Fairfield 5: Three ZoomWalks

During my March 2012 visit to Fairfield and MUM (Maharishi University of Management), I took photographs for three new ZoomWalk videos. (Earlier ZoomWalks are shown here.) This post will present the new videos and, at the end, discuss some changes in technique from the earlier ZoomWalks.

The Unsecret Path

In Sthapatya Veda, southern entrances are strongly discouraged, so the south face of the MUM campus not only has no entrances, it's fenced off. This can be inconvenient for traveling between half the campus and downtown or Everybody's, so an unofficial but well-tended path has evolved.

The first video is another ZoomWalk where the camera faces forward as the walker goes along this "unsecret" path. Because there are many objects (leaves, etc.) close to the walker and few objects far away, it worked best to have a short distance between the still photographs from which the video is constructed. Too many steps, and the continuity between frames would be lost. For this video, I took only one step between pictures.


The Unsecret Path @ MUM from Ben Branch on Vimeo.

Rotating the Golden Dome

 

The next ZoomWalk is quite different: the camera keeps facing a particular object, in this case the Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome, as I walk.


Rotating the Dome @ MUM from Ben Branch on Vimeo.

For this video, I took two steps between each photograph. I had originally intended to take only one, but it was a very hot and sunny day. To stay out long enough for one step per photo I would have needed to bring along a snack, some water, and a wide-brimmed hat.

Orbiting the Maharishi Vedic Observatory

 

The third video was accumulated a couple of miles from the MUM campus, in Maharishi Vedic City, where the Vedic Observatory is located. Because of the concentric nature of the observatory, I walked around the structure about halfway out, once facing outwards, to capture the ring of instruments, and once facing inwards, to photograph the structures representing various planets and other astrological constructs. I also looped around one of the instruments.


Orbiting the Maharishi Vedic Observatory from Ben Branch on Vimeo.

I needed to take more photos, less far apart, for the outward facing portion of this video. Those instruments just fly by.

Techniques and Experiences

 

Whereas the "looking forward" ZoomWalks can use automatic methods to improve the alignment of the still images, that would be counterproductive when the camera is facing inward (Rotating the Golden Dome) or outward (Orbiting the Maharishi Vedic Observatory). Objects are supposed to slide from one side to the other through the frames. However, using the raw photos without any alignment whatsoever produces very jerky, almost unwatchable, videos. Thus I had to manually align each frame using some object or segment of the image. For the Golden Dome, it was the ornament on top, the kalash, that was my registration mark. Similarly, in the second half of the Observatory video, it was the cylinder in the center of the observatory. Aligning while looking outwards was difficult because of the lack of a central object; I would use the horizon and hope for the best. Needless to say, this manual aligning took a significant amount of time, and might discourage long-duration rotational ZoomWalks unless I find an automating technique. (The Rotating Dome video is based on about 240 photographs, plus title and credits frames.)

During the generation of the videos I experimented with "doubles." This is an animation technique where two identical pictures are taken of each step of the animation; thus, an animation with 24 frames per second requires only 12 animation steps. Previous ZoomWalks had one original image, then one or two "morphed" images, then the next original image. In shorthand, for images A and B, the frames generated would be, for two morphed images:

1. 100% A
2. 67%A/33%B
3. 33%A/67%B
4. 100%B

In all three of these videos, I doubled the originals by making a copy of each under a new name. (This I was able to automate.) Then, a two-morph video (Golden Dome) would be:

1. 100% A
2. 100% A
3. 67%A/33%B
4. 33%A/67%B
5. 100%B

A one-morph video (Unsecret Path and Vedic Observatory) would be:

1. 100%A
2. 100%A
3. 50%A/50%B
4. 100%B

I believe the higher proportion of original, unblended images produced by doubling yields a better product.

The algorithm for automatic alignment (used only in Unsecret Path) was also tweaked. Before, pairs of images would be compared, and because of the way the list of images was walked through, no more than half could ever be inspected. The new procedure is to align around "anchor points." For instance, consider the sequence of photographs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If comparing three at a time, 2 would be the anchor point, and 1 and 3 would be compared to 2. Then 5 would be an anchor point for comparison with 4 and 6. Because of the way the align_image_stack tool works, the anchor point is unmodified; nonetheless, up to two-thirds of the images are alignable. There is no attempt to compare anchors, so occasionally a badly photographed anchor will require manual intervention. It also appears that comparing 3 images at a time (one anchor and two changeable) works better than comparing 5 at a time (one anchor and four changeable). Comparing 5 at a time puts images that are too different in the same pool, so attempting to reconcile them makes no sense.

Here is a still photograph to satisfy the 'Recent Posts' and 'Popular Posts' sidebars.