A method of performing a hand-held camera motion with a real camera and translating the performance into stop-motion animation

Technology Overview: 

The animation process:

1. A camera person moves the camera (or a camera like object) with his/her/its body freely in space ­or with any of the pre­existing rigs for maneuvering a camera. This could be in a performance space or directly on the set of a stop­-motion animation.
2. The rotation and position of the camera is captured through pre­existing motion capture or camera extraction technologies.
3. The motion­ capture measurements are then scaled and manipulated virtually in Cartesian space to match the scale of a physical 3D set. If there is no scale shift ­then this step only involves registration of the recorded movement with the robotic movement in the following step.
4. A motion control rig moves a camera around a stop-motion set, in small frame­-by­-frame increments,­ allowing an animator to execute a stop­-motion animation in front of a camera that seems to be held and manipulated by a human.

Inventor: 

Joshua Mosley, Professor and Chair of the Department of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

Advantages:   

• Camera movement is limited in stop-motion animation because motion control systems are limited in the design of the human control interfaces.
• Existing methods require a premeditated concept for camera movement, and do not rely on the expressive qualities human gesture and performance.
• The method of performing a hand-held camera motion gesture for a stop-motion performance allows the cinematographer to perform as an expressive and responsive character in the resulting film.
• This method allows direct control of camera movement and results in a more expressive performance of the camera than existing methods of using human control interfaces.

Stage of Development: 

Demonstrated in Jeu de Paume 

Intellectual Property: 

  U.S. Patent Application No. 14/617,771 filed 2/9/2015

Reference Media: 

• Jeu de Paume - Stop-motion animation film - click here to view
• joshuamosley.com

Recognition: 

• 2014 Whitney Biennial
• 61st International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany

Docket # 14-6851