zeksam

Osilv, what knowledge you have on such a specific and unusual subject. How is that? Are you or were you personally involved in computer animation. There are not that many of us out there, so it would be incredible if you were. Maybe that is why our galleries have a similar look at times.
The way you describe how the animation table is moving during a shoot really brings me back to when I was young and crazy. Working in a room with no windows, painted black and enduring long strenuous hours in a room with a huge computer, animation table and the artist. We also did all the work for the Ken Burns documentaries. All the photo animation was done in house. I love watching how the photograghs come to life with a pan or a zoom in or out. I am rambling again.

Qsilv

er... this is soooo NOT boring! lol... what fascinating people TD entices here... !

Within the prestigious ACM Siggraph circles, John Whitney (Senior) is recognized as "the father of computer graphics".

He was building Motion Control systems for film animation back in the 50's and 60's, using WWII tank-mounted gun turret mechanisms as his base.

By the 70's he had the darned thing so big and complicated that it was almost a superhuman effort to keep track of the possible combinations. Layers of support tables and cameras rotated independently, but the timing was completely controlled.

"During this nine-second cycle the tables are spinning on their own axes while simultaneously revolving around another axis while moving horizontally across the range of the camera, which may itself be turning or zooming up and down. During this operation we can have the shutter open all the time, or just at the end for a second or two, or at the beginning, or for half of the time if we want to do slit-scanning."

...fun?! yessssssss!

marg

Sorry.. I said that wrong - I just found out about the work being done - there was actually a really great young Canadian guy, who was master-minding the work (and continuing his predecessors' efforts !)

zeksam

Yes, Steenbeck were being used by many people who worked within the production process. The name is so familiar, but can't remember specifically who used it. Fun hearing the word Steenbeck, haven't heard it in over 20 or 25 years. Interesting about the specifics of perserving a film. Work like that is priceless, and many people will have you to thank in the future. We take so much for granted, preservation of art being one of them.

marg

No way..!

I mentioned Steenbecks because the broadcasting company I was working with was trying to preserve the enormous & brilliant film collection it has - which included transferring film to a digital medium and preserving the original.

The prep for digitisation includes using a Steenbeck to synch the picture and sound in many instances - some people might not know that they were often recorded separately.

Where the 'owning' company is a responsible agency, the original film is still being repaired / cleaned / preserved and archived for future generations.

So - thanks again .. our playing with 'animation' on Think Draw has a lot to thank you guys for !