Making-of
A motorised camera slider driven by TouchDesigner
We have spent a few months tinkering with a slider for our new Blackmagic Pocket, trying to find a way to control five motors at once: slider, pan, tilt, zoom and focus. We will see where it ends up.
On the hardware side: a Raspberry Pi, several drivers and a set of stepper motors.
On the software side: TouchDesigner, to visualise the camera movement in 3D and in real time, with the option of building timelines and running them from the program itself or from any device that speaks OSC. Plus an iPad or a phone to drive each motor by hand, live.
We are working through the prototypes — the slider itself, the camera housing, the motor mounts and gears. Thankfully the 3D printer makes trying out variations much easier.
More to come.