Motion Control, aka MOCO, is a process that allows stop motion animators to create smooth camera movements which are nearly impossible by hand. These camera moves can be on a variety of different axises to create pans, slides, tilts, zooms, ect. DragonFrame has a moco feature built in, so all I had to do was acquire an arduino micro controller and various mechanical parts to build my rig.
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| The rig sitting on a desk, nearly 3 feet long. |
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| The rig uses a stepper motor and timing belt for movement. |
As you can see from the photos, my rig very simple at the moment, only one axis of movement. That maybe all I need for right now, but I have allowed some wiggle room for expanding its capabilities in the future. The Arduino Uno allows to control up to 4 motors, and other models can control even more. Oh and did I mention it actually works?
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| The Arduino and other electronics are contained in this case. |
Here in an initial test of my rig though DragonFrame.
Even though I didn't use a puppet, each frame was shot one by one with my computer controlling the camera movement.You can see my shadow move about in the frame, but still I am very satisfied with the result!
The next test shots I will make will involve armatures or puppets. I will be sure to post those videos as well.
