The following notes are for the camera stands with Canon A520 cameras in rooms 242 and 288b.
Names of the workstations:
- Room 288b: Rostrum
- Room 242: Line-tester
You should save the work that you shoot in the Scratch Disk / Capture. Make your own folder in that drive to save your work into.
Turn on the lights beside the camera stands, and make sure that an even amount of light fills the camera field (the region on the table that you intend to shoot).
Turn on the Canon camera, but keep it in the “playback mode,” not the “camera mode.”
Referring to the computer workstation itself, look on the desktop:
- Locate the ”ZoomBrowser X” icon. Double-click on it to run the software.
- Once the program has booted, refer to the ZoomBrowser X Window. The Tasks column is located at the upper-left region of the Window. Click on the tab “Acquire & Camera Settings” and then choose the Connect to Camera tab. The CameraWindow for the camera should then open.
- From the Camera Window, choose “Remote Shooting,” and click on the Start Remote Shooting button. Once you do so, the software will ask you to choose an image folder, which it will use to deposit images that you’ll subsequently capture. Subsequently, locate the folder you established in the Scratch Disk / Capture / Your Folder.
The software will then open a RemoteCapture Task window. Use this to choose camera settings for your animation shoot.
- Size & Image Quality (the icon with the “blue diamond shape” in the top section of the
- RemoteCapture Task window): Choose Medium 1 / Super Fine. Alternatively, you could choose a higher or lower resolution.
- Rotation Settings: Leave it a 0-degrees, because the orientation is set by the way the camera is mounted to the animation stand.
- To orient the field that you choose to capture, you can use the various axes on the camera stand (i.e., E-W, N-S, zoom, etc.). You can also use the Zoom Operation feature, to go in tight on a field, etc.
Click on the Shooting Settings Button to make the necessary adjustments to the camera before you shoot.
Preferences / Options
These are the settings for your capture session, when you’ll set the file name, sequence numbers, etc.
Referring to the RemoteCapture Task software window, go to the Main Menu and choose Preferences. Select the File Settings button and enter the following:
- File Prefix: Choose a short one-word name (without spaces)
- Assign Sequence Number:
- Number of Digits: “3″ digits should be enough
- Start: Enter the first frame you want your sequence to begin with. “1″ should be fine.
- Folder to which images are downloaded: This should be the folder that you selected when you chose to use the Remote Capture. Make sure this is correct, otherwise you’ll have a difficult time finding the images from your shoot (particularly because so many people use this capture stand on a weekly basis).
Capture Settings
Use the following pull-down sections:
- White Balance: Choose “Tungsten” (as the stand uses tungsten lights)
- ISO Speed: Try “100,” but “50″ or “200″ should also be adequate
- AE mode: Select “Manual” and then choose the following for Aperture and Shutter Speed:
- Av: This will vary, depending on lighting conditions, but around 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, etc.
- Tv: Similarly, this will depend on the lighting, but anywhere around 1/60, 1/80, 1/100 should be good.
Av and Tv (or Aperture and Shutter Speed) work hand in hand. If you choose a wider Aperture, or lower the Av number, you will need to select a higher Tv, or Shutter Speed.
No matter what, refer to the Viewer in the RemoteCapture Task window. This will give you an indication of the exposure settings.
You can also move the lights to change the lighting conditions (and/or add more lights, for more sophisticated lighting situations).
Once you’ve adjusted the Shooting Settings, you’re good to go, and you can begin to capture images. To do so, simply click the Release Button in the RemoteCapture Task window (the large blue button with the camera icon in the upper right-hand region of the window).
You can also use the Hotkey on the keyboard: Command + R.
Depending on the size of the images that you’re taking, each still that you take might take a second or two to capture. Therefore, make sure that you don’t inadvertently move your hands into frame before the exposure is done. Wait for the status bar on screen to complete before you move to the next image.
The status of the images you take should appear in the Canon Image Browser. This will help you keep track of the frames you take.
Once you’ve taken the images/moves you’ve been working on, you can then move the sequence and it’s containing folder elsewhere, to use in other software like Premiere or After Effects, to turn into an image sequence, edit, and work on further.
When you’ve done this, delete your folder in the capture workstation, to safe disk space and to keep the computer organized and clutter-free.
When you’ve finished using the camera stand, be sure to shut down the software, turn off the lights, and the camera, using the on/off switch on the camera itself.