Animation Stand

Animation Stand 

an apparatus for frame-by-frame photography of drawings for animated cartoons and of titles for motion pictures.

The simplest animation stand consists of a vertical frame, with a camera that slides up and down, and a movable compound. The graphic material (drawings or titles) of a particular scene is placed on the compound in several layers, fastened with locking pegs and clamped by a glass plate, and is illuminated from above (reflected light) or below (direct illumination). The compound and material can be moved from front to back (“north-south”) and to the right and to the left (“east-west”). Many animation stands also have one or two sliding peg bars that permit the material fastened to the compounds to be moved, so that combination shots can be taken of three or four superimposed transparencies, while changing and moving individual layers.

Automatic animation stands, such as the American Oxberry model 5442 stand, are of similar design but have electric drive to all moving parts and auxiliary devices that expand filming capabilities and automate the work. In such an apparatus, the material is not only mounted on the main compound in two or three layers but is also arranged on peg bars above and below the compound.

The compound or one of the peg bars of some animation stands can revolve around the vertical axis. This makes possible zoom photography, with a variety of visual effects. Animation stands of this type also have attachments for frame-by-frame rear projection of backgrounds and frame-by-frame front projection of inserts into a frame.

REFERENCES

Beliaev, la. I. Spetsial’nye vidy mul’tiplikatsionnykh s”emok. Moscow, 1967.
Hoath, R. Animation in Twelve Hard Lessons. New York, 1972.

V. B. TOLMACHEV