On Panning, Again
It’s the last weeks before the summer holidays, and there are so many things that want to be finished this week. I have less time to work on my Orpheus film, and this annoys me pretty much. I really want to start the animation now, but I suppose this have to wait another week.
Plus: my equipment has worked fine over the last few months, but when I wanted to use it today, nothing worked. Grr.
Nevermind.
After last week’s shaky panning attempt I started another approach to build a panning slide, this time with less gaffer tape and less cable straps, too. Robert Lyons (I met him at vimeo.com) recommended to get
[…] some drawer slide at a hardware store, sandwich them between two pieces of wood and mount the camera to the upper board. Ive used this method as a cheap but smooth and incrementable camera mover for stop motion,
he said.
And this was a damn good suggestion.
My new slider looks like this:
I screwed the drawer slide onto a rectangular block of wood, and attached another board on top. I created a small support on the board to fasten the top of a tripod on it (to hold the camera in place). The drawer slide creates a smooth movement and I don’t need much force to move it just a bit.
– Awesome!
This is how it works:
And here I tried another test sliding animation:
It looks so much better now, and is much easier to handle.
Success!
– Have a successful week yourself, and thank you so much for sharing your ideas!
All the best,
Jessica
I thought the first one looked good! You did a great job building this one too.
Did you ever see the slider that Dick Kaneshiro designed for stop mo using extruded aluminium pieces? I think if the camera gets tied down perfectly solidly the results would be like a high end dolly. My [tests](http://notesfromhalfland.blogspot.com/search?q=smoo) were a little wobbly.
The one Dick made for me and the Raschs cost about $100 all together but I bet the drawer slider, with a similar result cost even less.
Hey Shelley, thank you! The results of the new slider are slightly better, but it’s sooo much easier to handle!
I envy you the Manfrotto head, this is a thing I’d love to buy next (though probably not for this production). The materials for my slider cost about 35 € (approx. 50 $) which is *pretty* okay, I think.
And I still have another drawer slide left, since they always sell them as pairs.
Your slider has some advantages compared to mine: it has a Manfrotto head (sic!), and you can customize its length. Mine is as long as the drawer slide, in this case I can pan across a length of 50 cm.
Hi Jess
I love your tracking setup. Interestingly, I thought the early, shaky version could work well if you are tracking Charon on the water – it looks as if the camera is on a boat itself – and moving with the water. But maybe the Styx doesn’t have any wave motion!
I love thinking about solving animation problems like this. It makes me want to get back to the studio!
Simon, it’s an interesting idea to use the shaky slide animation as some kind of style, though I feel more comfortable with the smooth one…
What should I say? Get back to the studio, dear! – Oh, sweet Britol nostalgia!