Thursday, January 15, 2015
Animator Dillon Markey Reinvents the Failed Nintendo Power Glove as an Indispensable Stop-Motion Animation Tool
Colossal: First off: language warning for the kiddos. Stop-motion animator Dillon Markey works on projects for animation powerhouses like Robot Chicken and PES. While on set three years ago Markey tired of moving back and forth between the set, camera, and computers for each shot and conceived of a numerical keypad he could use to help control some, if not all, of the devices he uses for animating.
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2 comments:
This is so cool! I had no idea Nintendo had a user controller controller like this considering it was not too long ago that the Wii first came out or the Xbox Kinect. It’s always cool to see someone repurpose old things that many people might think are stupid or out of date. I think this repurposed Power Glove animation helper could lead to companies making gloves or wristband controllers specifically for animators. It would be like making the Apple and Droid watches useful for more than connecting to your phone; it could be the next step for those companies. Of course, this might be just a one shot wonder kind of thing that never catches on. It was a bastardization of a technology that was made in the 80’s but like the article said at the end, it makes you think back to all the old technology that failed but could be repurposed for a completely new and all together better application. There is a lot to be looked at with this animation helper.
The power glove, almost like something coming straight from a syfy movie, but in real world application. I don’t think I was old enough when the product came around into the gaming world, but I bet just wearing something like this would definitely have been something cool to have. I don’t know much about how programming works in the electronics world, but I do find it to be a pretty suave skill to have. To be able to turn certain objects and give them a different purpose adds a new perspective as to how we might sometimes limit ourselves in our ideas. In this case, he was able to take this old school system and revamp it to make it his own, and put it to use with the job he currently does with the stop motion animation. It shows how he was able to make his life in his work just that much easier to deal with.
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