I was not looking for a gimbal tutorial. One turned up anyway, the way shorts do, and I let it play because the footage was pleasant. Someone walking, DJI's Osmo Mobile 7P doing that floaty thing around them.
Then it cut to a white card and I sat up a bit.
The card had almost nothing on it. "Camera Movement" in a serif at the top. A red dashed line with a grey dot at each end. A black dashed line curving underneath, a dot labelled Start, a square labelled End. A tiny person, a tiny camera, and a small chip at the bottom that said Tilt Locked. It stayed up for maybe two seconds and then the next move started.
I scrubbed back and paused on it. Took a screenshot. Let it run to the next card and took another one. I think I watched the thing four or five times, and by the end I was skipping the footage and just waiting for the cards.
The short that started this: DJI’s 4 Gimbal Moves to Film People for the Osmo Mobile 7P. Watch for the white card after each move.
What got me was how much the card explained that the footage didn't. The footage tells you the shot looks good. The card tells you what the two people were doing. The red line is where the subject walked. The black line is where the camera walked. That's the whole move. Everything else, the lens turning to keep the person in frame, the background sliding behind them, falls out of those two lines.
DJI made four cards for that short. I wanted the rest.
Why videos don't teach this
If you search for gimbal moves you get a wall of the same video. Good-looking person, golden hour, slow motion, a caption that says ORBIT or PUSH IN, and music. You watch a few, you feel like you've learned something, and then you go out with your own gimbal and the footage comes back wobbling and rushed and you're not sure why.
I think it's because a camera move isn't really a picture. It's two paths and a rule about where the lens points while you walk them. If someone shows me the paths I can go and walk them. If they show me the finished shot I can only say that it's nice.
The other thing the card does is make the moves look related, which they are. Draw them all top-down and a push-in is your line pointing at their line. A pull-out is the same drawing with Start and End swapped. A side track is two parallel lines going the same way, and a counter pass is the same two lines going opposite ways. The DJI card I paused on, a shallow arc past someone walking, is just a side track where your line bends.
Once you notice that, the fancier moves stop being intimidating. The "hook" from DJI's Osmo Mobile 8P short is a push-in with a quarter of an orbit glued on the end. Orbit-and-rise is a half orbit plus a dimension the top-down view can't show, so the card gets a little arrow.
So I made the deck
Twenty-two moves, drawn the way DJI draws them, and animated so you can watch the camera walk its path while the lens swings to hold the subject. Three are the DJI cards redrawn from their own shorts. The other nineteen are moves I've seen in films or in tutorials and wanted in the same format so they'd sit next to each other.
I didn't draw them by hand. I described the card to Claude and we went back and forth for a while, mostly about lines overlapping and the little camera pointing the wrong way. The drawings are original but the layout is DJI's, and I've said so on every card.
Each card also has the things the videos leave out:
Which follow mode to put the gimbal in. Most of these want Tilt Locked. The ones with a tilt in them want Follow. Two want FPV and one lets the motor do the roll.
What actually makes the move work. It's nearly always about your feet and counting slowly, not about your hands.
The way it usually goes wrong. Too fast, or stopping before the move is finished. Those two account for most bad gimbal footage I've seen, including mine.
Where the move comes from. The orbit is not a TikTok invention. There's Goodfellas, Oldboy, Vertigo, Kubrick walking backwards down corridors, the hero-reveal in Telugu action films, the Hong Kong street chases. Knowing where a move came from tells you what it's for.
And one clip to watch per card, because sometimes you do want to see it done.
Reading a card
Red dashed line, grey dots
The subject’s walk, from one grey dot to the other. Every card has one; a short line means a few steps.
Black silhouette
The subject. It walks the red line as the card plays.
Black dashed line, dot and square
Your path. Filled dot is Start, filled square is End.
Camera glyph
You. It walks the black path and the lens turns to stay on the subject. Every card loops: hold, move, hold.
Small arrows or ring
Added for moves a top-down view cannot show: rising, zooming, rolling.
Osmo Mobile follow mode. Tilt Locked: pan follows, horizon and tilt stay fixed. Follow: pan and tilt both follow your hand. FPV: pan, tilt and roll all follow. SpinShot: motorised 360° roll on command.
Rules that apply to every card
Walk heel-to-toe, knees softYour legs are the real stabiliser. The gimbal removes hand shake, not the bounce of a normal stride. Bend the knees, roll the foot, take half-length steps. Heel-to-toe step tutorial.
Two hands, elbows inHold the handle in one hand and cup the base or the phone cradle with the other. Elbows against the ribs turn your torso into a tripod.
Move slower than feels rightNearly every amateur move is twice too fast. Count the move in seconds, four to six for most cards, and finish the path before you stop recording.
Lock exposure and focusTap-and-hold the subject in the camera app before the move. A brightness pump or a focus hunt mid-move reads as an error even when the path is perfect.
The moves22 of 22
Push-in
Approach
Walk straight toward a subject who drifts a step or two. The frame tightens without the lens changing.
Do this
Start wider than you want and walk for a slow five-count. Keep the subject on the same third of the frame the whole way; the pan-follow in Tilt Locked will drift if you let your wrist wander.
Watch for
Stopping short. Finish the walk past the point where the shot feels done; the cut will come earlier in the edit anyway.
Origin
Spielberg’s slow push onto a reacting face. Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong) uses a near-motionless version to hold on a character’s stillness.
Begin tight on a detail and walk backwards so the wider scene appears around the subject.
Do this
Have a second person walk behind you with a hand on your shoulder, or rehearse the path backwards first. Choose an end frame that has something new in it, not just more of the same.
Watch for
Looking down at your feet. The gimbal follows your body; a glance down tilts the shot in Follow mode and dips it even in Tilt Locked as you lean.
Origin
The standard end-of-scene move in Italian and Indian melodrama; Satyajit Ray closes several scenes this way.
Approach the subject from a 45-degree angle so the background slides past as you close in.
Do this
Aim your body at a point beyond the subject, not at the subject, and let the pan motor turn the phone toward them. The background parallax is what sells the move; a straight push has none.
Watch for
Crossing in front of the light. Coming in diagonally you often walk into your own key light and shadow the subject at the end.
Origin
Common in Korean drama (K-drama) confession scenes, where the camera arrives at a face from off-axis.
Subject walks; you walk beside them on a parallel line, keeping them in profile.
Do this
Match their pace by watching their shoulder, not their feet. Stay slightly ahead of them so their face leads the frame, and keep a metre of headroom in your walking line for obstacles.
Watch for
Drifting closer or further. A track that changes distance mid-shot looks accidental. Fix a landmark on the ground and walk parallel to it.
Origin
The Oldboy hallway fight (Park Chan-wook, Korea) is a single side-track; Wes Anderson’s flat lateral tracks are the comedic version.
Subject takes a few slow steps one way. You slide the other way with something in the foreground so it crosses the frame faster than the subject.
Do this
Put a pole, plant or doorway a metre from the lens. Keep the phone pointed at the subject throughout, which means your wrist rotates slowly against your walking direction.
Watch for
Letting the foreground object cover the face at the end. Time it so the object crosses in the first half of the move.
Origin
A music-video staple; David Fincher’s locked-tempo camera slides are the restrained version.
Subject walks one way, you walk the other, crossing paths so they sweep through frame.
Do this
Agree the crossing point in advance and both aim for it. The pan follows them through the cross; let it, and keep walking two steps beyond the cross before you stop.
Watch for
Both people slowing at the cross. The energy of the shot is the closing speed. Keep pace, even speed up.
Origin
Hong Kong street cinema in the 1990s used this constantly for crowd scenes; Christopher Doyle’s work with Wong Kar-wai is the reference.
Walk a 180-degree arc around a subject who takes a step, lens on them throughout. The background wheels behind.
Do this
Keep your radius fixed by holding the phone at the same arm extension and stepping sideways, toes pointed along the circle. Two to three metres of radius is the sweet spot on a phone lens.
Watch for
Orbiting a subject who is looking at the camera. Have them look at something in the scene, or the orbit becomes a selfie.
Origin
Michael Bay’s hero circle; Bollywood song sequences have used the orbit around a couple since the 1970s.
A complete circle. Start and end on the same spot so the shot can loop or hide a cut. The subject turns slowly on the spot.
Do this
Use Follow so you can add a slight tilt as you pass behind. Mark the start point with tape and count steps; a phone-lens orbit needs about 16 sidesteps at 2 m radius.
Watch for
Speeding up on the back half. People rush once the subject’s face is out of view. Keep the count.
Origin
The team-assembly circle in The Avengers (2012); used in Japanese idol videos as the closing shot.
The DJI card that started this. Subject walks a short line; you swing a shallow arc around them so they cross the frame while the background turns.
Do this
The arc is shallow, not a circle. Aim to end roughly where you would have been if you had walked straight, just curved. The subject should finish facing away from where they started.
Watch for
Arcing too tightly. If the subject fills the frame the background stops moving and the arc reads as a wobble.
Origin
Redrawn from the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P short “4 Gimbal Moves to Film People” (2025).
Walk behind a moving subject at a constant distance. The audience travels with them.
Do this
Frame them off-centre so the destination is visible past their shoulder. Match their stride exactly; if they stop, take one more half step then stop, so the frame settles rather than jolts.
Watch for
Filming the back of a head with nothing ahead. Only shoot this when the place they are walking into is worth seeing.
Origin
The Copacabana entrance in Goodfellas (1990), shot on the Steadicam Garrett Brown invented in 1975.
Walk backwards ahead of the subject as they walk toward you.
Do this
This is the hardest walk on the list. Have a spotter, or shoot along a wall you can brush with your free hand. Keep the subject slightly below centre so the ceiling or sky stays in the frame.
Watch for
Letting the subject catch up. Keep 2 m minimum or the phone lens distorts their face as they close in.
Origin
Kubrick’s reverse tracks in The Shining and Full Metal Jacket; the standard walk-and-talk of The West Wing.
Flip the gimbal to underslung and track at knee height beside a moving subject.
Do this
On Osmo Mobile, rotate the handle down into underslung and let the phone flip. Crouch and walk on bent legs; the low angle makes speed feel doubled, so move slower than for a normal track.
Watch for
Tilting the lens up at the subject. Keep the lens level; the point of low mode is the ground rushing by, not a heroic up-angle.
Origin
Terrence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki’s wandering low camera in The Tree of Life; Hong Kong action films for footwork.
Start low and step forward while rising, tilting down to keep the subject as they walk off, revealing the space behind them.
Do this
Start in a deep squat with the phone below the subject’s waist and stand up over a four-count. In Follow mode a slow wrist tilt keeps them in frame; do the tilt with the wrist, not the arm.
Watch for
Rising faster than you tilt. The subject slides out of the top of frame. Practise the tilt alone before adding the rise.
Origin
The crane rise that closes scenes in Gone with the Wind; the daily opener of Bollywood song numbers.
Take one slow step forward. Start on the sky or a ceiling, tilt down to land on the subject as they walk into place.
Do this
Push the joystick down gently rather than tilting your wrist, so the speed is constant. Land on the subject and hold for two full seconds; the hold is the shot.
Watch for
Landing high. If the tilt stops with the subject cut off at the knees the whole shot is wasted. Rehearse the end frame first.
Origin
The opening move of most Iranian new-wave films (Kiarostami) and of nearly every travel vlog since 2016.
Start in underslung mode close to the ground, glide forward and rise into a normal-height frame as the subject walks ahead.
Do this
FPV lets the small roll from standing up read as motion rather than error. Keep the forward glide going the whole time; the rise alone looks like an elevator.
Watch for
Pausing at the transition from crouch to stand. Keep the feet moving.
Origin
Borrowed from FPV drone freestyle, where the low pass and climb is the basic move.
Walk toward the subject while zooming out. The subject holds their size as they take a step toward you; the background warps.
Do this
On a phone, use the zoom slider between 2x and 1x, not a pinch. Set the phone to 2x, frame the subject, then walk in slowly while sliding to 1x so their size holds. A second person on the slider is easier.
Watch for
Using the ultrawide. Below 1x the phone switches lenses and the shot jumps.
Origin
Vertigo (1958), designed by Irmin Roberts for Hitchcock; the beach shot in Jaws; the Goodfellas diner.
Hold on the subject, whip the phone sideways as fast as you can while stepping across, and cut in the blur to a whip that lands on the next shot.
Do this
Whip in the same direction in both shots and at the same speed. Hold each frame still for two seconds before and after; the edit needs the handles. Shoot at 60 fps so the blur frames are usable.
Watch for
Whipping with the arm. Turn the whole torso from the hips; the arm alone makes a bent, wobbling path.
Origin
Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim) and Paul Thomas Anderson; Kung Fu Hustle for the comedy version.
Hold the subject centred and roll the phone a full 360 degrees while walking in as they walk toward you.
Do this
On Osmo Mobile 7P and 8, SpinShot does the roll by motor: hold the trigger and push the joystick sideways. Add a slow walk-in so the spin has direction. Cut out of the spin at the 180 point into a second spinning shot for a transition.
Watch for
Spinning with a horizon in frame. Sky-and-ground rolls read as a mistake; spin on a face, a ceiling or a texture.
Origin
FPV drone freestyle; Inception’s hallway fight rotated the set to get the same feeling.
Push straight toward the subject as they walk a few steps away, then curl around behind their shoulder to end looking where they look.
Do this
Push for three counts, hook for two. As you curl, keep the phone pointing at the subject and let the pan motor do the turn; the curl should end with you seeing what they see.
Watch for
Starting the hook too early. The push must be long enough to register before the curve begins.
Origin
Redrawn from the DJI Osmo Mobile 8P short “5 Essential Phone Gimbal Moves” (2026).
You barely move; the subject walks a short line across you. The tiny arc you add keeps them centred as they pass.
Do this
Take two sidesteps in the opposite direction to their walk. The gimbal pans to hold them and the background swings behind, which is what makes a plain walk-past feel designed.
Watch for
Standing perfectly still. With no camera movement the pan looks like a security camera.
Origin
Redrawn from the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P short “Seaside Vacay Vlog Easier Than Ever” (2025).
A half orbit that starts low and finishes at eye level as the subject turns to face the new direction, the hero shot.
Do this
Begin in a crouch on one side, orbit and stand up together, one motion over six counts. Follow mode lets you tilt down gently as you rise so the subject stays put in frame.
Watch for
Finishing the rise before the orbit. Both must end on the same step.
Origin
The standard reveal of a lead character in Telugu and Tamil action cinema (India); Zack Snyder’s hero introductions.
Cards are original drawings that follow the DJI Osmo Mobile tutorial layout: white ground, serif labels, red dashed subject path with grey end dots, black dashed camera path from a Start dot to an End square, camera glyph, mode chip. Mode names are DJI Osmo Mobile 7/8 terms and map to Pan Follow, Pan-Tilt Follow and FPV on other gimbals. Technique notes are standard gimbal-operating practice. The “Origin” lines are film-history pointers from general knowledge, not checked against the films; treat them as things to watch, not citations. Watch links were found by YouTube search on 5 September 2026 and each title and channel was confirmed against YouTube’s oEmbed endpoint. Three are the exact DJI shorts the cards are redrawn from; the rest are the closest tutorial or film clip for that move. The atlas also exists as a single full-width HTML page.
What I do differently now
Before I press record I draw the two lines. Sometimes on the back of my hand, sometimes just in the air. Where does the person go, where do I go, and what does the phone have to do to keep them in frame while both of those happen. If I can't draw it, I don't have a shot yet, I have a vibe.
The four rules above the cards turned out to matter more than any single card. Heel to toe. Elbows in. Slower than feels right. Lock exposure before you start. A good path walked with a bouncy stride is ruined footage, and a boring path walked smoothly is something you can use.
I doubt DJI thought of that white card as the lesson. It reads like a summary slide someone added between moves. But it's the one frame in the video that told me what to do.