September 12, 2002

6:26 PM

Remember Bullet Time? Remember how it got damn annoying from overuse really quickly? When was the last time you saw something neat done with it?
Take a look at Lumasol.
posted by Su (20 comments total)

Crap. Forgot to mention: Requires Shockwave.
Sorry.
posted by Su at 6:27 PM on September 12, 2002

I love it. Anyone have a cheap way to replicate this? I wonder if you rigged a number of webcams to a mega USB hub if you could replicate it.

A lot of webcams.
posted by perplexed at 6:35 PM on September 12, 2002

Oh that's really neat. Anyone know how they did the luminous graffiti?
posted by riffola at 6:38 PM on September 12, 2002

Oh that's really neat. Anyone know how they did the luminous graffiti?

not sure, but I'm guessing they're taking a tiny light and waving it around, and the pictures have a looooong exposure time
posted by GeekAnimator at 6:42 PM on September 12, 2002

I'm positive this a double post, yet the initiative needed to search for the original escapes me !
posted by mcsweetie at 6:53 PM on September 12, 2002

It was posted back in May by tomplus2.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:57 PM on September 12, 2002

Ditto. For some reason, here and other places, I'm starting to see year-old stuff being regurgitated all of a sudden.
posted by crunchland at 6:58 PM on September 12, 2002

Well, crap.
I'm gunning for actually using the names of things in posts. But that's just me.
posted by Su at 7:00 PM on September 12, 2002

For some reason, here and other places, I'm starting to see year-old stuff being regurgitated all of a sudden.

That's odd. Hmm.

[Looks at calander. Does double-take. Claps hand to forehead.]

No wonder. It's September. USENET permeates everything.
posted by cortex at 7:05 PM on September 12, 2002

I'm gunning for actually using the names of things in posts.

I couldn't agree more, Su - perhaps it can be discussed over on MeTa.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:14 PM on September 12, 2002

Well, I hadn't seen this before. Pretty cool.

I think GeekAnimator is onto the trick: the same array of cameras that takes a simultaneous shot of the person from every angle is also used to take a simultaneous time-exposure in darkness with light sources being waved around.
posted by Tubes at 8:37 PM on September 12, 2002

a cheap way to do this?

1) find a totally dark place (light-tight)
2) get 24 single-lense reflex (SLR) cameras that have a "bulb" setting (to lock the shutter open), and 24 tripods.
3) get a pen flashlight (or similar source of light)
4) set up all the cameras on their tripods in an arc with the lens pointing towards the center of the bullet time arc
5) turn all lights off
6) open and lock all camera shutters
7) use the pen flashlight to draw your designs in the air
8) have your model stand behind where the designs were drawn
9) use a handheld flash unit to light up your model.
10) close all camera shutters
11) repeat steps 1-10 with all your other models until all the frames for all the films in the cameras are done (oh yea, make sure all the films are identical brand, ISO, etc)
12) have the films developped and printed

for each model, you will have 24 "frames" to scan and collage together.

simple enough, but quite tedious.
posted by titboy at 9:02 PM on September 12, 2002

Thanks GeekAnimator, Tubes and titboy for explaining it.
posted by riffola at 9:03 PM on September 12, 2002

This week on MetaFox: "The Internet's Greatest Secrets Revealed!"
posted by Tubes at 9:36 PM on September 12, 2002

And the designs in the "air" are legible because they reflect off of what? It seems to me this is the big question. Perhaps there's a big curved plastic window we can't see because it's dark?
posted by dhartung at 10:29 PM on September 12, 2002

Dartung: They wouldn't be legible if you were standing there watching this thing.

Whats happening (I think) is this they take several camera, and open the shutters. Then they have a guy wave a light around. At some point during the 'performance' a flashbulb goes off, illuminating the person standing there for a second.



The camera 'writes' all the light that it sees while the shutter is open to the film. You end up with still image of the person, along with a 'moving' image of a light being waved around.
posted by delmoi at 10:49 PM on September 12, 2002

My favorite use of "bullet time"? The Matwix.
posted by bradlands at 11:49 PM on September 12, 2002

The first time I saw bullet time, I was absolutely amazed.
I couldn't figure out how it was done at all.
And the surprising thing was, it wasn't in The Matrix, or another action movie...

It was the video for Coolio's song "I'll See You When You Get There"
posted by Newbornstranger at 1:02 AM on September 13, 2002

The first person to use this effect - in 1980 - is Tim Macmillan, who called the effect "time slice." Here's a great article chronicling the birth of this effect in his work, which I can only find cached on Google. Also see his company Time-Slice Films for a chronology of his use of the effect and the different camera techniques.

One anecdote: "We tried to get a dog to jump through the time-slice camera circle," Macmillan said. "He wouldn't jump, so we threw him through and took a shot, traveling around the dog captured in midair. About half an hour after the program aired, I received a call from the BBC that hundreds of people were calling in, worried about this dead dog. I was thrilled... Freezing time in this way somehow makes us think of the moment of death. People had never seen anything like this before, so their physiological response was that the dog must be dead."
posted by Dok Millennium at 3:22 AM on September 13, 2002

Here's a portrait of Picasso doing the light pen trick.
posted by putzface_dickman at 4:24 AM on September 13, 2002