7 ms·

Light painting animations directly from Blender

243 points by pmarin 8y ago

xmichael999 8y ago
Seems like a ton of work for pretty dismal results. Cool work though, just kinda disappointing what was captured.
- ythn 8y ago
  I thought the glass sphere was pretty sweet
- avian 8y ago
  Dismal? I find the resulting videos very pretty and I find it amazing that they were done mechanically, not using ray tracing.
  - mrguyorama 8y ago
    I find the resulting videos to be no more interesting than animated renders, but the mechanics, engineering, and software skills to set everything up, connect it, and get it reliable/precise enough to produce anything at all I find utterly astounding. Truly a cool project
- martin-adams 8y ago
  I'm curious what you felt made it dismal? I found it rather delightful and was much better than my expectations as I've not seen this style of artwork before using a physical camera. I was particularly impressed with the glass sphere animation.
- vertexFarm 8y ago
  He just built the machine from scratch. I don't think the very first bit of video rendered from after effects was something that made it on the criterion collection either, but you learn to use a new tool to do things of increasing sophistication as you go. I do think he could probably use a bit more rigidity on the long thing that holds the end of the light tube since it appears to have a bit of wobble, but I'm sure that somebody with this level of competence is already on that issue for the next revision. For the proper application, you could do stuff with this which would absolutely make a raytracing renderer vomit its bytes in anguish. All my motion design buddies are very excited about this video.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
knolan 8y ago
Blender really is an exceptional piece of software.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  Isn't this comment like watching someone hand-build a supercar and saying "gasoline really is an exceptional source of energy"? I mean, sure, but it's not even 1% of the final product.
  - knolan 8y ago
    I guess I should elaborate. Blender is extremely capable in a wide range of areas. It’s much more than simply fuel in your analogy, it’s much more like the car builder’s toolbox or even his workshop. Blender can do complex 3D modelling, physics based rendering (now including real-time EEVEE). 3D animation including rigging and physics interactions, Video editing, 3D motion tracking, plane tracking, image compositing and spatial audio. Its grease pencil tool is execptional and allows for powerful 2D animation. The freestyle NPR renderer can export animation outlines to SVG. It has a wide range of plugins for architecture, 3D printing and CAD. Everything can be scripted via python and almost everything in the UI can be keyframed. It is an exceptional project and a credit to the open source community.
    - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
      I want to add onto this.... Blender is an amazing product being used by a ton of professionals, but a lot of people in the CGI industry don't admit to using it because it is free. Because of this weird echo chamber of "Blender Shame" you have people who actively promote how cool Blender is, which is not always a conscientious reaction, but still stems I think from this reputation fight that Blender is in. I think the whole PC MASTER RACE joke was a similar response to Apple snobbery.
      - knolan 8y ago
        The PC Master Race thing grew out of a Zero Punctuation video. It’s more about comparing PC games to consoles. Those I’ve spoken to in the industry have all praised Blender but say they use various commercial tools because it part of their pipeline and they pay for support.
kingbirdy 8y ago
Skip to 3:20 or 4:25 in the video if you want to see an example of the results
- invalidusernam3 8y ago
  For the lazy: https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=199 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=199 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=263 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=263
nneonneo 8y ago
I love seeing personal passion projects like this on HN - great inspiration for the day. I’m curious as to what the build cost was for the whole rig, and on how long that project took. Seems like he milled a bunch of the aluminum jigs himself, which is pretty cool. Certainly a lot of effort and the results are quite neat. It would be interesting to see what more art pieces can be done now that the basic rig is setup - it would be really cool to “render” several-minute-long light painted videos now that it can be fully automated.
- glenneroo 8y ago
  > It would be interesting to see what more art pieces can be done now that the basic rig is setup At the end of the video he tears everything down and packages some stuff back up - I'm guessing he borrowed a lot of gear from the University. According to the documentation[0]: "Depending on who you are, building the machine and the control box is either the most or the least intimidating part of this. Since the hardware isn't too dissimilar to other CNC machines like 3D printers, I'm not going to go into too much detail. If you want to follow my design, consult the pictures." > it would be really cool to “render” several-minute-long light painted videos now that it can be fully automated. According to his comments in the YouTube video: "Each of the animations I made took between 4 and 12 hours to shoot, one frame at a time. Each frame is 1-3 long exposure photographs of the machine performing the light painting." Extrapolating from that, a several-minute-long video would take days or possibly even weeks! [0]: https://github.com/Defaultio/LightPaintingMachine https://github.com/Defaultio/LightPaintingMachine
- arriu 8y ago
  How would someone without access to a milling machine go about making custom aluminum parts like these? I've had a couple projects that would benefit from aluminum milled parts, but I haven't been able to figure out how to go about making 1 or 2 parts without spending hundreds on setup or tooling costs.
  - jlg23 8y ago
    If you are lucky, there is a maker space within reach. Even if they don't have the tools, maybe some member has. Or the old-fashioned way: Talk with local shops who use the tools you need and get some quotes. Edit: or look for alternatives to parts you cannot make yourself (material or design or both).
Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
This is freaking crazy! I bet this guy could take his pick of video production shops to work for by sending them all this video alone. Huge props for doing it all open source!
- defaultio 8y ago
  Thank you!! One can hope, maybe someday I'll get hired. But also it might be funner to stay indie for a while and build a personal audience.
- jsheldon 8y ago
  Thank you!! One can hope, maybe someday I'll get hired. But on the other hand, it might be funner to stay indie and build a personal audience.
StavrosK 8y ago
This is a fantastic hack. Does anyone know what that weird box in his rack is? (The one he packaged back up again at the end). It looks like it's something off-the-shelf to avoid writing code to turn the objects into GCode, but I guess this could have done more easily with a blender-to-gcode converter.
- ebcode 8y ago
  Yep, it's this: https://www.dragonframe.com/product/dmc-16/ https://www.dragonframe.com/product/dmc-16/ It's what controls all the steppers and some of the lights it looks like.
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    Oh that's interesting, thanks. I'm not familiar with DragonFrame the software, but I imagine it's something that does 3D motion control for animators? I find it interesting that there doesn't exist (or that the author didn't use) an open source alternative for this box.
    - defaultio 8y ago
      Hey, I made this! There are Arduino solutions for motion control with dragonframe, but I opted to invest in the DMC16 because it can handle in/out triggers (which I tapped into with the custom control box), it has DMX out lighting control, and it does motion control signals (faster than Arduino can), all in one nice package that I can rack together with the rest of the gear. Might be a little overkill and I'm sure a custom solution could work, but I'm more interested in results than process, so I tend to take the prebuilt approaches when possible.
      - StavrosK 8y ago
        That makes sense, thanks! Fantastic job, I love these sorts of projects.
    - jsheldon 8y ago
      Hey, I made this! There are Arduino solutions for motion control with Dragonframe, but I opted to invest in a used DMC16 because it can handle in/out triggers (which I tapped into with my custom control box), it has DMX out for lighting control, and it does motion control signals faster than Arduino can, and it's all in a nice package that I can rack together with the rest of the gear. It might be a little overkill and I'm sure a custom solution could work, but I'm usually more interested in results than process, so I tend to take prebuilt approaches when practical.
lakechfoma 8y ago
Incredible technical work mechanically, electronically, photographically. Amazing artistic talent and personal drive. 3:19 and 4:22 remind me a lot of a tumblr page with animations like these. It's exciting how trippy they are. His direction and animation is beautiful, knowing that it's real light is something else.
cpdt 8y ago
Previous discussion (on the video): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637834 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637834
jcl 8y ago
Great project! Reminds me of pre-CG special effects that were also achieved with motion control and long exposures, like the 1980 HBO opening animation: https://youtu.be/wqzihgR_-SI?t=400 https://youtu.be/wqzihgR_-SI?t=400 Or the slit scan technique used for the stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey: https://youtu.be/KhRo2WbWnKU?t=346 https://youtu.be/KhRo2WbWnKU?t=346

243 points by pmarin 8y ago

xmichael999 8y ago

Seems like a ton of work for pretty dismal results. Cool work though, just kinda disappointing what was captured.

ythn 8y ago
I thought the glass sphere was pretty sweet
avian 8y ago
Dismal? I find the resulting videos very pretty and I find it amazing that they were done mechanically, not using ray tracing.
- mrguyorama 8y ago
  I find the resulting videos to be no more interesting than animated renders, but the mechanics, engineering, and software skills to set everything up, connect it, and get it reliable/precise enough to produce anything at all I find utterly astounding. Truly a cool project
martin-adams 8y ago
I'm curious what you felt made it dismal? I found it rather delightful and was much better than my expectations as I've not seen this style of artwork before using a physical camera. I was particularly impressed with the glass sphere animation.
vertexFarm 8y ago
He just built the machine from scratch. I don't think the very first bit of video rendered from after effects was something that made it on the criterion collection either, but you learn to use a new tool to do things of increasing sophistication as you go. I do think he could probably use a bit more rigidity on the long thing that holds the end of the light tube since it appears to have a bit of wobble, but I'm sure that somebody with this level of competence is already on that issue for the next revision. For the proper application, you could do stuff with this which would absolutely make a raytracing renderer vomit its bytes in anguish. All my motion design buddies are very excited about this video.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

knolan 8y ago

Blender really is an exceptional piece of software.

StavrosK 8y ago
Isn't this comment like watching someone hand-build a supercar and saying "gasoline really is an exceptional source of energy"? I mean, sure, but it's not even 1% of the final product.
- knolan 8y ago
  I guess I should elaborate. Blender is extremely capable in a wide range of areas. It’s much more than simply fuel in your analogy, it’s much more like the car builder’s toolbox or even his workshop. Blender can do complex 3D modelling, physics based rendering (now including real-time EEVEE). 3D animation including rigging and physics interactions, Video editing, 3D motion tracking, plane tracking, image compositing and spatial audio. Its grease pencil tool is execptional and allows for powerful 2D animation. The freestyle NPR renderer can export animation outlines to SVG. It has a wide range of plugins for architecture, 3D printing and CAD. Everything can be scripted via python and almost everything in the UI can be keyframed. It is an exceptional project and a credit to the open source community.
  - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
    I want to add onto this.... Blender is an amazing product being used by a ton of professionals, but a lot of people in the CGI industry don't admit to using it because it is free. Because of this weird echo chamber of "Blender Shame" you have people who actively promote how cool Blender is, which is not always a conscientious reaction, but still stems I think from this reputation fight that Blender is in. I think the whole PC MASTER RACE joke was a similar response to Apple snobbery.
    - knolan 8y ago
      The PC Master Race thing grew out of a Zero Punctuation video. It’s more about comparing PC games to consoles. Those I’ve spoken to in the industry have all praised Blender but say they use various commercial tools because it part of their pipeline and they pay for support.

kingbirdy 8y ago

Skip to 3:20 or 4:25 in the video if you want to see an example of the results

invalidusernam3 8y ago
For the lazy: https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=199 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=199 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=263 https://youtu.be/O1bY66X1JKA?t=263

nneonneo 8y ago

I love seeing personal passion projects like this on HN - great inspiration for the day. I’m curious as to what the build cost was for the whole rig, and on how long that project took. Seems like he milled a bunch of the aluminum jigs himself, which is pretty cool. Certainly a lot of effort and the results are quite neat. It would be interesting to see what more art pieces can be done now that the basic rig is setup - it would be really cool to “render” several-minute-long light painted videos now that it can be fully automated.

glenneroo 8y ago
> It would be interesting to see what more art pieces can be done now that the basic rig is setup At the end of the video he tears everything down and packages some stuff back up - I'm guessing he borrowed a lot of gear from the University. According to the documentation[0]: "Depending on who you are, building the machine and the control box is either the most or the least intimidating part of this. Since the hardware isn't too dissimilar to other CNC machines like 3D printers, I'm not going to go into too much detail. If you want to follow my design, consult the pictures." > it would be really cool to “render” several-minute-long light painted videos now that it can be fully automated. According to his comments in the YouTube video: "Each of the animations I made took between 4 and 12 hours to shoot, one frame at a time. Each frame is 1-3 long exposure photographs of the machine performing the light painting." Extrapolating from that, a several-minute-long video would take days or possibly even weeks! [0]: https://github.com/Defaultio/LightPaintingMachine https://github.com/Defaultio/LightPaintingMachine
arriu 8y ago
How would someone without access to a milling machine go about making custom aluminum parts like these? I've had a couple projects that would benefit from aluminum milled parts, but I haven't been able to figure out how to go about making 1 or 2 parts without spending hundreds on setup or tooling costs.
- jlg23 8y ago
  If you are lucky, there is a maker space within reach. Even if they don't have the tools, maybe some member has. Or the old-fashioned way: Talk with local shops who use the tools you need and get some quotes. Edit: or look for alternatives to parts you cannot make yourself (material or design or both).

Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago

This is freaking crazy! I bet this guy could take his pick of video production shops to work for by sending them all this video alone. Huge props for doing it all open source!

defaultio 8y ago
Thank you!! One can hope, maybe someday I'll get hired. But also it might be funner to stay indie for a while and build a personal audience.
jsheldon 8y ago
Thank you!! One can hope, maybe someday I'll get hired. But on the other hand, it might be funner to stay indie and build a personal audience.

StavrosK 8y ago

This is a fantastic hack. Does anyone know what that weird box in his rack is? (The one he packaged back up again at the end). It looks like it's something off-the-shelf to avoid writing code to turn the objects into GCode, but I guess this could have done more easily with a blender-to-gcode converter.

ebcode 8y ago
Yep, it's this: https://www.dragonframe.com/product/dmc-16/ https://www.dragonframe.com/product/dmc-16/ It's what controls all the steppers and some of the lights it looks like.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  Oh that's interesting, thanks. I'm not familiar with DragonFrame the software, but I imagine it's something that does 3D motion control for animators? I find it interesting that there doesn't exist (or that the author didn't use) an open source alternative for this box.
  - defaultio 8y ago
    Hey, I made this! There are Arduino solutions for motion control with dragonframe, but I opted to invest in the DMC16 because it can handle in/out triggers (which I tapped into with the custom control box), it has DMX out lighting control, and it does motion control signals (faster than Arduino can), all in one nice package that I can rack together with the rest of the gear. Might be a little overkill and I'm sure a custom solution could work, but I'm more interested in results than process, so I tend to take the prebuilt approaches when possible.
    - StavrosK 8y ago
      That makes sense, thanks! Fantastic job, I love these sorts of projects.
  - jsheldon 8y ago
    Hey, I made this! There are Arduino solutions for motion control with Dragonframe, but I opted to invest in a used DMC16 because it can handle in/out triggers (which I tapped into with my custom control box), it has DMX out for lighting control, and it does motion control signals faster than Arduino can, and it's all in a nice package that I can rack together with the rest of the gear. It might be a little overkill and I'm sure a custom solution could work, but I'm usually more interested in results than process, so I tend to take prebuilt approaches when practical.

lakechfoma 8y ago

Incredible technical work mechanically, electronically, photographically. Amazing artistic talent and personal drive. 3:19 and 4:22 remind me a lot of a tumblr page with animations like these. It's exciting how trippy they are. His direction and animation is beautiful, knowing that it's real light is something else.

cpdt 8y ago

Previous discussion (on the video): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637834 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17637834

jcl 8y ago

Great project! Reminds me of pre-CG special effects that were also achieved with motion control and long exposures, like the 1980 HBO opening animation: https://youtu.be/wqzihgR_-SI?t=400 https://youtu.be/wqzihgR_-SI?t=400 Or the slit scan technique used for the stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey: https://youtu.be/KhRo2WbWnKU?t=346 https://youtu.be/KhRo2WbWnKU?t=346