The illusion of perceived motion occurs when two successive stimuli are shown separated by a brief flash. An everyday example of this phenomenon is motion picture films, which string together thousands of static images to cause the appearance of motion. Cinema projectors required blank periods to allow the next frame to be moved into position for projection. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) in TVs and computer monitors brought another way of displaying a moving image.
Many of the early silent films shown in Martin Scorsese’s film, Hugo, areGeorges Méliès actual works such as A Trip to the Moon (1902). Méliès became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera, he was a magician and toymaker, he experimented with automata, he owned a theatre, and was forced into bankruptcy – these facts and more are in Scorsese's film.
Key terms to know related to the moving image: series, sequence and immersion.
The Lumière brothers were trying to achieve a 3D image and eventually re-shot this film with a stereoscopic camera and exhibited it in 1935. The film also illustrates the use of the long shot to establish the setting of the film, followed by a medium shot, and close-up. (As the camera is static for the entire film, the effect of these various "shots" is affected by the movement of the subject alone.) The train arrives from a distant point and bears down on the viewer, finally crossing the lower edge of the screen.
Sergei Eisenstein used language such as "immerse", "engulf", "capture", and so on...a clear indication that the medium at a more advanced technological level would have the ability to amalgamate image and spectator psychologically. The early 4D visionaries paved the way for 3D filmmaking that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer.
Cinemax purchased a machinima film starring Molotov Alva, a virtual character that filmmaker Douglas Gayeton conceived in Second Life.
Transcript of "The Moving Image & Immersion"
The Moving Image & ImmersionLCC 2730 Constructing the Moving ImageSpring 2011Nettrice R. Gaskins
What makes an image move?Moving images are actually illusions (of motion). One second of film/videois made up of several still images.Early experiments showed that a minimum of about 10 - 13 separate framesmust be projected every second to give the illusion of movement.
De-mystifying “persistence of vision”Why, when we look at a succession of still images on the film screen or TV set,are we able to see a continuous moving image?The term „persistence of vision‟ can be found in most explanations of apparentmovement, but in itself is a very loosely defined term. It essentially refers to after-images, that is, the retention of an image on the retina of the eye for a fractionof a second, claimed to be responsible for the illusion of motion in film.
Optical ToysThe stroboscope or wheel of life,zoetrope, praxinoscopethaumatrope, phenakistoscope,and flip book are earlyanimation devices that used the"persistence of vision" principle tocreate the illusion of motion.
Moving Image PioneersThe first cinematographers were the Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès,Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey and Ottomar Anschütz in thelate 1880s; they created devices that were able to produce movingimages, as was Thomas Edisons Kinetoscope, that premiered in 1891.
Making the connectionSeries: a group of separate items related to one another by a collectivetitle or theme applying to the group as a whole; or similar images placed inorder or happening one after another.Sequence: a succession of related shots or frames that develop a givensubject in a movie.
ImmersionDiminishing critical distance to what is shown and increasing emotionalinvolvement in what is happening in real or artificial space characterizeimmersion. Virtual worlds and machinima are part of a long history ofimmersion in film, as we will explore.
Train Pulling Into The StationThe Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat(US), or Train Pulling into a Station(UK) is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary filmby the Lumière brothers.Supposedly, the audience was sooverwhelmed by the moving imageof a life-sized train coming directlyat them that people screamed andran to the back of the room.
A Second RealityAndrei Tarkovsky characterized film as "emotional reality," which allowsviewers to experience a "second reality"; traditional cinema was intendedfor direct power over the feelings of the audience. Tarkovsky and otherswanted to extend the illusion of film beyond the visual to include othersenses...the medium of film advanced beyond 2D screen projection inorder to intensify its suggestive effect on the audience.
The Lumière vision fulfilled3D film making involves filming two images simultaneously, with twocameras positioned side by side, generally facing each other and filmingat a 90 degree angle via mirrors, in perfect synchronization and withidentical technical characteristics. When viewed in such a way that eacheye sees its photographed counterpart, the viewers visual cortex willinterpret the pair of images as a single three-dimensional image.
Coming Full CircleModern computer technology also allows for the production of pseudo-3Dfilms using CGI and without the need for dual cameras. Machinima is a filmmaking technique whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is createdusing computer and online technologies.
It‟s your turn...Within the virtual 3D world, you can create almost anything: fromcharacters (avatars) to the environment in which these virtual selves live. Itsa place where people come to escape, find better or more transcendentversions of themselves, learn universal truths, and explore outrageousdreams and fantasies. But while it is a place where people can be anythingthey want to be, there are boundaries - just like in the real world.