Phone-gimbal camera moves · drawn the DJI way

Gimbal Move Atlas

Twenty-two camera moves, each drawn as an animated top-down card in the style DJI uses in its Osmo Mobile tutorials, with the follow mode to select, the technique that makes it work, the mistake that ruins it, and where the move comes from in world cinema.

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.
The original
The card layout is redrawn from DJI’s Osmo Mobile 7P short 4 Gimbal Moves to Film People.
Mode chip
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 moves

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 references drawn from general knowledge and were not verified against the films in this session; treat them as pointers 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, not DJI cards.