Motion-Controlled Razor Crest: An ILM Inspired Project

[MangyDog]

Maybe redesign the end idlers of your rail, design in a screw press tensioner, so you can really get the belt tight. Also consider a wider gauge belt and make sure its fiberglass reinforced.

Yeah 3D printing is really great. But does have some limitations.... Id love to have a CNC machine to make the parts in aluminium But i feel ill be doing the printed route too

One thing you can really do is make the parts thicker to get less flex.


Ive not seen john knolls design, did he make it public?

 

[MattWinchell]

Maybe redesign the end idlers of your rail, design in a screw press tensioner, so you can really get the belt tight. Also consider a wider gauge belt and make sure its fiberglass reinforced.

Yeah 3D printing is really great. But does have some limitations.... Id love to have a CNC machine to make the parts in aluminium But i feel ill be doing the printed route too

One thing you can really do is make the parts thicker to get less flex.


Ive not seen john knolls design, did he make it public?

He did not make it public. I've been looking at the video I linked on my first post as a reference. I just eyeballed and redesigned it all.

 

[MattWinchell]

Maybe redesign the end idlers of your rail, design in a screw press tensioner, so you can really get the belt tight. Also consider a wider gauge belt and make sure its fiberglass reinforced.

Yeah 3D printing is really great. But does have some limitations.... Id love to have a CNC machine to make the parts in aluminium But i feel ill be doing the printed route too

One thing you can really do is make the parts thicker to get less flex.


Ive not seen john knolls design, did he make it public?

And to speak upon your recommendations, I found this screw gt2 tensioner: Adjustable GT2 Belt Tensioner by stratop80
The aluminum pulleys I purchased are at the max-width for my current 6mm width belts, so I can't change them. However, the belt is indeed fiberglass reinforced. I guess I can make the parts thicker as well! I'm just debating if it's also worth printing them at 100% infill.

 

[MangyDog]

Inline belt tensioning is an option as long as that part of the belt wont get pulled into the pully. Best option is to take one of the end idlers and have a screw design on them that pulls the bely tighter away from the axis its going.

And yes 100% infill is a must. also ideally everything in ABS. or ASA

 

[MattWinchell]

I am very happy to announce that the motion-control rig, a recreation of John Knoll, John Goodson & the team at ILM's work, had its first-ever shoot day! Here are some images of the shoot. My good friend Kyle helped me out throughout the shoot and took the photos. I'll be sure to share some completed shots:

 

[HMSwolfe]

Very excited to see the results!

 

[StevenBills]

Beautiful! Can't wait to see the shots!

 

[joberg]

Love the set-up and really eager to see the first vid

 

[MattWinchell]

As promised, here is a video of all the shots I filmed.

As a disclaimer, I wasn't able to add a starfield. When trying to get the model in complete focus, I brought the aperture to the smallest iris size which caused the least amount of light to leak into the sensor. As such, keying the model proved too difficult. I think I generally need more experience with the camera, but for next time, I will definitely experiment with the lighting setup.
Additionally, if you guys have any recommendations to improve the shots, please let me know!

 

[StevenBills]

As promised, here is a video of all the shots I filmed.

As a disclaimer, I wasn't able to add a starfield. When trying to get the model in complete focus, I brought the aperture to the smallest iris size which caused the least amount of light to leak into the sensor. As such, keying the model proved too difficult. I think I generally need more experience with the camera, but for next time, I will definitely experiment with the lighting setup.
Additionally, if you guys have any recommendations to improve the shots, please let me know!

That's a great first attempt! In order to combat the light loss due to closing your aperture, simply make each shutter click last longer. For example, I like to make composites of my models, but find myself in a similar situation with the focus and having a small aperture. I simply change the shutter speed (in my case, it's usually about 4-5 seconds for a normally-lit shot, and 25 seconds for the lighting pass that gets overlaid on top). Here are a few of my images so you know what I'm talking about.

Many of the ships, being so small, need to be focus-stacked in order for them to be fully in focus. Of course, that's harder to do with a moving subject. What camera/lens are you using? PM me, I'd love to help you troubleshoot some of this technical stuff.

(source: am a video/photo guy).

SB

 

[HMSwolfe]

You really gotta just blast that thing with light. Post your settings here, too, like frame rate, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, aperture.

 

[MastahBlastah]

That's a great first attempt! In order to combat the light loss due to closing your aperture, simply make each shutter click last longer. For example, I like to make composites of my models, but find myself in a similar situation with the focus and having a small aperture. I simply change the shutter speed (in my case, it's usually about 4-5 seconds for a normally-lit shot, and 25 seconds for the lighting pass that gets overlaid on top). Here are a few of my images so you know what I'm talking about.

View attachment 1521917

View attachment 1521918

View attachment 1521919

Many of the ships, being so small, need to be focus-stacked in order for them to be fully in focus. Of course, that's harder to do with a moving subject. What camera/lens are you using? PM me, I'd love to help you troubleshoot some of this technical stuff.

(source: am a video/photo guy).

SB

Would love to hear more about this as well!

 

[Lt Washburn]

The shots look cool so far. Are you trying to get everything in one exposure, or are you doing beauty, key, matte, etc. passes and compositing them after?

 

[MattWinchell]

The shots look cool so far. Are you trying to get everything in one exposure, or are you doing beauty, key, matte, etc. passes and compositing them after?

The latter, but I definitely need to improve the lighting situation.

 

[swgeek]

As StevenBills said I would play with the exposure time. I know on Interstellar we would do passes that took a couple hours because of the long exposure times.

 

[joberg]

As StevenBills said I would play with the exposure time. I know on Interstellar we would do passes that took a couple hours because of the long exposure times.

^^And those were lookin' mighty good Same for 2001: long exposures are the key!

 

[swgeek]

Thank you! =)

 

[MattWinchell]

As StevenBills said I would play with the exposure time. I know on Interstellar we would do passes that took a couple hours because of the long exposure times.

Wait you worked on Interstellar! That's sooo cool! Dream stuff there.

 

[swgeek]

Yeah I was the lead model maker on Interstellar.
I Look forward to more progress on this project.

 

[joberg]

Yeah I was the lead model maker on Interstellar.
I Look forward to more progress on this project.

Loved the size of the models on that movie; made for very realistic shots. Reminded me of 2001