2005.07.05
After seeing Josh's movies and making a few of my own, I am totally hooked on this stop-motion animation stuff. I decided that if I am gonna become a world-renowned lego animator, then I better improve my studio a bit. I bought a new Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 camera and a couple of cheap desk lamps from target (one with a fancy clip-thingy for a base). The Logitech camera seems to be the camera of choice for a lot of folks on brickfilms.com, and I see why. The quaility of the picture is great, and it has built in zoom and pan functionality. (It has a built-in microphone as well, but that will have to wait for another day).
Anyway, this second study was supposed to be focusing on moving multiple figures at the same time, varying their speed, working on my timing. However, I mostly just ended up playing with my camera. I made two movies during this test, the first is just a collection of random studies that I did (two people, car driving, flower growing, guy rolling on the ground, and a guy levitating); the second doesnt even have any animation, it just tests the zoomming and panning of the camera. Nothing special, but notice that the image quality is getting better. I still need to work on my lighting setup (I still have hotspots and glare and some shadows), but it is an improvement.
Camera test:
Zoom/pan test:
@briandunnington
We had a big windstorm blow a tree down but made the best of it
Upgrading our solar setup for energy independence
A few small upgrades for the boat and an end-of-summer trip to the San Juan islands
Replacing the shore power plug with a SmartPlug and adding a galvanic isolator
Installing a Discovery Bay Power Hauler Crab/Shrimp Pot Puller
