Motion control photography

[1][2] Today's computer technology allows the programmed camera movement to be processed, such as having the move scaled up or down for different sized elements.

It is far more difficult to composite the shots when the duplicate elements cross paths, though digital technology has made this easier to achieve.

Several basic camera tricks are sometimes utilized with this technique, such as having the hand of a body double enter a shot to interact with the actor while the duplicate's arm is to be off-screen.

By changing the frame rates and the depth of field, models can seem to be much larger than they actually are, and the speed of the camera motion can be increased or decreased accordingly.

The development of the Dykstraflex was led by John Dykstra, who had numerous contributors, including Alvah J. Miller and Jerry Jeffress.

Peter Truckel, MPC's first in-house VFX supervisor, operated it for several years before leaving to pursue a career as a successful commercials director.

However film producers and directors have come to realise the cost-saving benefit of using motion control to achieve the effects in a reliable and realistic way.

With the resurgence of 3D as a medium motion control has also an important role to play, especially in the production of 3D background plates on scaled-sets.