Alice Nightingale

Digital Animation Level 2

Animation Technologies

Although Digital Cameras are used primarily for the use of recording real life still images, todays cameras are much more versatile: increased availability and affordability means that more people have a such a range of camera types available to them, so that both novice and professionals photographers can find numerous cameras to suit them. The sophistication of integrated features such as video capture (now standard in most point-and-shoot cameras and becoming common in top-end Digital SLRs), and the increasingly higher quality capture settings are making them an appealing, and cheaper, alternative to video cameras and a viable product for professional filmmaking.

History
The charge coupled device (or CCD) is the piece of technology key to the creation of the modern day digital camera. The CCD acts in the way a photographic film or plate does in a traditional camera, a thin layer of silicon converts light information by measuring photons and converting it into an electronic signal. The continuous improvements upon the CCD, since the first created by Willard Boyle and George Smith in 1969, has led to the creation of cameras with far higher megapixel counts and improved picture quality for a much cheaper price. The first digital still camera, the Prototype CCD Digital Camera, built and patented but never intended for production, in 1975 by Kodak engineer Steve J. Sasson, took 23 seconds to capture a 0.1 megapixel black and white image. The early 1980s saw a number of retailed digital video cameras (DVCs) that combined CCDs with mobile media formats, however they are not considered to be true digital cameras, since they were video cameras that took still images: probably the most famous is the 1981 released Sony Mavica (Magnetic Video Camera) that recorded and stored up to fifty 0.72 megapixel images to floppy disk; the eighties also saw the beginning of Canon and Nikon dominating the professional market with the release of the Canon RC-701 and Nikon SVC prototype in 1986 (Drew Gough, The Evolution of Digital Cameras), something that would happen again with the release of the first two fully integrated digital lens reflex cameras the Nikon D1 (1999) and Canon EOS-D3 (2000) that used existing 35mm film lenses.

Digital Camera Increase/Popularity

Since 1994, with the release of the 0.3MP Apple QuickTake 100, the Kodak DC40 and the Casio QV11 (which included an LCD monitor), all of which are considered to be the first digital cameras targeted towards consumers with home computer systems, the consumer level market has escalated greatly. 1

Alice Nightingale

Digital Animation Level 2

Worldwide sales of Digital-still Camera units roughly doubled year on year at the beginning of the millennium, going from 5.5 million in 1999 to 30.5 by 2002 (Digital Photography Review, 26th January 2004), and overtaking the sales of classic cameras in 2003 (Softpedia, 2005, Digital cameras whereto?). Suggested reasoning, besides technical advances, for market growth includes: simpler user interface, higher memory capacity of removable media and smaller/lighter camera bodies. I think there is also a direct correlation between digital camera sales and the rise of social networking sites; since the arrival of Myspace in 2003, Bebo in 2005 and both Facebook and Twitter in 2006; users are encouraged to share any photographs they wish to upload through their profile and tag themselves, and therefore raising their online profile. The creation of online photo sharing sites such as ImageShack, Photobucket (both launched 2003), TinyPic (2004) also encourages individuals to upload their photographs to share with the rest of the world, where as sites such as Flickr (launched 2004) are aimed to attract people who photograph in a more artistic manner. The release of the 6.3MP Canon EOS 300D (aka the Digital Rebel), in 2003, was the first DSLR priced under $1000; the DSLR market has become one of the most successful 125,000 were sold between December 2008 and January 2009 (Cheesman, 2009, Digital Camera Sales Beat Recession). Since the launch of the Nikon D90 and Canon 5D Mk II in late 2008, a variety of DSLRs have included the option to capture HD video.

Animation & Film-making

Most computers now come pre-packaged with some form of movie editing software, (Windows Movie Maker and iMovie), which means that individuals with little or no prior editing experience can create short films with ease. Websites such as YouTube and Vimeo make it easy for anyone to upload their videos, and for novices who do not have access to professional filming equipment; a digital camera with an integrated microphone can become the tool of choice to create a basic movie or video log. For animation purposes, both pixilation and stopmotion are popular among novices, and the creation of both requires no video capture (or, indeed specialist software) to create. So, even if an individual who owns a digital camera that is either limited or has no option to record both video and/or audio, it is possible, providing the photograph quality, for an individual to create a decent looking film from an image sequences alone. The use of a still image can also be used in 2D animation for a background: reference or research photographs or the basis of parts of a puppet in programs such as Animate or Flash. Cameras with HD Video capture can also be used for animation and filmmaking purposes: recording high quality reference footage; the recording of separate elements for compositing, such as a live action background, clean plate or green screen; and the advantage of compact size and weight, compared to a full size HD film camera, allows it to be easily transported to different locations, and fit standard tripods; the range of lenses available for DSLRs allows a variety of different filming techniques and experimentation, with elements such as depth of field, that professional cameras cannot provide.

Alice Nightingale

Digital Animation Level 2

The Future
As digital cameras become more sophisticated and some improve their ability to capture HD footage, their price reductions will enable individuals, smaller studios and freelancing artists to purchase their own kit of professional standard rather than having to hire it. The new development of 3D Digital stills cameras, such as the Sony Cyber-Shot series and Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3, open up the possibility of being able to create 3D animations without the need for specialist rigs. Though still in their infancy, (although the FinePix W3 already has the option to adjust parallax and shoot 720p HD footage) if they follow the trends set by both their predecessors the point-and-shoot and DSLRs in price reduction, (and depending on the success of 3D playback devices), they make become commonplace. Even if they do not, they have the potential to be used to create stereoscopic films much more cheaply than professional film cameras; experimentation with photographing stereoscopically for stopmotion and pixilation at this juncture may be more successful than the current level of video capture.

Alice Nightingale

Digital Animation Level 2

Bibliography
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Alice Nightingale

Digital Animation Level 2

Raymond, Emily (26th October 2004) Digital Camera Trends within Expanding Market http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Digital-Camera-Trends-within-the-Expanding-Market.htm Shankland, Stephen (3rd April 2007) SLRs Lead Digital Camera Sales Surge http://news.cnet.com/SLRs-lead-digital-camera-sales-surge/2100-1041_3-6173084.html Softpedia (21st March 2005) Digital Cameras whereto? http://news.softpedia.com/news/Digital-cameras-whereto-709.shtml Sony (2011) 3D photography with Cyber-shot cameras http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/cyber-shot-3dcamera/3/1?campaignId=12003904&s_kwcid=digital%20cameras%20sony%203%20d|6988179995 Virtual Museum Canada ASTROLab of Mont-Mgantic National Park (2006) CCD cameras: Recording higher quality images without photographic film or plates http://www.astro-canada.ca/_en/a2310.html