Monday, 18. July 2011
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
Comments
Jessica Koppe wrote on Tuesday, 19. July 2011 at 07:15:
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.
Simon Clarke wrote on Tuesday, 19. July 2011 at 11:16:
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!
Jessica Koppe wrote on Tuesday, 19. July 2011 at 22:16:
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!
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Shelley Noble wrote on Tuesday, 19. July 2011 at 03:35:
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 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.