Motion Control

From Mographwiki.net

AKA mocon, moco.

Usually refers to motion control photography (cinematography), in which the movement of a physical camera and/or its subject is controlled by some non-human mechanism. Over the history of filmmaking, the means of control have included mechanical, electromechanical, analog electronic and digital electronic (computer) control systems. In the context of motion graphics, motion control was, before the advent of purely electronically-created images, the only means of creating moving graphical images whose motion is programmable, editable, and repeatable.

Motion graphics as an art-form can arguably be traced to the motion control work of John Whitney (and his brother James), who, beginning in the 1950s, created abstract and typographic films of often striking beauty with camera devices built by hand, incorporating electromechanical analog computers. Among the many innovations pioneered by the Whitneys was in-camera multipass photography, streak photography (in which the artwork, typically bottom-lit, was moved during the exposure) and perhaps most seminally, slit-scan photography, in which artwork was moved behind a slit in a black mask during the exposure.

Motion graphics as an industry flourished when motion control techniques, especially slit-scan, were popularized in the late 60s and early 70s, sometimes in feature films (such as 2001: A Space Odyssey), more frequently seen in television network graphics. The "candy-apple look" of bottom-lit, streaked, slitscanned, multipass graphics with vibrant colors and glittering lens flares was a direct outgrowth of the technological capabilities of motion control photography. Pioneers of this era included Con Pederson, Doug Trumbull, Robert Abel, and Harry Marks.

The introduction in the 1970s of "inexpensive" (less than $250,000) computers led to great refinement of motion control technique. Specialized software was developed by companies, including Elicon, and individuals, including Alvah Miller, Bill Tondreau, Ray Feeney, and Peter Blinn, among others, to control increasingly elaborate camera rigs.