slow motion capture - dissertation research please read

B

bloodspatter

Im currently trying to capture blood droplets in flight as they are being forced off a moving object - im using a sony handycam hdr xr-520 digital video recorder to capture this under the smooth slow record setting built in to the camera, so far im not having much luck.

can anyone suggest any free software (or paid software if the price isnt too expensive) or any decent camera tricks anyone knows of?

any help given would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
This is a bit of a doozy!

Realistically, low-cost slow motion capture is almost non-existent. Unless you have a $50k Phantom up your sleeve, there isn't really any "clean" way to get the effect without some editing involved to "fake" it.

That being said, check out Twixtor, which is an AE and Premiere plugin for doing exactly what you are after. http://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/downloads/
There's a demo available but that puts a watermark over your image. I would suggest shooting them an e-mail to see if they can help you out with a student price or something along those lines!

Here's a video on Vimeo which very successfully uses the Canon 7D and Twixtor to simulate a 1000fps shot: http://vimeo.com/13557939

I know that the XR-520 is a very basic consumer level camera, so if you quality is an important factor, get a-hold of something like the Canon 7D (rent, beg or borrow!). The manual control you have over ISO, Aperture etc. will allow you to achieve an overall better result.

Good luck!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Using that camera, according to the specs page, about the best overall technique you can use is to record in 720p @ 60fps (the 1080 is "i" only which will look like garbage slowed down in post, I imagine), then stretch out the time in your editor.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...langId=-1&partNumber=HDRXR520V#specifications

I was recently using two free trial weeks of VideoPad NLE, and I don't recall if it had a "slow time" or "time stretch" feature.
Now I'm using el-cheapo Adobe Premiere Elements 10 which does include a "time stretch feature".

GL!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I dunno, sounds more like a 3d modeling challenge... If your talking closeups of the individual drops even more so! Its an option. Probably for $100 you can get somebody to do exactly what you want.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
^ Great idea, wheatgrinder, I would also second that. ^

Check out www.freelancer.com.au and list a project up there. Give a detailed description and set a solid budget. Make sure you check the portfolio of the people who bid on your job as the crap pops up almost as much as the good.

P.S: Even though it's an Australian website, your project gets posted on a whole bunch of different websites worldwide.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Key to this shot though is preprod. You have to have the final shot in your head, clear as a bell, or you'll be wasting money with edits and redos. Try and story board it out as much as you can.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thanks guys!

this has been a great help. We've managed to get a hold of a Casio EX-F1 which is giving us the speed we need, now it is just a question of getting a clear and crisp image in the software.

We have available Serif Movieplus X3 which allows us to view the film frame by frame but it is not the highest of quality.
Will the software recommended above give us a clearer quality?
- we have to get the head technician to install all these programs for us so if there is one definitive piece of software that will work that will save him, and us a lot of bother.

thanks again!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If the frame (i.e: the source video) itself isn't clear, then it won't matter what sort of program you use.. the source will still be the same.

That being said, are you sure that there are no filters etc. which may be in Movieplus X3 that could be interfering with the quality? See if you can output a single frame and check it.

Again, no point playing with software until you get the source video clear.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The frame rate is the issue... if you're looking for a video with droplets in motion, your camera will need to do a higher frame rate to get more motion information captured. You can get rid of the blur by increasing the shutter speed, but again, if it's only in frame for 1 frame, you only get one frame of splatter.

Modelling in 3D will allow you to pick the number of frames/second you're recording in a simulation.

What is the specific test you're performing (for a dissertation, I'm assuming the experiment has a specific purpose. If we knew that, it'd be easier to determine what kind of data you're looking to capture with your experiment).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top