Thursday, March 28, 2013

Before Modern Graphics


Stop motion is a well known form of animation that is used today in many shorts and feature films.  The process involves taking still images of characters and moving them slightly between shots to give the illusion of movement.  There is a draw back however, since the image is taken while the object s still there is no motion blur, and things look unrealistic.   That had to be over come for the technique to be used in a very well known and technically advanced film, Star Wars.  They wanted to film the TaunTauns, but wanted them to have motion blur.  So a new technique was invented by Phil Tippett and ILM, Go Motion.  This involves hooking the puppets up to computer driven rods that will move the puppet as the picture is taken creating the motion blur necessary for a realistic shot.  The technique is incredibly complicated, difficult and is not really used now since adding motion blur in post is much easier.  Older technology like this is incredibly interesting and makes one appreciate how easy effects today truly are.  

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