Following on from my prototype scanner camera (a pinhole camera made from a flatbed scanner – see previous post), I have been working on further experiments, in order to record movement. The recording device remains the same (a flatbed scanner), but multiple pinhole camera ‘cells’ are scanned in quick succession (as one image).
The resulting image is then cut up and layered in Photoshop by way of a Photoshop Action, and then animated in After Effects.
My hope was that the resulting mini-animations would appear to liken those retro hologram rulers, that you rtated to see at different angles, creating the illusion of movement. Here is an example of what I mean, thanks to a youtube user:
My first tests were done at close range; cells were scanned in a single scan, the a Photoshop action used to cut them up and layer them, and After Effects to fade them from one to the other. Due to the close focal length used, the cells do not really overlap, but rather they show a different portion of the subject. For my next test, I hope to use a much longer focal range, so that each cell predominantly overlaps the others in terms of the subject being recorded.
Tags: camera, pinhole camera, retro, scanner, scanner animator
