Jim's Demo Film

[jsl151850b]

Professor Farnsworth voice:

Good news everyone!

My 16mm demo reel is being professionally converted so in in a few weeks

I'll have an EVEN BETTER version of this clip!

Please subscribe!

[kargaroc386]

I wonder how that computer could stay on for what I assume would be a few weeks.

[jsl151850b]

@kargaroc386 We're talking about a 1980 era home computer.

The operating system was less than 1/8 megabyte.

I think my longest run was less than 100 hours.

The Super 8 camera needed a power supply.

Batteries might run down in a long shoot.

Dang! So long ago!

I merged TWO Floating Point Basics.

One used a co-processor card to speed up math operations, and one

was the Beagle Brothers Double Hi Res Basic.

In retrospect, that should have been impossible!

[campbpar]

1:26 As long as computers have been around, so have the need for titties.

[BigBoy62783]

haha man this reminds me of 80's sci-fi films.

[jsl151850b]

@BigBoy62783 YES!

My plan was to make a film loop that would play on the bridge of the starship Enterprise at one of the science stations.

I did somewhat in the film I helped make "Asteroid!".

Also.. is WAS the 1980s.

[prodos8]

Yeah, I remember running some of those demos that would render 3d or fractal graphs. They'd take like ten minutes to complete an image.

[jsl151850b]

@prodos8 Yeah... BYTE Magazine!

I rewrote it from Basic (sorry... foggy on the details... nearly 30 years ago!)

I *do* remember I couldn't caculate cosine from machine language so I used

a 'lookup table' created by the ]['s Floating Point Basic.

Did you read *all* the comments here?

Be sure to look at the flickr website. Same user name. It's public.

PS: Beagle Bros. Double High Res Basic! 384 x 512 pixels!

PS: CCSoft co-processor Basic.

PPS: I merged them!

[jsl151850b]

delacob

Check out my other videos.

Use my YouTube user name to find

the Cinemagic magazine article at flickr.

Too bad this clip was't ready in time for 'Asteroid!'.

There's a black and white version.

[delacob]

There's something stylistically charming about adventures in new fields like this was.

[testingway]

wow, the power of computers back then. It would almost be easier to draw it by hand :-p I always wanted an Apple IIe when I was a kid but we never got one. Someday I might just get one off eBay just to have one. Thanks for sharing!

[jsl151850b]

Actually... It was tricked out with an arithmetic co-processor.

(A calculator for the computer.)

Once the program started, the computer controlled

the color filters and camera shutter.

See my flickr page, same user name.

The CineMagic photo set.

(Dang! YouTube should permit URLs!)

[bluebraids]

An oldie, but a good one! Boy are we spoiled with processor power these days. The demo looks like some real dedication was put into it, thanks for sharing :)

[cipher9190]

i dont get it

[jsl151850b]

50,000 views!

Thanks everyone!

Check out Asteroid! (part 1) and Asteroid! (part 2).

Can you spot the Apple // animations?

[jsl151850b]

Sheesh!

Mr. (or Ms.) 50k could have left a comment!

Hey you! How did you find this video?

[jsl151850b]

The Asteroid! film is posted in its entiretity.

See "More From: jsl151850b"

[BloodPigggy]

Fuck JIM! Learn how to manage that audio on your video son.

[jsl151850b]

Thanks for the suggestion.

So I should turn the movie projector sound up?

[BloodPigggy]

I'm not really sure if that was a joke, but I meant it was hard to hear the voice over the trilling of the projector.

[jsl151850b]

Yes.... joking.

So... I should replace the audio track with NEW narration?

[BloodPigggy]

Well if you could just take everything the original presenter said and redo it, it would make it a lot easier to hear, of course, that's just my fault, I have hearing problems that makes it hard for me to differentiate pitches of sounds and when it's chaotic like this it really messes with my ability to hear. And I'm genuinely interested in the subject matter.

[jsl151850b]

CineMagic article at my flickr page. jsl151850b The 'PARADOX' logo was done without backwinding, Up to 90 exposures per frame! Bessel figures: Each line moved up 2 pixels and right 2 pixels to simulate 3d. Hidden line removal to make them seem opaque. Each color filmed seperately without backwinding. 300,000 floating point calulations in one minute. Not bad for 0.001 Ghz! Another minute to film each frame. See "Asteroid!" teaser at 1:22 to 1:31. Are you a filmmaker?

[RET80]

Fascinating 3 dimensional work. I love it! And you pushed your old //e to the limit!

Now that's what I call awesome.

[jsl151850b]

Past it's limit actually.

Each frame took a minute to render and another minute to photograph...

And that particular //e had a Math Co-Processor

(Basicly a calculator on a card.) 300,000 calculations in one minute!

And it's Pseudo 3D.

Each line up and to the right two pixels to simulate the Z axis.

At 00:33 you see hidden line removal by rendering front to back.

Pixels at a height lower than any previously drawn pixel in that column aren't drawn, making the figure seem opaque.

[RET80]

I see! Well, with your modified //e and creativity, it shows no bounds!

[reticulan5]

Did you end up shooting anymore films after Asteroid?

I use to look forward to each issue of Cinemagic.Sure wish we had Final Cut Pro and digital sound then.But I still have a soft spot for Super 8.Still have a Nizo 6080.I would,nt part with it for the world.

[jsl151850b]

We started one but to my knowledge nothing came of it.

Real world issues caused me to drop out of the club.

I hope some of the guys will see this and comment.

I still have my Eumig 881 Super 8 camera.

Silent but accepts sound film.

[Super8Alex]

I have several of these cameras. They rock. Probably the most amazing super-8 camera ever made.  I still shoot with mine and find I can be infinitely more creative with it than shooting with a dinky digital camcorder.

[jsl151850b]

Can any of the current digital cameras (still or video) do long expose and time lapse/stopmotion?

There is software that knits together video stills into a long exposure. Another that converts stills into video. Same company. Different products.

[darkgoob]

Wow, that takes some serious dedication. It makes me think about how today, we take all the amazing technology we have for granted. It makes us lazy and spoiled. Well, some of us. Maybe I was already lazy and spoiled. Oh well. Maybe it's just me.

[mrfusiontm]

Wow, Jim I remember reading this article when it came out. (I still have the original issue). I always wondered if you had ended up working as a CG artist at some effects company.

[jsl151850b]

No one currently doing PC animation has replied. Is 16mm dead? The logo animation was done <i>without</i> backwinding! I posted the CineMagic article at flickr dot com under jsl151850b It was so time intensiveI I couldn't earn a living at it. It was a nice hobby. I <i>really</i> have to post the Super 8 epic 'Asteroid!". I'll look for a conversion service like Digital Pickle. Do you have a reccomendation? Hey! I could post the article about <b>Asteroid</b>! Issue 16 I think.

[darkgoob]

Yeah we'd love to see Asteroid! I don't do PC animation, anymore. I used to do some on the Mac ages ago. Right now I mainly do virtual reality scripting in Second Life.

[loyalv77]

I suppose a IIE render farm wasn't feasible. Maybe if you set up multiple computers on a giant wheel and had them move into position in front of the camera in sequence? :)

[jsl151850b]

<b>loyalv77</b> Unfeasable, yes; Impossible, no.

I suppose a few hundred Apple //es could each work on a frame and then one at a time send the video to the monitor to be photographed, or send the 'jpeg' to a networked harddrive.

Schools used to have dozens of //es on one hard drive (5 mega-bytes!) so they were networkable after a fashion.

Also, there were 3rd party video cards for the //e. I think the Number Nine graphic device somehow was external to the //e!

[thestuart]

This would be a whole lot better if you took out your yammering and put some cool Apple II or Commodore 64 music in instead. Really cool way to stretch the computers capabilities though.

[jsl151850b]

You may enjoy "Hey Hey 16k"

Ts96J7HhO28

[Alfa984]

Wow! Awesome dude!

[iloveaix]

80's breasts. wow.

[jsl151850b]

I'm almost certain real breasts don't do that.

[digitaluddite]

very very nice work. would you have the patience to do this sort of thing nowadays?

[jsl151850b]

I don't know if I have the patience to learn CC+ or whatever computer language would be appropriate for 21st century PCs.

On a positive note, the Robot  toy construction kits would supply the interface from the PC to a film camera, assuming DVD burners have not made film obsolete.

PS: The //e to camera interface? The joystick socket!

[matbergman]

I thank you for posting this. I still have my original copy of CineMagic #23, with "Animation With Your Home Computer" on the cover. The genius of this film is the amazing 16mm rig on the Flickr page. The article about this stop-motion/computer hybrid went a long way explaining the abstract concept of computer animation to me. But this is the first time I've seen it! It's a work of art.

[jsl151850b]

I posted additional pages at my flickr page that show the last version of the animation rig.

[jsl151850b]

Want me to autograph your magazine?

You subscribed to CineMagic?

Were you a filmmaker 25 years ago?

Can you post a YouTube?

Can you reccommend a Super 8 film to DVD conversion service?

[matbergman]

Hi Jim,

Yes seriously I want you to autograph my copy of CineMagic!

I was a Super8 hobbyist at the time. You can find one of my Super8s on YouTube if you click my username, along with some others.

I have found the best Super8 to DVD conversion service to be Digital Pickle in San Francisco. I highly recommend them!

[CountD42]

That was friggin' amazing. You say that was "one of the best" ones you've made? You have way too much spare time.

PS: Boobies!

[jsl151850b]

Actually, it <b>is</b> the best I made.

I may post the other 7 minutes, like a prequel, but like a prequel, it will be a disappointment.

[feet77]

Even in 1985, geeks were obsessed with boobies. Nice to see some things never change. :)

[jsl151850b]

Yes, soon they'll catch on with the general public.

[feet77]

LOL.. Sorry you must be tiring of the boobies comment. Really though, a psychologist would have a field day. By the way, since I didn't mention before - nice work! :)

[CoyotyDave]

How can anyone tire of boobies?

[tecmonkey]

it look like boobies

[jsl151850b]

You're not the first to make that comment.

[tastypopsicle]

Congratulations, James. You got Boing Boinged! You should have a lot of people checking this amazing video out.

[jockc]

I loved my Apple //e, I used to type hex into the monitor to write machine language, (I didn't have the money for an assembler). Great video, thanks for sharing it!

[jsl151850b]

I found the inspiration for the color bessel figures in one of the apple magazines of the era. I translated it to machine language. The numbers below the figures are the constants and variables.

I can't remember what I paid for the math co-processor. It can't have been $400! ($200 maybe) 300,000 floating point calculations in one minute!

[jockc]

Did you ever do anything with fractals? You could have made the world's first fractal animation!

[harpershane]

My wife makes fun of me for anything that geeky.

But thats definitely awesome.

[grytpype]

That was awesome!

[otherthings]

I used to do this kind of rendering on my Commodore 64, and wait seemingly forever for an image to come back.... To see someone take it as far as an animated 16mm film, with a DIY hardware solution like this, well... my hat is off to you sir!

[jsl151850b]

The photos (you see the photos, right?) don't show the last revision of the animation rig.

The dinky clock motors were replaced with low RPM high torque gearmotors and lever action microswitches provided position feedback instead of photodetectors.

[peterrubi]

could use some narrative, or historical context in terms of computer animation in film. Tron, and The Last Starfighter both predate and overpower this. Fun homebrew tho

[deltasleep]

i don't think you get it.

[jsl151850b]

Thanks.

5 comments over the last 3 hours?

How did you hear about my 20+ year old film?

By the way...can you see the flickr page I mentioned?

My username there is jsl151850b

[egyensulyi]

you've been boingboing'd!

boingboing[dot]net

really amazing stuff btw.

[pmetzger]

you were on boing boing. google it, since youtube won't let me post a link.

btw- freakin' sweet. I started my programming career on the apple //e when I was about 8 years old. By the time I was in the 5th grade, I was pretty good with basic, and what I wouldn't have given for a book teaching assembly.

[Aliboy]

Amazing - Im only 17 and its great to see how technology has come along , i can only imagine what the future holds

[jsl151850b]

Yes, I bet a g5 can do the color bessel figures in realtime,

However, I think the logo came out well, but I should have overexposed the sparkles.

I see on YouTube some people are using their Pentium 4 for computer animation.

Is there a place for film when laptops can burn DVDs?

[matbergman]

Absolutely incredible! I still have the Cinemagic magazine with the article about this film, but this is the first time I have had the opportunity to see it! I have always wondered what happened to the animator who created this genius, handmade technique. Where did this film lead you? What is your career today?

[jsl151850b]

The computer animation was only a hobby. Real life issues demanded I give it up.

Today I run a one-man computer repair shop. Keeping ahead of the bills and not in debt, so I guess I'm doing ok.

[Bfarn]

Truly truly impressive

[dmarcoot]

pretty cool

[jsl151850b]

I have a 9 minute version I can upload, but frankly, this is the best 2 minutes of it. It was 16mm, then VHS, then DVD, then wmv, but the original never was properly focused or exposed. Feel free to comment.

I posted the magazine article from CineMagic on flickr, but YouTube doesn't allow URLs in the comments.

Go to the flickr site and search for

Cinemagic Magazine 23 Computer Animation 1985

[jsl151850b]

Or just go to flickr and search for jsl151850b.