Stop Motion on a Budget
Shooting The Pit and the Pendulum with a Mac Mini computer & a Nikon D70s DSLR camera
by Marc Lougee
We shot the short stop motion animated film, The Pit and the Pendulum using Nikon D70s DSLRs Apple mac Mini computers, and a low cost frame capture software program called Frame Thief (available for Mac). The basic system consisted of the Mac Mini computers, 15″ flat screen monitors, Canopus analog / digital video cards and Nikon D70s Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras .This set up also enabled us to shoot at close to 2k resolution, for theatrical screening. Below is a list of the basic system.
Hardware:
Apple Mac Mini computer (1.42 GHz)
Dell 15″ flat Screen monitor, Canopus ADVC110 digital video converter, Nikon D70s DSLR camera with 18-70 zoom lens, Miniature B&W Security camera (www.cloverelectronics.com).
Frame Thief video capture software www.framethief.com
Shooting with DSLR’s did not allow us to have a constant live video feed, so we hung a miniature video camera directly behind the viewfinder glass, to act as a “video tape.” The mini camera connected to a Canopus ADVC110 digital video converter, then to the Mac Mini. This provided a b & w, live preview of the set. The mini camera supplied a constant image feed thru the D70s lens to the computer. With Frame Thief, we captured the high-res images while viewing the scene thru the mini tap camera, switching quickly between live & captured frames; the switcher effect allowed the animator to preview the incremental position adjustments on-set against the previously stored frame.
The lens will need to be adjusted on the camera body, to dis-engage the automatic shutter control. This requires a slight twist of the lens while mounted. Starting in the normal, locked position, slowly disengage the lens lock, rotating the lens counter clockwise about 2mm, or until the lens aperture arm is completely disengaged from the camera body. This will make the lens operate manually, canceling the aperture control. In 6 weeks of shooting with two cameras we had not damage to the camera with this adjustment.
Occasionally, flicker is apparent in the final assembled sequence. To avoid this, the D70s needs to be reset for full manual. Inherently, the camera will adjust it’s exposure settings for each individual frame, as would be expected were we shooting stills. However, in creating a film sequence, the small differences in exposure, adjusted in the camera as objects move around the set, creates a flickering effect in the image sequence. To avoid this, be sure to switch every setting from Auto to Manual. There are several levels in the menu, so be sure to check all of these. To remove flickering in post, we used The Foundry’s Tinderbox plugin, DeFlicker. Easy to use, and effective.
For a more in depth discussion on using DLRs for animation photography, check out www.stopmotion.com. There is a lot of info there, shared by many users of this basic system, their experiences, and individual tweaks.
Watch the teaser for the Pit and the Pendulum - for a hi-res version click here
Marc Lougee is a Director / Creative Producer to see his credits visit imdb. For more info on The Pit and The Pendulum visit the blog and visit the site.
