animation: Multipane camera rostrum

After making several practical versions of a multiplane rostrum I assembled a more abstract sculptural piece from wood, acrylic and metal. 

Multiplane Rostrum (Artists’ Maquette) is a ½ scale model of piece of equipment used in the creation of stop frame animation. The handmade scale model is a speculative sculptural piece with mechanism with frame, scrolling, trays and moveable arms. The various mechanisms allow visual materials such a filters to be passed below and in front of a camera in and out of the frame. The sculpture, which is a sculpture on what an animator needs to create an animation, speculates on the various processes involved in making abstract animation.

Title: Multiplane Rostrum (Artists’ Maquette), 2019
Dimensions: 24cm (w) x 28cm (d) x 29.5cm (h)
Materials: wood, Perspex, acrylic, metal, brass

‘Traditionally, experimental animators have avoided the standard animation stand and the production-line procedures of the commercial studio. One common bond among all experimental animators is that, in varying degrees, they personalize their equipment and techniques, as does any fine artisan or craftsman. Some animators have gone far beyond the conventional mechanisms by building complex devices…’
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 - Cecile Starr & Robert Russett from ‘Experimental Animation’, 1976’.