Add movement to your timelape movies

[pvdbig]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to add a little extra to my timelapse movies.
Because often it's viewed from a static viewpoint I thought it would
be nice to let the camera pan around during the filming.

I modified (in my case broken) mechanical clock timer for lamps (or
other electrical equipment).
You know, these devices wich you put in the wallsocket and then you
put in the cable from your lamp.
It should be a mechanical one because the electronic versions don't
have moving parts, in this case I'm using the rotating disk which
spins around once every 24 hours.
I attached a special bolt for camera's on the top on which I screw the
webcam, if your webcam doesn't have a nut in the bottom you should try
something else to attach it firmly on top of the timer.
It's an easy way to make a steady moving camera-pan, drawback is that
it's always rotating from left to right and it will take 24 hours to
spin around once, you need an AC powersupply.

It's very nice though to watch the sun pass by during the day, see al
shadows move around while following the sun.
To let it rotate the other way you can turn it upside down and later
turn upright all images or edit the movie to be straight up again.

I just thought of something else to use, a rotating egg-boiling timer
(again mechanical), it rotates faster and it doesn't need a
powersupply and it lets you hear when it's finished rotating!
If someone hase some other suggestions for moving around the camera in
an easy way please let me (us) know.


Be sure not to forget to switch off the timer of your webcam cable
will become tangled up after a few days of spinning around!!!


Patrick van den Biggelaar

[nimisis]

Thanks Patrick. There's an earlier post that might interest you on
this subject at http://groups.google.com/group/webcam-flix/browse_thread/thread/7c5e2ce16084809a

[Seriago]

Interesting ideas and info. 2 things it be great to have a visual of
the clock you are talking about (its setup etc) and see some of your
creations. :]
I do like the egg timer, plain and simple... cheep too!

Thanks!