Objects At Rest

explorations in audio and moving imagery

Author: Grant

  • UPDATE PART 2 – Philips Webcam vs Zigview S2

    Breaking news! Nellybob has posted a complete solution on Stopmotionanimation.com for using the Philips with a DSLR camera. He has addressed the specific issues I had with the webcam and attaching it to the camera and it looks really good. The only issues that remain for me at this are specific PC config problems for the cam. I may be doing a second look at the Philips once I resolve my PC/USB issues. Thank you Nellybob!

    —-ORIGINAL POST FOLLOWS—-

    There have been some posts at the stopmotionanimation.com forum about the new Philips SPC900NC webcam. The specs looked good for use as a video assist so I got my hands on one and did some quick tests. Here are some side by side shots of the Philips and the Zigview (click on the pics for the full resolution version which shows the size and quality of what I’m seeing on my monitor in my screen cap software).

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    The shot is lit with incandescent bulbs, one 60 watt and one 20 watt fill with a desk light on the other side of the room. The Philips pics are darker (to me it looks more natural and similar to what I’m seeing through the Nikon viewfinder) but keep in mind that I did not adjust the image settings very much. I could boost the brightness and contrast on the Philips if needed. The Zigview, as far as I know, doesn’t offer these subtle controls outside of the on screen menus.

    I’ve had white colors blowing out the picture in the Zig when animating so the Philips would work better in those situations. To me they are both about the same quality…blurry…but the Philips costs hundreds less and with the option to go 30fps or greater the picture appears smoother. The Zig has noise in the image like a cloud of mosquitoes compared to the Philips. Also, I have to plug the Zigview up to the electrical outlet since the battery life isn’t long but the Philips is USB powered which means less cords and electricity.

    I used the digital zoom to get the Philips image to fill the screen but the Zigview is running at the default. Considering the zoom and the small size of the viewfinder the Philips is doing a pretty good job. I’ll need to test it some more.

    UPDATE

    I did some testing with the Philips in my animation workflow and ran into some problems.

    • The Philips knocked out my ability to run my external USB sound card
    • The USB capture from my Nikon and the Philips USB didn’t get along well — it slowed my system down to a stop
    • My screen grab software started becoming unresponsive
    • My Zigview runs without any problems and all other systems are unaffected by the Zigview.

    I suspect most of the problems are related more to my system than to the Philips but I’ll be sticking with the Zigview for the time being since I need to finish my animation instead of troubleshooting PC configurations.

  • Moh! Stop… and Check Out Monster Month Blogs

    It is fitting for the Halloween season to visit sites with illustrations of fantastic beasts. Monster Month and Monster Month South are two primary resources to check out.

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  • Death of a Matriarch

    Takuro Masuda, a filmmaker and stopmotion animator in Atlanta, has posted his animation “Death of a Matriarch” on YouTube. The film was made for the Center for Puppetry Arts XPT series.

  • Vitruvius: Quick Update

    I have all but finished the filming for Vitruvius except for some pick-up shots. There is one more sequence to shoot and then I’ll be taking a break during most of July and August before starting post-production.

    During the fall I’ll begin editing and working on post-production effects as well as revisiting the audio portions of the project (ie. music, sound effects, and dialogue).

    Here are some production stills from the past few weeks of filming.

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  • Damocles Screened at Roll Yer Own Festival

    ASIFA Atlanta’s Roll Yer Own Animation Festival, with entries from local animators, took place on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 8:00 PM. The venue was “the 5 Spot” at 1123 Euclid Ave in Little 5 Points.

    Thanks to Karl, Brett and everyone at ASIFA Atlanta for your work on the festival and for including my film “The Sword of Damocles” in the program. Also, thanks to everyone that attended the festival for your support of our local animation talent.