 → −35°A sweep, not a setting. Start looking up at the roofline, finish looking down at it — ease the tilt through the whole climb to keep the house centered.
Set the angle by eye, not by the number. Tilt until the frame check reads true; the ranges are where it usually lands.
CAMERA — SET ONCE, THEN FLY
SHUTTERShutter priority · 1/1000
EXPOSUREEV −0.7 (0.0 on overcast days) · ISO auto
FOCUSAFC — continuous autofocus
FILE4:3 · JPEG only · landscape only
LENSWide lens only — no zoom, leave dewarp alone
ON CASCADESSpot-meter the brightest part of the house so it doesn't blow out
Timing. Orbit speed 50% — drop to ~25% on the low orbit. Matrice shoots on a 0.7-second interval; on a Mavic, press the shutter every ~2 seconds, as soon as it's ready again. Stop the camera between movements, never mid-circle.
ORBIT 1 OF 3

200 FTThe community

DISTANCE OUT200–300 ft GIMBAL−18 to −24°
Drone frame from the high orbit — thin band of sky, whole community in view
FRAME CHECKSky in the top third; the house sits on the bottom-third line
WHAT IT CAPTURESThe extended community — tree lines, hills, main roads

The context layer. Fly the widest, highest circle of the mission and let the setting do the talking — the subject house stays small while the neighborhood, terrain and skyline anchor the model's edges.

ORBIT 2 OF 3

100 FTThe neighborhood

DISTANCE OUT100–200 ft GIMBAL−15 to −21°
Drone frame from the mid orbit — immediate streets fill the frame
FRAME CHECKSame as the high orbit — sky at the top, house on the bottom-third line
WHAT IT CAPTURESThe immediate streets, neighbors and amenities

One step down the ladder and about a hundred feet closer, with the same composition — keep the POI from the high orbit and the gimbal follows on its own. The house grows in frame while the sky band holds; this orbit places the home on its street and feeds the mid-distance detail between house and horizon.

ORBIT 3 OF 3

50 FTThe house

DISTANCE OUTjust outside the roofline GIMBAL−22 to −28°
Drone frame from the low orbit — the house large and centered, no sky
FRAME CHECKSliver of sky; the house in the bottom half — roof AND sides both visible
WHAT IT CAPTURESRoof planes, walls, yard — every side of the house

In tight, just outside the roofline, at the same diameter as the cascades — stand where a cascade will be and the orbit passes right above your head. Roof and sides in every frame; this circle is the bridge between the big orbits above and the cascades below.

CASCADES · 8 CLIMBS

×8The house, face by face

STAND-OFF~30 ft from the face CLIMB~3 ft → just below the low orbit GIMBAL+10 → −35° sweep
Cascade start: near the ground, camera level, whole house in frame
START · NEAR THE GROUND · WHOLE HOUSE IN FRAME
Cascade top: at the low-orbit height, looking steeply down at the roof
TOP · AT THE LOW ORBIT · LOOKING DOWN THE ROOF
Start low, whole house in frameStart a few feet off the ground, about 30 ft out from the face. Tilt the camera up toward the roofline so the house fills 70–80% of the frame, centered, with a little space either side.
Climb straight up, slow and steadyRise vertically while easing the gimbal downward so the house stays centered the whole way. No sideways drift — the cascade is a vertical column of viewpoints.
Top out just below the low orbit, then slide overStop just below the low-orbit height (~50 ft), now looking down the roof. Pause the camera, move to the next face or corner, and repeat — eight times around the house.

The eight climbs, evenly spaced — one at each face, one at each corner, about every 45° — worked around the house in a single lap.

WHY CASCADESOrbits see the house from above; cascades see it the way people do — walls, windows, porch — and tie the ground floor into the model
SPACINGFour faces + four corners ≈ every 45° around the house. Equal spacing matters more than exact spots

The cascades are what make the house itself solid. Each climb sweeps a face from a person's eye level to drone height, and together the eight columns wrap the home in viewpoints from every side and every elevation — the orbits above tie them all into the neighborhood.