Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Studio-based photography could be an option for you. If so, strobe images
provide a series of images on a single frame, which can give you additional
information about a figure in motion, such as the distance between particular
points on a figure: elbows, knees, and shoulders. Compositing a number of
separate images onto a single frame using Photoshop provides another way
of achieving the same result.
Mobile Phones
Over recent years the inclusion of cameras in mobile phones has become the
norm. Use of these cameras has grown increasingly popular as the quality of
lenses and the images mobile phones can produce have also improved. The
resolution these cameras provide might not match the standard that the SLR
or even a compact digital camera can achieve, but many are capable of giving
more than acceptable results. They have fewer features, but their ease of use
and the fact that they are so very convenient make them very useful tools in
capturing, recording, and studying action. Most mobile phones also have the
capacity to record video, though the screen might not be large. As a result
some of the detail may be difficult to fully analyze, but they are still a powerful
tool for the animator.
As with any other camera, it is important to hold the mobile phone steady
while either taking photographs or recording video footage. Try to follow the
action by moving with a steady motion while keeping the image well in the
frame. Try not to be tempted to keep moving the camera in a random fashion
to focus on different elements of a moving subject; don't try to film a number
of different aspects of a moving subject in one go. This approach will just
create a sequence with very distracting camera movements and make analysis
very difficult at best, impossible at worst. The more camera movement within
a sequence, the more difficult it will be to get any useful information from the
resulting images.
Filming Action
Video footage of a moving subject obviously offers the animator an additional
element that photography, drawing, or even first-hand experience can
provide. As I have said elsewhere,
timing gives meaning to motion
and by
recording movement we are also getting a little closer to the meaning of the
motion. It is the inclusion of a timeline that gives an indication not only of
what happened but
when
these things happen within the course of an action.
Video Cameras
As with stills cameras, a wide range of video cameras is available to animators,
and not all of these cameras are prohibitively expensive.
The normal filming rate, recording and playback, for video is 25 frames per
second for PAL and 30 frames per second for NTSC. However, it is possible
to film footage at a higher film rate that when played back at normal speeds
