Jun. 4th, 2016

Skewed

Jun. 4th, 2016 11:57 pm
tbutler: (Default)
20160529-P1030025.jpg

Looks like a live-action cartoon, doesn't it?

This is an effect called 'rolling shutter'. Basically, it happens with objects that are moving faster than the shutter can capture the image. Say the shutter starts at the top of the frame, with the moving object at the left. The shutter 'freezes' the image as it moves down the frame, so the top part of the picture is captured just slightly before the bottom part. Normally, this doesn't cause any issues; but if the object is moving faster than the shutter, at each incremental movement of the shutter, the object will have shifted, so it appears slanted or distorted.

This was originally a problem with early cameras with slow mechanical shutters. It is seen today in cameras with 'electronic' shutters, where instead of using the physical shutter, the camera simply takes a readout of the sensor at the moment of taking the picture; most sensors are read line-by-line, giving the same effect as a slow-moving mechanical shutter. (Electronic shutters can be used for a silent shot; for eliminating the physical shock of the shutter closing; or to get a shutter speed faster than the camera's mechanical shutter can produce. Or to simply do away with a physical shutter altogether.)

Oh, and the reason it looks like a live-action cartoon? In the early days of animation, pretty much all cameras had slow mechanical shutters and produced rolling-shutter effects; so people were used to seeing that as a sign of speed, so animators deliberately mimicked the effect to give that impression. :)

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Travis Butler

May 2025

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