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17-580: The Dykstraflex was the first digital motion control photography camera system, named after its primary developer John Dykstra . Numerous people actually created the camera, with the critical electronics being created by Alvah J. Miller and Jerry Jeffress . The camera was developed in 1976 specifically for complex special effects shots in Star Wars . Using old VistaVision cameras (for their high image resolution), created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954, and hand wire wrapped TTL chips,

34-436: A career as a successful commercials director. The simultaneous increase in power and affordability of computer-generated imagery in the 21st century, and the ability for CGI specialists to duplicate even hand-held camera motion (see Match moving ), initially made the use of motion control photography less common. However film producers and directors have come to realise the cost-saving benefit of using motion control to achieve

51-624: A greater complexity in the spaceship-battle sequences, as separately filmed elements (spaceships, backgrounds, etc.) could be better coordinated with one another with greatly reduced error. In the UK The Moving Picture Company had the first practical motion control rig. Designed and built in-house in 1981, it used the IMC operating system to control its various axes of movement. Peter Truckel, MPC's first in-house VFX supervisor, operated it for several years before leaving to pursue

68-493: Is a photographic and cinematographic process where a moveable slide, into which a slit has been cut, is inserted between the camera and the subject to be photographed. More generally, "slit-scan photography" refers to cameras that use a slit, which is particularly used in scanning cameras in panoramic photography . This has numerous applications . This article discusses the manual artistic technique. Originally used in static photography to achieve blurriness or deformity,

85-406: Is also commonly used when duplication of an element which cannot be physically duplicated is required; motion control is the primary method of featuring multiple instances of the same actor in a shot that involves camera movement. For this technique, the camera typically films exactly the same motion in exactly the same location while the actor performs different parts. A blank take (with no actor in

102-402: Is far more difficult to composite the shots when the duplicate elements cross paths, though digital technology has made this easier to achieve. Several basic camera tricks are sometimes utilized with this technique, such as having the hand of a body double enter a shot to interact with the actor while the duplicate's arm is to be off-screen. For the sake of compositing, the background elements of

119-481: The all-digitally controlled system allowed for 7 axes of motion: roll, pan, tilt, swing, boom, traverse, track, lens focus, motor drive, shutter control, and their duplication in multiple takes. Dykstra's development of this first digital motion control camera system earned himself, Al Miller, and Jerry Jeffress Academy Awards in 1978. This film technology article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Motion control photography The process

136-552: The effects in a reliable and realistic way. CGI still struggles to be 100% photorealistic, and the time and cost to achieve photo-realistic shots far exceeds the cost of shooting the live action itself. With the resurgence of 3D as a medium motion control has also an important role to play, especially in the production of 3D background plates on scaled-sets. Using high resolution still cameras, backgrounds can be easily shot for further use with live action and CGI character animation. Slit-scan The slit-scan photography technique

153-547: The film industry, but when a model is too small it often loses its illusion and becomes "obviously a model". Solving this by building a larger model introduces a dilemma: larger models are more difficult to build and often too fragile to move smoothly. The solution is to move the camera, rather than the model, and the advent of compact lightweight 35mm cameras has made machine-controlled motion control feasible. Motion-control also requires control over other photographic elements, such as frame rates, focus, and shutter speeds. By changing

170-673: The frame rates and the depth of field , models can seem to be much larger than they actually are, and the speed of the camera motion can be increased or decreased accordingly. Early attempts at motion control came about when John Whitney pioneered several motion techniques using old anti-aircraft analog computers ( Kerrison Predictor ) connected to servos to control the motion of lights and lit targets. His film Catalog (1961) and his brother James Whitney 's film Lapis (1966) were both achieved with John's pioneering motion control system. The 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey pioneered motion control in two respects. The film's model photography

187-447: The scene must remain identical between takes, requiring anything movable to be locked down; the blank reference take can aid in resolving any discrepancies between the other shots. Similar technology in modern film allows for a camera to record its exact motion during a shot so that the motion can be duplicated by a computer in the creation of computer generated elements for the same shot. Modelmaking for scenery has long been used in

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204-409: The shot) is sometimes also taken to give compositors a reference of what parts of the shot are different in each take. This, in common film-making language, is also known as shooting a "plate". In today's film, the reference take is also useful for digital manipulation of the shots, or for adding digital elements. A simple duplication shot confines each "copy" of an element to one part of the screen. It

221-480: The slit-scan technique was perfected for the creation of spectacular animations . It enables the cinematographer to create a psychedelic flow of colors. Though this type of effect is now often created through computer animation, slit-scan is a mechanical technique. John Whitney developed it for the opening credits of the Hitchcock film Vertigo . After he sent some test sequences on film to Stanley Kubrick ,

238-459: The technique was adapted by Douglas Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 for the "star gate" sequence, which required a custom-built machine. This type of effect was used in other films and television productions. Slit-scan was used by Bernard Lodge to create the Doctor Who title sequences for Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker used between December 1973 and January 1980. Slit-scan

255-488: Was also used in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) to create the "stretching" of the starship Enterprise -D when it engaged warp drive . Due to the expense and difficulty of this technique, the same three warp-entry shots, all created by Industrial Light and Magic for the series pilot, were reused throughout the series virtually every time the ship went into warp. Slit-scan photography

272-433: Was also used on Interstellar for scenes in the tesseract at the end of the movie. Slit-scan is an animation created image by image. Its principle is based upon the camera’s relative movement in relation to a light source , combined with a long exposure time. The process is as follows: Naturally, this effect is very time-consuming, and thus expensive, to create. A 10-second sequence at 24 frames per second requires

289-561: Was conducted with large mechanical rigs that enabled precise and repeatable camera and model motion. The film's finale was created with mechanically controlled slit-scan photography, which required precise camera motion control during the exposure of single frames. The first large-scale application of motion control was in Star Wars (1977), where a digitally controlled camera known as the Dykstraflex performed complex and repeatable motions around stationary spaceship models. This enabled

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