3D Zoetrope "Get Animated" at the California State Fair

[TheTrollWandering]

It's frightening because of marge simpson.

[DrGaryAden]

The original motor was a 3/4 HP AC motor with Cap start. There was a limited slip clutch plate after the gear reduction. We changed the motor to a 2HP DC motor with motor controller. We elimitated the slip plate.

[superladyness]

Hi my nama is vanessa i was just wondering if you can help. what type of motor did you use? thanks

[TheJayman213]

so it works when the camera frame rate is just right, but does it look as good in real life?

[brb1006]

lol even Mr Bill is in this.

[KindOfMaroon]

UChicago Scav sent me here...

[Sofrie37]

This is fantastic!

[DrGaryAden]

I used a Sony HD 3CCD camera and was filming at 1080i. This camera has the capability of changing the shutter rate to 15 frames per second. The strobe rate is very near to this rate so the camera can sync on most of the frames.

I am not sure why your comment was removed?

[lowellriggsiam]

@DrGaryAden I appreciate your reply. I felt bad after I second guessed myself.

[lowellriggsiam]

@DrGaryAden I appreciate your reply. I second guessed myself after I asked the question. I then I removed my own post. For that you're owed an apology.

[matleyz]

Thank you, Dr. Aden. I saw your work at the fair. I'm tempted to buy an old record player and see if I can make one of these myself.

[DrGaryAden]

this will work although most record players only turn at 45rpm max. You should try an LED style strobe. The standard xenon flash tube party strobes are very insense, hard to look at, and do not have a fast flash rate. I used a record player to make a zoetrope that has 12 lego characters and I modified a party strobe so it would flash at 20% of its normal intensity but at a higher flash rate. I have used this for teaching in classrooms and it worked well.

[SSegal]

Great! I just saw this. Thanks for posting. How did you get such clear unflickering shots?

[DrGaryAden]

The disk spins at about 60rpm (1 revolution per second) and the strobes flash 15 times each revolution or ~ 15 flashes per second. I set my camera to record at 15 frames per second (frame averaging) and the camera syncs on the strobes pretty well. Many phone cams use 15fps as standard so they can get a reasonable image but most handy cames are at 30fps so most of the frames will appear black.

[redgreenomega]

badass.