Drone Stock Footage: 15 Top UAV Shots for Your Video Project

It wasn't that long ago that aerial footage required renting a helicopter and camera crew, and that meant spending big to get a top-down video view.

Now, UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones) are relatively inexpensive and produce high-quality video. You'd be hard-pressed to find a modern video with no drone footage. This footage is creating never-before-seen angles of scenes we're all now familiar with. The clip below is the perfect example of the type drone footage that can provide exposition for a production:

Even though drones are more widely used than ever, you won't always have the travel and equipment budget to produce the footage yourself. Luckily, you can source drone footage from talented cinematographer-pilots of Envato Elements. Let's learn more in this round-up.

How to Source Unlimited Drone Stock Footage

If video production is a part of your everyday work, you might need to source stock footage from time to time. And if you're buying stock footage regularly, you know how expensive it can be to purchase clip after clip.

That's where Envato Elements comes into play. Instead of paying for each and every clip, a single subscription will unlock a huge library of stock footage, including top-notch UAV clips you can use for flyover effects.

Envato Elements Unlimited Assets — A single subscription to Envato Elements unlocks more than a million assets, including stock footage, video templates, graphics, and much more.

Even though Elements is a subscription-based model, the licensing is simple: as long as you enter a license use while subscribing, you retain rights to use the footage in the project even if you decide to cancel. In addition to stock footage, Elements is the perfect service for video producers thanks to the templates that you can use in popular video editing apps. Those templates can serve as the starting point for your next production. Mix and match templates with stock footage to create a polished video rapidly.

Here are a few round-ups where you'll see the best of Elements across top video apps:

15 Top UAV Shots (Drone Stock Footage)

The Envato Elements library is deep, so it helps to have a curated list of the top footage. The selections below are 15 of my favorite drone stock footage clips that you can use on your next project.

Let's check them out, and make sure that you play the preview! Then, click the item title to jump to Elements and download the clip for yourself.

1. Shanghai Skyline in the Morning

Take your viewer across China's largest city as the sun comes up with this clip.

2. Old Town With Classic Buildings

Set by the sea, this flyover footage combines the best of both worlds: historic architecture and a beautiful blue ocean view.

3. Modern Highrise Block of Flats

Fly past this modern highrise in a snowy scene with this 4k drone footage.

4. Town with Amazing Nature

This beautiful, lush footage set in Kiev brings together the beauty of nature and urban living, all from a drone's perspective.

5. Hong Kong Skyline and Victoria Harbour

This moody, dark shot really puts the viewer in the midst of the nightlife of Hong Kong and finishes over the beautiful Victoria Harbour.

6. Berlengas Island (Portugal)

Set in Portugal, this gorgeous cliffside shot features a light house at the summit, making it fit for many productions with a nautical feel.

7. Green Fields and Farms

This 4k footage of a field is almost mesmerizing and is flexible enough to be used in many productions that have an outdoor feel.

8. Aerial View of Plantation

This mountainside view of a plantation shows the beautiful arrangement of modern agriculture, with neatly arranged rows of trees and bushes. Use it to set the stage in a countryside, outdoor video.

9. Industrial Plant Aerial View

This 1080p footage features a flyover view of a countryside manufacturing area, including the active exhaust columns.

10. Winter Pine Forest and Snow Path

Winter is coming! And you can set the scene using this beautiful, top-down view of the a snowy forest and trail.

11. Winter Alps Valley Panorama

Here's the perfect follow-up to the prior clip, featuring a more mountainous flyby view of the Alps, set in Austria.

12. Wind Power Drone Footage

This beautiful clip puts you so close to the wind turbine that you can practically feel like the breeze!

13. Highway Drone Footage

Making a video about transport or infrastructure? This highway drone footage might be the perfect fit.

14. Clear Blue Sea and Villas

This footage from Crete has all the makings of spurring an impulse vacation, thanks to the crystal clear sea and beautiful villas.

15. Agricultural Field

Rounding out our selections, here's another great video that focuses on acgriculture and wildlife from an aerial view.

Pay-As-You-Go Drone Footage on Envato Market

Know exactly the drone footage you're looking for? Envato Market might be the more frugal choice for your next project. Instead of paying for an all-you-can-download subscription to Elements, Market allows you to pay for individual clips (with unlimited use for all future projects).

Envato Market Drone Footage — Pay for individual drone footage clips from Envato Market that you can use on all future projects.

More UAV Footage Resources

The drone footage trend is here to stay. Inexpensive, high-quality UAV's are producing angles and perspectives that haven't existed in the past. Want to learn more about the art of using drones for video? Check out our resources below.