Canadian high-tech toy designer Zenon Dragan, has loaded his Web site with digital videos captured by his Draganflyer skybot and edited in Final Cut Pro and iMovie.
The Draganflyer III is a radio-controlled helicopter that has a micro video camera that will record a bird’s eye view of your yard, the park or whatever you wish. The miniature whirlybird weighs just 17 ounces and has a high-tech stabilization system so even the most ham-fisted of armchair pilots can pitch, roll, yaw and change altitude with ease, according to an Apple Hot News article.
“All of our products are radio-controlled flying machines for a niche market,” Dragan told Apple. “To prove to customers that these products really fly, we needed to present video on our Web site. We all use Macs, so we started making videos with iMovie and posting them on our website. Our sales went through the roof.”
He has no experience in videography, but simply started making movies with iMovie, which he says he learned “in about an hour and a half.” Now he finds it easy to make a couple of movies a day for the Web site.
Dragan and his team use Power Macs with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to design decals and print materials, and to create the Web site. He also started using Final Cut Pro to create promotional videos that can be mailed to customers. As for the skybot — the Draganflyer III can be used indoors or out, up to a mile away, to take aerial views of real estate, promote products at trade shows, or just for fun
“I can go to your house with my toy helicopter, the Canon GL1, my PowerBook and my portable DVD burner,” he told Apple. “I fly around your house, inside and out, get some really cool camera shots, then dump the video into my PowerBook using FireWire. I edit the video in iMovie, throw in some music tracks, burn it onto DVD, and, presto, you have a bird’s eye video of your home.”
While it sounds like nothing but fun, NASA and police SWAT teams have bought the Draganflyer for more serious applications. Plus, Dragan told Apple that he’s sold the miniature flying machine to “every single technical university in North America.”