DIY: Skater

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tbanucci said:
PushCam looks pretty cool. Definitely a lot less expensive. I like the fact that the Skater is lower to the ground and it can rotate on axis. The PushCam is basically a skateboard with a fluid head bolted in the middle.

Leigh- You can type rollerblade wheel into Google and find many sites, like this one:

Wheels

Ted
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Hi Ted,

Thanks

Regards
Leigh
 
Big Deal?

Big Deal?

Remember in the SkaterMini video the clips of the woman sliding across the floor in her socks? That was a straight tracking shot which did not involve any turning. I think that effect alone would be worth a few hundred bucks to the right person.

This is one of the coolest accessories I have seen. I even mentioned the price on here a couple of months ago as being absurd and joked about a "Guerilla" or "Micro35" version if it weren't for the patents protecting the design. I may consider building one for my own use at some point.. We'll see.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?p=202263&highlight=skater#post202263
 
this is a pretty damn easy diy. mount a roller blade wheel inside of a bearing. make the bearing lock w/ a tightenable nut. attach em to anything, and for the pivot, theres tons of mounts u could use depending on what you have laying around.. come on, that 6K **** is retartedly ridiculous. This is so easy to make. U could even make ur own markings for the wheels certain angles the same way they did. its so simple. damn. i am gonna definately have to build one of these.
 
Do it, and you will be my hero. But if you fail all of us will ridicule you forever!!! MUHAHAHAHA!
 
DEATHTOPRINT said:
this is a pretty damn easy diy. mount a roller blade wheel inside of a bearing. make the bearing lock w/ a tightenable nut. attach em to anything, and for the pivot, theres tons of mounts u could use depending on what you have laying around.. come on, that 6K **** is retartedly ridiculous. This is so easy to make. U could even make ur own markings for the wheels certain angles the same way they did. its so simple. damn. i am gonna definately have to build one of these.
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Hey you're 1/3 of the way home right there!
 
Built my pushcam copy tonight and plan to build a skater copy that will do curves later this week.

DLY1.jpg

DLY2.jpg
 
I planned a shot for my next film that follows two people walking down both sides of a bar. I put a screw though to mount my tripod head. The test shots looked great. Cost me about 3 bucks, including the used skateboard. It doesn't turn, but that ain't worth an extra 6K.
 
dolby said:
Built my pushcam copy tonight and plan to build a skater copy that will do curves later this week.

DLY1.jpg

DLY2.jpg
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Nice work :happy:

Will it work on glass? Will rubber wheel better on glass? I found skater wheel slip on glass.

Regards
Leigh
 
The wheels I have are 82A but I have not tried it on glass. So far only concrete, wood and formica, which all rolled VERY smoothly.

The wheels I bought are from K-mart and were 9.99 for 2 100mm razor skooter wheels including bearings. They're much larger than the inline skate wheels I have seen online.

I should have a new model that does what the P+S does but need to get some more wheels first.


dolby
 
Hey Dolby,

Please forgive me if I'm stating the obvious. Now all you have to do is cut your home made pushcam in half and put a pivot point in the middle. The "articulated pushcam" will then do everything the Skater Mini can do at thousand of dollars less!
 
I think that the key to the whole DIY skater is figuring out how to get the wheels to rotate and lock into position at an accurate angle. I'm still a little baffeled about that part of the design. Everything else seems straight forward ...
 
Dolby it looks good. On most of the video, they are using a smooth piece of board that is levelled to do those shots. The tracking shot of the car moving down the street is one example, so I think basically you can use any in-line skate wheels as long as you bring a smooth surface, level it and practice your move. The guy with the gun inbetween the cars is another example. This is just an idea: how about creating a goove surface on the outside of the bearing. The wheel is permanently bolted to the bearing. Whenever you want to change the angle of the wheel, then you would pull up the bearing out of its groove and rotate to the next groove. Theoretically, it should work. But I agree that 6 grand is a lot to pay when I can get skate wheels for less that $10 bucks.
 
the trailer is killer, makes you want one of these things badly...
but 6k is insane.
definitely a potential DIY...

t
 
Here's my crackpot theory of why a curved dolly shot can look better. :laugh:

1) The transformation of perspective in the scene is more complex and can be more interesting. When you have near and far elements in the shot, it gives a more complex parallax shift as the camera moves.

2) The more complex parallax shift is better at revealing the three-dimensionality of a scene, thus better approximating a human's binocular vision. Parallax is an important element that contributes to depth perception.

3) The complexity of the move better approximates a person's view moving through a scene. How often do you walk and look in exactly straight lines?

Leigh Wanstead said:
Can anyone tell me why curve move of the video camera looks so nice compare to the straight line movement of the camera?

TIA
Leigh
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