Stop Motion Capture of small format films 8mm and super 8
General Background.
Stop morton capture is a specialised technique used by animators and film makers alike. The technique applied to cartoons and animated movies involves exposing one frame at a time and either changing an image or frame cell with a subtle movement or moving a model made from plasticine or clay just a tiny little bit and then exposing a new frame to cover each subtle movement, there will be approximately 24 frames captured for each second of projected movie. This means a heck of a lot of drawings and clay modelling adjustments that could involve millions of movements and adjustments to provide a smooth motion picture or animation where you cannot see these individual subtle additions.
This method can also be used as a highly refined method of film transfer for home movies such as domestic small format 8mm and super 8, small format film making that has undergone a small renaissance and a cult following in Australia and it may surprise some readers to know that Kodak Ektachrome 64 is still manufactured and reasonably readily available in the super 8 format thus ensuring that the hobby is far from dead.
Stop motion capture for home movie films is undertaken by specialist film transfer outfits in various locations by suitably skilled and experienced operators and highly trained staff such as Avid TechDVD, while there are only a few genuine frame by frame providers in Australia it should be noted that only very few are able to offer genuine true frame by frame stop motion capture film services, there are various pieces of equipment available and at various levels of complexity or simplicity and levels of financial investment that determine the final outcome of stop motion capture frame by frame film transfer.
How it works
Projected (film chain) transfers which require film to be in continuous motion and are basically a re shoot method of a projected image by whatever means are available, this could be as bad as a projected image being videotaped from a wall, a sheet of white paper, or a light transfer box (teleope), the video camera itself can be anything, often a very old cheap video 8 or Hi8 camera or if you are lucky a VHS camera. Whichever foregoing equipment options are used the method is what is known as a re shoot and is generally considered barely satisfactory, having said that there are some equipment combinations that involve high end equipment and digital video cameras that can produce a fair to reasonable results. The problem with projected transfers is what annoys everybody and makes for very bad viewing which is "flicker"
In some cases this can be quite distressing to watch and can also cause nausea or trigger epileptic fits. The other visual defect is what is known as strobe effect where the image appears to change brightness in a rhythmic way.
Projected transfers are essentially inexpensive to set up and do not require high-end computer system, thanks to lower costs of projected transfers and resultant low quality.
Frame by frame stop motion capture telecine.
There are several types of frame by frame stop motion capture equipment levels, from the most basic which relies on individual frames being projected onto a mirror and transmitted by a convex lends to a video camera which is mounted approximately meter away from the transfer machine.
A typical example of this equipment is the movie movie stuff work printer XP, the only fault we see with this is that essentially it becomes a re shoot and is not a true frame frame by frame stop motion capture scanning machine.
The next level of equipment such as the movie stuff DV8 sniper departs from all the previous listed equipment due to the fact that film is scanned directly from the film surface from the emulsion side of the film which provides the best clarity and definition (unlike other systems where the scanning head or camera is located behind the film) since the scanning head is located immediately in front of the film surface, the scanning head is not your typical video camera that you are quite readily familiar with and in the strictest sense and cannot be compared to a video camera as it does not have any of the features of a video camera such as adjustable lens, focusing ability or iris control of the light system. The scanning head is similar to that used in scientific and medical microscopic or industrial inspection equipment. Separate control systems look after exposure and the scanning head does not operate the same way as a video camera, in advanced models such as the DV8 sniper pro there is a complete and separate exposure control box which can be set to automatic or manual is will override ability.
The equipment in use at Avid Tech DVD is the DV8 sniper and the DV8 sniper pro, the latter unit has just been modified to the very latest 2007 highest end quality modifications and productivity enhancements currently available.
The process of frame by frame stop motion capture goes a little bit like this, film is transported one frame at a time by means of a cam wheel actuated film advance pin, there are no sprocket or gears involved in the film transport mechanism, film is handled under light tension which cannot tear even fragile film. Naturally there is a light source that is controllable, this lighting system is now an LED panel array carefully balanced to the correct white light wavelength, this system replaces the our dated 40 watt lamp that produced some issues due to electrical variations that could only be minimised with a UPS power supply due to the frequency of AC power at 50hz there could be unwanted effects on the light, this is totally negated with the new LED system which is unaffected by electrical variance, altogether a neat solution to a vexing problem.
As each frame is advanced a cam wheel trips a micro switch that instructs the computer to capture a complete single frame of film and save it as an image file and this continues throughout the process of a roll of film resulting in thousands of still images of each single frame of film. These days this system of frame triggering is replaced with an audio pulse generator affording precision and speed of capture is increased for greater productivity and rigid accuracy, to date Avid TechDVD has the only Frame by Frame machine with audio pulse generated stop motion capture.
From single frame to perfect motion video
Frame Compile - Video Output next steps.
The next process is computerised and requires some heavy duty high-powered equipment to perform successfully and absolutely accurately where the individual frames are compiled into a single video file for later editing and DVD authoring or transfer to videotape for archival storage. The compile process can create video vision at any nominated playback speed from 7.9.12.15.16.18.20.24 frames per second so if a film was originally exposed at a non standard 18/24 fps this method is the only way to play back at a normal viewing speed that looks natural, this is something projector based transfers can not do.
We have deliberately simplified the description of the process as it would take many pages to explain the technicalities, however endpoint form:
Each frame of film has a corresponding video frame which when assembled into a video results in smooth playable and easy to watch video.
There are no sprocket or gears that could possibly damage the film.
The LED light source is safe and cannot bleach films.There is no heat from LED
Quality high-end computers results in error-free transfers and conversion to video file for DVD authoring of the highest order.
I hope this segment has provided you with enough information to decide for yourself that FXF is the best affordable Frame By Frame Super 8 to DVD transfer.
