*** Animoko making of, Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams *** 

Click here or on the image above to see the Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams Motion Control Making of

Julian Hermannsen from Visual Distractions Ltd. worked as the Motion Control and Visual Effects Supervisor on the recently released German stop-motion feature, The Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams produced by Scopas Medien. From the outset it was clear that the five-month principal photography was going to be tight, so efficiency and creative solutions to keep both deadlines and quality were top priorities.

The shoot involved 21 units (18 active) in a 2,500 square meters studio space in Babelsberg Studios near Berlin and more than 100 crew members from all over Europe. The movie was shot on Canon 5D MKII. There were several motion control systems in use, from simple rotation plates or linear rails up to complete 6-axis systems, the Animoko/Flair system from MRMC being the most versatile of them.

Apart from the regular shooting of passes for animation, clean plate and tracking for the camera moves, one of the main challenges was the amount of heavy flying objects (cars, planes, boats, helicopters). With movement and rotation on 6 axes this turned out to be impossible to rig for the animators and to light in the small unit size of mostly 6 x 8m. A setup with the Animoko and another moco system was used in combination to realise these shots. The animation was done in 3ds Max and then translated to the object using custom software tools. The rotation part was split off and imported into a 6-axis model mover to assure realistic lighting changes, while the spatial movement was imported into Flair to be shot with the Animoko. Using this setup it was possible to animate and prepare one shot in 3d, while another one was being shot by an animator animating the characters on the vehicles. The Director, Sinem Sakaoglu said the following, "This set up facilitated the communication with my team because I was able to see the movement before the animator even walked on the set. I can't imagine having done this shoot without such a system."

The 3d import functions was also used on the opening shot, a 45sec camera move flying over a landscape of clouds. The move was created in 3d as one move and then cut into three pieces. The three parts were dressed and shot in the same unit consecutively and put together as one seamless shot.

The Animoko was perfect not only because it was compact enough to fit in the small units and easy to program but also allowed for all the more complex functions of the bigger systems like spatially offsetting/scaling moves which were even used mid-shot to compensate for overnight set shifts. 

*** Precision Mini Pan/Tilt/Roll Head *** 

The SFH-50 shown with the Arri Alexa and RED 

Click here to see footage of head on track at Interbee

The new roll option on the SFH-50 Pan Tilt head offers what MRMC believe to be the worlds most compact Pan Tilt Roll head capable of carrying a wide range of professional cameras including the Arri Alexa, Red One & Epic, Canon 5D & 7D. The SFH-50 head released last year is proving to be very popular and has already found its way into a variety of locations and applications, including being used in Antarctica for wild life filming, being used as a remote head for car mounted filming, filming a new 3D animated feature and a variety of standard motion control and remote head applications.

The SFH-50 head is slightly bigger than its counter-part the SFH-30 Pan Tilt head but is designed specifically to cater for slightly larger cameras and to allow the option of a 360 degree roll. It really is compact but superbly strong by any standard. We don’t believe there is any other head on the market that offers the range of motion or payload or high-precision in such a small size and additionally at such a low cost.

As you can see from the photos of it with the Alexa and the RED, it carries the large cameras with aplomb, and in the short video footage from the Interbee exhibition in Japan, it can also be used with track and does equally well with long ENG type cameras and zooms. (with some minor restriction).

The head is designed to adapt to different uses, whether on a crane as a remote head, on a tripod or track for timelapse footage, in studio or on location for motion control work, it will fulfill any task with ease. The controllers can include wireless PDAs, Handwheels, Joysticks, Pan-bars or full motion control software, and that includes any motion control software, be it our own Flair software (recommended), Kuper or Lynx.

 If you would like to have more information please email info@mrmoco.com

 *** S4 Stereoscopic 3D Stepper with Convergence *** 

Shown here in a left frame and right frame position with a change of convergence

Mark Roberts Motion Control have taken the ever popular 3D Stereoscopic stepper to new heights and are pleased to offer the new S4. The S4 is an ideal unit for anyone shooting 3D Stereoscopic animation, to automatically move and trigger the camera to capture the left and right eye images. The S4 is the larger brother to the S3 released last year and includes an optional Convergence module. Some of the features of the S4 include stronger motor, gearbox and chassis for larger camera packages in any orientation, built in matte bar/focus rod holders, USB communication to animation software, control of both interocular distance (distance between left and right eye), and convergence (angle of view between left and right eye). The Convergence module clips on allowing the S4 to be used with or without it.

 If you would like to have more information please email info@mrmoco.com