I haven't posted about the video lately, which in most cases usually means I haven't been doing much.  And in some ways, there has been a lot going on outside of the video.  May was filled with visitors--both expected and unexpected, as well as with travel.  I found it difficult to block out decent chunks of time to sit down with the equipment and get into any sort of groove.  But the time has not been entirely unproductive.

The first thing I did will probably not seem terribly impressive, but it actually was a pretty challenging step.  I needed to work out the exact rigging that I would be using.  See, you're probably thinking "Well, don't you just hook up a camera and take some photos?"  And in a simplified way, yes--that is all that I'm doing.  But one of the challenges of stop motion animation is that you need a setup that is sturdy enough to stay put over the course of a long shoot.  You do not want to get half way through a shot and realize that the camera has moved.  (Pay close attention...there may be a quiz on this later)   I had one small tripod that I hoped I could use, but it didn't allow me to get far enough away from the light box to shoot anything.  Dean had a medium sized tripod that he was willing to lend me, but when I tried to shoot with it, I kept getting the legs of the tripod in the shot, as you can see below:

I spent a couple of hours one weekend trying different ways of laying out the tripod, only to realize I needed something inbetween the two tripods that I currently had.  I quickly begged Dean for some additional technical assistance, and he was eventually able to figure out a solution.  We actually removed the center post of the larger tripod, and put it back on upside down.  I don't know if you can clearly see, but the camera mount is actually between all the legs, which allows us to get over the light box without the legs being in the picture.  Woohoo!

Unfortunately, we also discovered another technical issue.  If you recall, the last time I did this, I was on professional grade camera stands which had regular movie lights as the lighting source.  (Note:  If I had better recall, I could tell you if they were Fresnel lights, or whatever.  Needless to say, my mind just recalls them as "Big ass movie lights" right now)

Now, if you have not had the "pleasure" of studying lighting theory, there's a few types of standard light sources.  You have your sunlight, your "tungsten" lighting, and florescent lights.  Each has a different "color" which can affect what you shoot--I don't know who took this photo or why we saved it with it being so blurry, but you can clearly see here the warm yellow indoor light vs. the cooler outdoor light.

Now, you may also recall having seen a florescent light flickering as it reaches it's last legs.  Florescent bulbs actually always have a cycle, although it becomes more noticable as the bulb nears the end of it's life.  Normally the flicker is subtle enough that you don't pick up on it unless you are trying to pay attention to it.  Or...as I soon found out...unless you are aiming a camera right in to a florescent bulb.  Here are two shots, taken with the exact same exposure settings.  As you can see, the second is much darker than the first.

I did a lot of research trying to determine if there was a method I could use to obtain even exposures.  It appears as though there is no solution other than taking 3-4 photos of each image.  I'm not sure right now how distracting the variations in exposure will be, so I will hold off shooting extra shots until I've actually animated a shot or two, and can decide if I need to adjust for it or not.

Speaking of which, after I ran this test, I decided to do some animating.   I set up a scene that I was considering using as a beginning image.  I planned on using some color in the background sky to show that the sun was coming up.  As an aside, the image is actually shot larger than what the final image will be--it will actually be framed much tighter on the window.

Well, remember when I commented about cameras moving during the shot?  In this case, I had some paper on the lightbox to protect it from the coffee grounds.  I didn't tape down the paper b/c I thought it wouldn't move.  Well, that was pretty much the karmic kiss of death.  Of course the paper moved subtlely and not so subtlely during the shoot.  I have been ripping my hair out, trying unsuccessfully to line the shots up.  Even though the crossbars never move, I'm finding it near impossible to adjust frames to get all of the images lined up precisely.  Sigh.  Luckily this was a relatively short shot, so it isn't exactly the "kiss of death" if I have to reshoot it. 

So, as you can see, there is *some* forward motion to report on.  :)