slow motion

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Photography Science

Spectacular Footage Records Seven Moths as They Take Flight in Stunningly Slow Motion

Almost a year after releasing his wildly popular footage of muppet-like insects, Dr. Adrian Smith is back with another montage in incredibly slow motion. This similarly spectacular follow-up—which is shot at 6,000 frames per second with a macro lens—documents the unique flight maneuvers of seven moth species as they slowly lift into the air. Capturing both graceful wing movements and ungainly leg flailing, Smith records rare glimpses of the yellow underbelly of the Virginian tiger moth, the spiky mohawk of the white-dotted prominent, and the beautiful wood-nymph’s habit of scattering microscopic scales all with extraordinary detail. For more close-ups of moths, beetles, and other insects, head to Smith’s YouTube. (via The Kids Should See This)

Photography Science

Watch an Unusual Ensemble of Insects Take Flight in Extreme Slow Motion

In what’s believed to be the first footage of its kind, a stunningly slow-motion video by Dr. Adrian Smith captures a rare group of insects just as they lift off the ground. The NC State assistant professor utilized a black light to attract unusual insects, like a plume moth, eastern firefly, and a rosy maple moth that, as Smith notes, resembles “a flying muppet.” He then recorded the creatures’ flight maneuvers at 3,200 fps to capture their unique wing movements, which he explains during each step. The macro lens also shows the minute details of their limbs and furry bodies, offering a rare glimpse at the insects up-close.

Smith has filmed a range of slow-motion footage that he shares on YouTube, including ants injecting venom and various hoppers launching off the ground. (via PetaPixel)

Amazing

Watch a Vinyl Record Spin so Quickly That it Shatters

The Slow Mo Guys (Dan Gruchy and Gavin Free) have found fame creating slow motion videos of otherwise undetectably fast movements. Their latest experiment, filmed at 12,500 frames per second, shows a vinyl record spinning so quickly that it shatters into an estimated 50,000 pieces. (via Laughing Squid)

Amazing Photography Science

Transient: An Extraordinary Short Film That Captures Lightning at 1,000 Frames per Second

Filmmaker and photographer Dustin Farrell spent over a month this summer traveling some 20,000 miles for the sole purpose of filming thunderstorms around the United States. Using a pricey Phantom Flex4K high-speed camera he filmed lightning strike after lightning strike at 1,000 frames per second, resulting in the impressive footage that shows the remarkable complexity of electricity in the atmosphere. Most of the footage in the final cut was shot around Farrell’s home state of Arizona.

“Lightning is like a snowflake. Every bolt is different,” shares Farrell. “I learned that lightning varies greatly in speed. There are some incredible looking bolts that I captured that didn’t make the cut because even at 1000fps they only lasted for one frame during playback. I also captured some lightning that appear computer generated it lasted so long on the screen.”

You can catch a few more of his short films here. (via PetaPixel)

Design

A Picture Frame Powered by Strobe Lights Turns Everyday Objects into Slow Motion Sculptures

For over 15 years, scientist and artist Jeff Lieberman has been fascinated by how objects move in slow motion since first mastering high-speed photography at MIT. His experiments eventually landed him a hosting gig at Discovery’s Time Warp where he uses high speed cameras to explore a variety of everyday occurrences in slow motion. Two years ago Lieberman began to wonder if there might be a way to bring the optical illusion of slow motion imagery into the real world. What if you could see a slow motion object up close and practically reach out and touch it? The result is Slow Dance, a tiny environment that appears to slow down time.

Slow Dance is a picture frame that makes use of strobe lights to turn any object you place inside of it appear to move in slow motion. Lieberman shares:

Strobe lights are nothing new. From the photos of Eadweard Muybridge to the photos of Doc Edgerton, extremely fast strobe lights have been helping us to see into fast motions. On a dancefloor, strobe lights turn us into stop motion animations. But we’ve put strobe light to use in a different fashion.

By using high speed strobe lights blinking 80 times a second, your eyes cannot even see that they are blinking — the light looks continuous. By synchronizing the strobes to the high-speed vibration of objects (feathers, branches, flowers, etc), we create the visual illusion of those objects moving in slow motion. This is a phenomenon called persistence of vision, and works similarly to the way a TV works — by flickering frozen images quickly enough that we perceive them as continuous motion.

Slow Dance just went up on Kickstarter and appears to have funded almost instantly. You can see more photos and videos about how it works here.

Animation Art Dance

The Physics of Kung Fu Brought to Life Through Motion Capture Visualizations

We’ve all seen exaggerated depictions of kung fu in movies or maybe a demonstration by a practitioner in real life, but German digital artist Tobias Gremmler decided to portray the Chinese martial art in an entirely new light through the use of motion capture. By capturing the motion of different sequences Gremmler is able to distill the data into these animated sculptures, effectively turning movement into structure and volume. The motion of limbs is turned into a complex moving scaffold or interpreted as dramatic bursts of particles, the visuals used to seemingly isolate the physics of kung fu. If you enjoyed this also check out films like Asphyxia, Walking City, and these similar idents for CCTV. (via The Creator’s Project, Prosthetic Knowledge)