Dolly/Glider effect in timelapse.... how to?

M

Mavrey

Member
At 0:40 there a very interesting shot. It's some kind of a dolly shot in a timelapse... I can't figure out how they did that,
I mean, gliding my camera over 10 minutes while keeping a consistent speed seems impossible to me.

Thanks

 
I'm not exactly sure, but i wonder if they shot it in it's entire width, then used the editing software to pan across the shot in post. That's what i might have done, but maybe these folks have fancier equipment than me, lol. Maybe there's an automated dolly that can move very slow.
 
Chad, I thaugt about this, but the perspective changes while they are moving, wich you can't achieve when you pan in post.
 
JT_Productions said:
Possibly this:
http://www.dynamicperception.com/
Click to expand...

That's a good link, I had never seen it before.

The way time-lapse shots that have movement are done (almost seamlessly) is to rig a step motor to a slider. The motor itself moves by using a series of 4 (or more) magnets to move in slow and almost-perfect increments. This is the same system Tom Low from Timescapes uses. :) http://www.timescapes.org/ ...Good luck!

Edit: I fixed a sentence that sounded confusing to me after I wrote it.
 
You could do this by babysitting the camera during the capture, and changing position. Motion controlled dolly would be 'easier'... I've also seen examples where zoom changes appear during the processing. Don't know
if those are done in camera with some sort of motor control the lens to mechanize the zoom, or done via After Effects, or equv. and digitally 'zooming' the sequence.

But I think these days, thinking about the motion control device would be interesting.

Motion control dollying was used on "Back to the Future II"(1989), where several sequences required masking off of previously 'shot' areas, where Michael J. Fox was playing several roles, and for each role,
and placement at say, the kitchen table there appears to be the same camera motion, even though Fox is in different make up and costume.

The effect was made possible by having the camera motion controlled, so that it was exactly repeatable, and making sure nothing on the set changed, other than Fox, from one take to the other, by glueing
things that didn't move down. Then in the printing of the composites making sure everthing was masked off and 'blended'.

This could now be done easily enough in After Effects...
 
it doesnt seem like it would be that hard to mark off your dolly and move it incrementally between shots. same with your zoom ring
 
zaarc said:
it doesnt seem like it would be that hard to mark off your dolly and move it incrementally between shots. same with your zoom ring
Click to expand...

I'd also suggest a iPad filled with movies to occupy yourself with during the capture period... but then you could be so involved in the movie, that you'd forget to make the next step adjustment...
 
It would be accomplished with stepper motors and a motion control program. I've seen these scratch-built from inexpensive tracking telescope parts too. But it's much easier to just get a Kessler package if you're not an electronics engineer!
 
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