Real-Time Chronotopic Anamorphosis

Jun 30, 2008

Real-Time Chronotopic Anamorphosis

Chronotopic Anamorphosis from Marginalia Project on Vimeo.

The above is a slick little video by Marginalia Project. 1:39-1:44 is by far my favorite moment. Boooooooo–P!!!

Text taken from the Processing site

This project was made more as a programming exercise intending to transpose the effect accomplished by Zbigniew Rybczynki in his film “The Fourth Dimension” to real-time video.

Roughly explained, the image captured has its frames fragmented into horizontal lines which are then stored into an array. The image displayed is a combination of lines from different frames, distorting objects and people by their own motion in time.

It is kind of heavy (for all the data stored and read at each frame) which creates some bugs in the image, but it’s still fun.

Marginalia Project vimeo site >>> http://www.vimeo.com/1163538

This experiment was made within the context of marginalia project (http://marginalia-project.blogspot.com).

You can play w/ the code here>>>

import processing.video.*;
MovieMaker movie;
 
boolean rec;
int n;
int varZero;
int prevN;
int prevZero;
int numPixels;
int prevPixels;
int[] prevLines;
Capture video;
 
void setup(){
  size(320, 240);
  frameRate = 30;
  video = new Capture(this, width, height, 72);
  numPixels = video.width * video.height;
  //Sets the number of pixels to be stored using
  //an algebric progression formula related
  //to the number of lines to be stored.
  prevPixels = ((numPixels*(height+1))/2);
  //Sets the array to store these pixels.
  prevLines = new int[prevPixels];
  movie = new MovieMaker(this, width, height, "rybczynski.mov",
  72, MovieMaker.ANIMATION, MovieMaker.LOSSLESS);
  //Sets the movie recording function off by default.
  rec=false;
  loadPixels();
  noStroke();
}
 
void draw(){
  if (video.available()){
    video.read();
    video.loadPixels();
    //For each line of the image:
    for (int y=1; y<height;>
 //Declares the value of 'n', which will be used to index
 //to which of the "lines" stored for line 'y' shall the software
 //access to store current frame's line 'y'.
 n=(frameCount%y);
 //Indexes to the begining of the "line" in which to store
 //the current frame's line 'y' using an algebric progression
 //formula based on 'y' var and the indexing gave by 'n' var.
 varZero= round((n*width)+(((sq(y)+y)*width)/2));
 //Declares the value of 'prevN'. This var will
 //index to stored "line" the software shall
 //read to display at current frame's line 'y'.
 prevN=((frameCount-(y-1))%y);
 //Indexes to the begining of the "line" that the software
 //shall read to display currently at line 'y'. Uses the
 //same process of varZero expression, but with other vars.
 prevZero=round((prevN*width) +(((sq(y)+y)*width)/2));
 //For each pixel in line 'y':
 for (int i=1; i<width;>
   //Declares a 'ind' var based on 'y' and 'i'
   //to index the displayed pixels.
   int ind=((y*width)+i);
   //Stores each pixel of line 'y' of current frame
   //captured from real-time video.
   prevLines[varZero+i]= video.pixels[ind];
   //Reads and displays the proper line of pixels from
   //the data stored.
   pixels[ind]=prevLines[prevZero+i];
 }
    }
    updatePixels();
    if (rec==true){
 movie.addFrame();
    }
  }
}
 
void keyPressed (){
  //If SPACE key is pressed and recording is off, turn it on.
  if (key==' ' &amp;&amp; rec==false){
    rec=true;
    println("REC");
  }
  //If SPACE key is pressed and recording is on, turn it off.
  else if (key==' ' &amp;&amp; rec==true){
    rec=false;
    println("PAUSE");
  }
  //If ESCAPE key is pressed, finish movie.
  else if (key==ESC){
    movie.finish();
    println("STOP");
  }
}
End Sub
 
Chronotopic Anamorphosis </width;></height;>