I am loco, for MOCO

Staying in during a long, unpleasant winter had its upsides too. I was able to put in some major research time on something that has interested me ever since I discovered the upgrades for DragonFrame 3. That something is Motion Control. 

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.

The rig sitting on a desk, nearly 3 feet long.

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?

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.