BlueSpill

When I was twelve, the cover story of CineMagic #23 teased me with photos of an extraordinary mechanical animation rig synchronized to an Apple IIe home computer. Tron was already in theaters, and I had healthy interests in computers AND animation. But, poring over the article’s black & white reproductions, I struggled to imagine the two technologies merged.

I immediately recognized the clip when BoingBoing linked to Jim Leatham’s recent YouTube post. It looks better than I imagined – colorful, energetic, and considerably more sophisticated than I expected from an Apple II. Jim also posted scans of the original CineMagic article on Flickr.

The setup to film the computer animation is a remarkable DIY marriage of an 8-bit microcomputer and 16mm stop-motion animation. These photos, scanned from my well-read copy, illustrate the mechanical genius of Jim’s rig. It consists of a 16mm Bolex camera, an electric motor, photodetectors, a 45 rpm single, a 33 1/3 rpm LP, and an external black & white computer monitor. It’s set up in a closet eliminate ambient light; the board games are a nice touch.

An Apple IIe can’t display graphics fast enough to make a movie — such power came only recently to PCs. As Jim Leatham relates in the video’s voiceover, each frame, stored on floppy disks, took about 2 minutes to render on screen. Jim’s computer synchronized the camera, color wheel, and monitor to photograph each individual frame, and the rich color palette was expanded by multiple exposures. The result is a vibrant and fluid abstract animation.

1. Bolex 16mm camera
2. Electric motor, connected with a chain drive to the camera’s shutter mechanism and a 45rpm record. The computer sends a signal to the motor, which opens the shutter and rotates the 45rpm record.
3. Stickers attached to the 45rpm record act as sensors for a photocell. The stickers are oriented so that, when a sticker is detected, a signal is sent to the computer that the shutter is closed. The computer stops the motor.
4. 33 1/3 LP. Holes cut in the LP are covered with color filters. A motor, controlled by the computer, rotates the LP until the correct color filter is in front of the lens. Stickers along the edge of the LP, like the 45, are used by a photosensor to detect when the filter is in position and sends a signal to the computer to stop the motor.
5. A 9″ white-phosphor monochrome monitor displays the animation frame to be photographed. Multiple exposures are made for frames with more than one color. The entire setup is synchronized and computer controlled.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Jim Leatham, computer animation, experimental, stop motion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.