ok so background - been flying in acro mode for about three months after spending way too long on self-leveling modes. im using a 5inch freestyle quad with pretty aggressive rates and i can do basic stuff now, split-s, rolls, not dying constantly, you know. but whenever i try to do something that's supposed to look smooth for actual video it just looks terrible. like i'll attempt a simple pull-back reveal shot and the altitude is all over the place because im not managing throttle well through the pitch change.

i think the issue is my brain is still thinking about throttle as just up/down and not as a constant compensation thing that has to move with whatever the aircraft is doing. does that make sense? watched a bunch of videos on it but actually doing it is different. is this just reps and time or is there something specific i should be drilling

yeah you basically nailed the diagnosis. throttle in acro is a compensation input not a command input, it takes a while for that to click in your fingers without thinking. the thing that helped me most was doing really slow moves on purpose - like uncomfortably slow - because it forces you to hold the aircraft in a position with throttle rather than just punching through it. do a slow 180 flip and try to land at the same altitude you started. sounds dumb but doing that over and over teaches your hands what constant throttle adjustment feels like without the pressure of trying to make it look good

simulator time is the obvious answer but honestly i found it only helped so much for this specific problem. what actually worked for me was flying the same spot over and over - like i picked one tree in my backyard and just did orbits around it for two weeks straight. same tree same altitude same distance. when you constrain everything else you start to notice your throttle mistakes way more clearly than if you're flying around all over the place doing different stuff. also maybe look at your rates, really agressive rates make smooth throttle harder because small inputs become big movements. cinematic stuff usually wants lower rates than freestyle