Adventures in DIY: Motion Control Rig

For the next stop motion short film I'm currently making for Canongate Books, I found that I needed to shoot accurate rotations of many small three dimensional objects. This seemed like a good application for the geared stepper motor and Stepper Bee controller board that I've had lying around since my long-abandoned DIY film scanning project.

I dug the bits out, rigged up a small stand to hold a bearing and (after a bit of fiddling about with O-rings) the stepper motor drives an 8mm threaded shaft that I can attach my objects to. The stepper motor already enables pretty fine control (it's rate at 1.8 degrees per step) but with the gearing still attached, it actually takes around 700 steps to perform a full rotation.

The AutoStep software that comes with the Stepper Bee card is pretty basic but allows me to set the number of steps and duration of each step.

It all works a treat, I can shoot the rotating objects in single steps (for stop motion shooting) or allow the motor to run continuously at a controlled speed (for live action shooting).

Technically this IS motion control, albeit a simplified single motor rotation-only motion control.
Here's the rig...

DIY Motion Control Rig: Stepper motor drives gears then an o-ring drives 8mm threaded shaft. Note the Stepper Bee card with DC power cable and USB cable to host PC.

Some Little Hands Clapping Models

Here's a little 'behind the scenes' look at some of the paper / card models I made for the 'Little Hands Clapping' film. The visual idea was to make all of the elements appear to be made from the text of the book itself. 

Little Hands Clapping

For the last 3 weeks, I've mostly been making this. It's a one minute short film which will be used by publisher Canongate Books to help promote the paperback release of 'Little Hands Clapping' the latest novel from author Dan Rhodes.
I'll possibly blog a little more information about how this was made shortly...

Home Studio

Here's a little glimpse into my home studio set-up for some small scale stop-motion animation work. I'm using the Canon 550d here with Stop Motion Pro; finally a good live view-capable system is in my grasp :) This shoot is lots of quite simple things, small models made from paper etc.
I bought a couple of laboratory-style retort stands yesterday. These have a certain nerd-appeal but are also damn handy as desktop stands, small and versatile and ideal for this mini stop-mo work.
Maybe I'll post a bit more about this work once it's done.

Stuttgart 10

Back in May 2010, I was invited to Germany by the organisers of the Stuttgart Animation Festival. TXT ISLAND showed there in the International Competition programme. I was in Stuttgart for three days; here's a little montage of touristy clips. I've only just got around to putting this together over the Christmas break.

I'd just discovered that Sam's little Panasonic Lumix FX150 camera could shoot HD video (1280x720 @24fps) at this point , so I was shooting everything in 'movie mode'.


Stuttgart 10 : shortfilm by chrisgavin from Chris Gavin on Vimeo.

La Nuova Sardegna (Again)

There also isn't much else happening on the island on the 19th of September 2010, So La Nuova Sardegna again run with the Chris Gavin story :) Thanks to Nicolò Ceccarelli
for sending the clipping.

La Nuova Sardegna (Again)

The 18th September 2010 is a slow news day in Sardinia, so La Nuova Sardegna runs with Chris Gavin's visit to the AniMatti summer school. Thanks to Nicolò Ceccarelli for sending the clipping.

And in La Nuova Sardegna ...

La Nuova Sardegna runs with the upcoming visit to the island by Chris Gavin ;) Thanks to Nicolò Ceccarelli
for sending the clipping.

Lanzarote Holiday Photos

Just back from a week's holiday with the family and here are a few snaps from the trip.  I recently bought a 'new' lens for my Canon 350d stills camera. Loving this retro Pentacon 50mm f1.8. It's got a proper aperture ring  and manual everything; makes it fun to take pictures again

Several places here have the feeling of Bond film locations; burrowed out from the volcanic rock, then kitted out with pools and palm trees. This is the lagoon at the Jameos del Agua, only the King of Spain gets to swim in there.

The cave lagoon at the Jameos, featuring rare albino crabs.

El Golfo on the West coast, now a string of fish restaurants where the lava once met the sea.

There are a lotta cacti on this island. This specimen is to be found in the garden of the Fundación César Manrique; it's as big as a tree. The gallery was once Manrique's house, it's a modern building with rooms below hewn from 'bubbles' in the solidified lava: it's very impressive.

I liked this wrecked cargo ship so much, I came twice to take photos. The first time, a pesky hound was not keen to have me mooching about on its patch.

Sunset over Costa Teguise, our home from home for the week.