Light + Slitscan 002

Upon my first attempt, I got rid of 2 filters in front of the LED light to see if I could capture much visible light movements.  

Light + Slitscan 001

This experiment was my first attempt to merge slitscan and light painting techniques.

In that sense, I followed the same procedure as my previous Mr. Roboto experiment, yet, this time with  a LED light box (with a blue filter)  on a black shiny form board.  

>Clip. 1  Original

>Clip. 2  Center slitscan, traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 3  Center slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 4  Cadence  slitscan, traveling left to right (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 5  Cadence  slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 6  Cadence slitscan , traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

Consequently, I was not able to capture much of its light motion, probably because of the LED light inside was rather invisible, due to the fact that the 2 filters (a transparent blue and half-transparent milky white) were set in front of it. 

Slitscan Test 004: Phosphorescent 1st attempt

Yuri Endo 2012

For this  experiment, I attempted to video capture a Munny doll with Phosphorescent coating to create new slit scan material. Given the fact that  phosphorescent materials store light and release it slowly, I was hoping to capture a series of unique images combining this glow-in-the-dark effect and slit scan technique. 

According to a source, phosphorescent objects are recommended to be photographed/filmed just after being charged with a UV light source and have to be captured as fast as possible since phosphorescent pigments loose 75% of their brightness within 30 seconds of removing the charging light. 

As I did not own a UV light source, I used a LED module with 4 chips to light up the Munny, turn it off and quickly rotate the Munny on the fan 360°. As you seen in the first image above, when it was photographed in a quick manner, I was able to capture rather strong phosphorescent effect, however, when I video recorded it (the second image is a frame excerpt after applying the slit scan effect), it lost its glow in about 10 seconds and posed a serious complication as a slit-scan material.

Through this trail,  I came to realize that the phosphorescent materials might not be suitable for slitscan, however, I will further seek for better outcomes using this particular material.

Reference: Glow in the Dark Photography

Slit Scan Test 003: Video

For this experiment, I filmed the Mr. Roboto slowly rotating 360°on a fan and applied 5 different scanning options to the original footage. Surprisingly, the fan made stable rotation come true and  I was able to achieve less wavy images than my first experiment.

>Clip. 1  Original

>Clip. 2  Center slitscan, traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 3  Center slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 4  Cadence  slitscan, traveling left to right (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 5  Cadence  slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)

>Clip. 6  Cadence slitscan , traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

My next step is to produce creative motion pictures using the similar method and also try out  the Processing program for interactive slit-scanning.

Slitscan Test 003

Yuri Endo 2012

Extracts from my third experiment;

>img. 1  Mr. Roboto and the fan used 

>img. 2  Original
>img. 3  Center slitscan, traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)
>img. 4  Center slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)
>img. 5  Cadence  slitscan, traveling left to right (2-pixel each frame)
>img. 6  Cadence  slitscan, traveling right to left  (2-pixel each frame)
>img. 7  Cadence slitscan , traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

Slitscan Test 002

Yuri Endo 2012

Above images are the extracts from my second experiments;

>>EXPERIMENT ONE

>img. 1  Center slitscan, traveling up to down (2-pixel each frame)

>img. 2  Center slitscan, traveling right to left (2-pixel each frame)

>img. 3  Original image used for img. 1-2

>>EXPERIMENT TWO

>img. 4  Center slitscan, traveling down to up (2-pixel each frame)

>img. 5  Center slitscan, traveling left to right (2-pixel each frame)

>img. 6  Original image used for img. 4-5

Slitscan Test 001: Video

I filmed the wooden artist's model slowly rotating 360°on a tripod then import the movie into After Effects for post-processing as I noted on my previous post. Following Mr.Visnic's precise instruction, I scaled down my full HD 1080p footage to 720p, in order to reduce render time.

This  1280X720 composition is consist of  360 layers each with a 2 pixel hight mask. The top of each frame is 15 second earlier than the bottom of each frame. As seen in the video, the time and motion in is represented in the image vertically. Alas, I couldn't achieve the clean effect this time due to the fact that I failed to rotate the tripod smoothly. Additionally, I also tried to process the same video using 720 layers with a 1 pixel high mask which did succeed in creating greater distortion as observed in 3 images from my previous post, however, due to the layer amount and rendering time, my computer refused to finish up the entire footage.  

Slitscan Test 001

Yuri Endo 2012

For this first slitscan experiment, I initially decided to create slitscan images without relying on automated process that are available, such as an After Effects plugin (Time Displacement), ImageMagik, Slit-scan Movie Maker and Slit-scan Camera for Iphone. During my first trial, I took 360 pictures of a wooden artist's model rotating 360° on a tripod, then load all the images to Photoshop as one document so I could select a 1pixel high low with Single Row Marquee Tool, mask it, create a mask for the next image down then offset the mask vertically by 1 pixel, which means, in order for me to complete one image, I had to apply the same process to each 360 photo. It goes without saying, I gave up on it by the time I reached around its 30th image.

In short, many other trials and errors after, thanks to Mr.  Charlie Visnic, I finally succeeded in processing my first slitscan images with After Effects (without using the plugin). Although it does not necessarily mean that I managed to take the high way by my own, it definitely helped me understanding the mechanism of slitscan.

Above images are the extracts from two different experiments I tried out following Mr. Visnic's instructions;

>img. 1-2  The Wooden Artist's model and tripod used
>img. 3-11 Center slitscan, traveling right to left (2-pixel each frame)
>img. 12-34 Candence slitscan, traveling up to down (2-pixel each frame)
>img.  35-37 Candence slitscan, traveling up to down (1-pixel each frame) 

Reference: Slit Scan Object Photography, The B-Roll

The Basics of Slitscan Technique

http://www.lensculture.com
Artist-photographer Adam Magyar  in front of his slitscan photograph installation 

The slit-scan photography technique is a photographic and cinematographic process based upon the camera's relative movement in relation to a light source.  By combining camera's long exposure time and a moveable slide with a slit-shaped aperture set directly in front of the camera, a certain part of the subject seen through the slit is being exposed at one time and the camera captures it as a single photograph.  As the slit travels across the camera, the step is repeated for each frame and produces a consecutive light trail from the first to the last frame of the image. In other words, the entire process captures an image revealing the trail of subject's time-based movements in deformed fashion.  

This technique was traditionally used in static photography with standard film photography camera and was perfected for the creation of spectacular animation and became widely used for motion pictures. In today's digital realm, a chain of image slices are extracted from a sequence of video frames, and combined into an image sequence.

It goes probably without even mentioning, one of the most prominent adaptations of this technique can be seen in the "Stargate" sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey which was created by Yoda of modern special effects,  Douglas Trumbull .

Reference: Underview on 2001: Slitscan, 2001 A Space Odyssey: Unwrapping the Slit Scan sequences, Slit Scan and Strip Photography Overview,  Adam Magyar’s Slit-Scan Camera