Month: March 2013

A base in three dimensions

Even though the full episode of SB:I will only be in 3d if you consider Einsteinian theory, we do have some conventionally 3d treats for you today.  If you have your computer connected to a fancy TV or a Nintendo 3DS laying in a charging cradle somewhere, click the link below each of the following pictures to bask in the full muti-dimensionality of SpaceBase: Infinity.  If you’re stuck on a 3d incapable iPad or some other such unfortunate device, try not to get a headache from these gifs!

Download Winona here.

Download King here.

Download the sandwich here.

If you are motivated to purchase a screen that can show you these inspiring 3d photographs, follow this link.  Or this one.  Or even this one might work, maybe.

As for real progress, fear not, we didn’t spend all of our time fiddling with stereo photo maker.  We should be able to complete shooting scene 3 the next time we meet.  We’ve captured over 1000 frames so far, for those keeping track.

-Mike

Black Velvet live recording…

A photo of Black Velvet totally not at Sully's Pub

In order to properly gear up for the release of Reserved, the posthumous album release from Black Velvet, I dug up some recordings of the final show at Sully’s Pub in Hartford.  It’s incomplete and poorly recorded, but we did get some guy to move his truck.  I think.  Enjoy!

Black Velvet – Aeroplane Live

Download the show here.

-Mike

And now we get the cookies

The following are the things I don’t like about SpaceBase:

  • The euxygen scrubber parts on the bed moving around too much
  • Aurora Borealis in the background by accident
  • Not enough clay to fix Winona’s developing claw hand

The following are the things I love about SpaceBase:

  • The cookies
SpaceBake: InfiniCookies

More spectacular progress was made today as frames 380 through 695 were thoroughly dominated.  We’re also planning to do some creative reusing of a few of the angles we’ve shot so far.  In a few weeks, we should know whether or not we have ingeniously saved hours of work or confused the shot sequence so severely that only hours of additional work can sort out the wreckage.  Exciting!

-Mike

And now we get the cookies

The following are the things I don’t like about SpaceBase:

  • The euxygen scrubber parts on the bed moving around too much
  • Aurora Borealis in the background by accident
  • Not enough clay to fix Winona’s developing claw hand

The following are the things I love about SpaceBase:

  • The cookies
SpaceBake: InfiniCookies

More spectacular progress was made today as frames 380 through 695 were thoroughly dominated.  We’re also planning to do some creative reusing of a few of the angles we’ve shot so far.  In a few weeks, we should know whether or not we have ingeniously saved hours of work or confused the shot sequence so severely that only hours of additional work can sort out the wreckage.  Exciting!

-Mike

Learning about photography

After nearly a year of filming test shots and with one scene already in the can, we figured it was time to learn how to use a camera.

Aperture, ISO, and shutter speed tests

From what we can figure out, besides focal distance and zoom, there are three settings that affect the look of a shot: aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.  Shutter speed was intuitive.  The longer the shutter stays open, the more light is allowed to pass through to the lens.  This results in a brighter and clearer picture, but also encourages the ghastly appearance of the phantom hand.  Slowing the shutter speed past five or six seconds will diminish the depth of field effect coveted by semi-pro photographers and super-amateur stop motion animators (such as ourselves).

Maximum Shutter Speed Length (enlarge for detail)

Aperture determines the amount that the shutter opens.  An aperture setting of 5.6 opens the shutter twice as wide as a setting of 8, which is twice as wide as 11, and so on.  The amount the shutter opens determines how much light hits the lens.

Maximum Aperture (enlarge for detail)

According to photo.net, ISO is apparently a swarm of bees gobbling up the light passing through the shutter.  Steve likened changing the ISO to adjusting the number of photo-receptors available to take in light.  An ISO setting of 100 has half as many receptors as a setting of 200.  Increasing the ISO creates a brighter picture with a smaller aperture and faster shutter speed, but at the expense of adding graininess and noise.

Maximum ISO (enlarge for detail)

And with that, we’re over 300 frames into our next scene.  It’s nice to once again measure our progress in frames.  Looks like the entire scene will end up having between 1700 and 1800 of them.

-Mike