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The idea first took form on a long walk home from Harrogate College in early 1996. I'd been looking through the libraries excellent photographic section; thinking loosely about different photographic special effects and what I could do that was different. I happened on a b/w photograph of a racing car distorted by the shutter plane. Being aware of the reason behind the distortion and set about thinking how I could elaborate on this effect. A few weeks later I managed to persuade John (a college technician) to help me rig up my Amiga computer to an overhead projector computer screen that was placed in front of my camera. When we got it all rigged up I played out a b/w animation which acted as a replacement shutter. This did achieve some of the distortion I had been looking for. My hastily set up arrangement I also captured the reflection of my camera, which blended into an android like result. The main problem with this method is that the matrix, which enables the computer image to be generated between the glass unfortunately distorts the camera image. I moved on from Harrogate shortly after this single experimentation. I tried to get the equipment together to produce further images but it never happened. Then in 1999, September the 26th a friend visited who I hadn't seen for ten years during our catching up I mentioned that I had "reinvented" the camera shutter. Suddenly realised I now had the appropriate computer equipment to reproduce this process digitally. I inflicted a long rambling on my friend as I worked out how this could be done.
The TimeMorphing effect distorts the image by shifting pixels across time, producing a wide variety of effects. For example, the traditional slit-scan technique, which captures different stages of a moving image across time, can be simulated using the Timemorphing. Our software is designed only for in-house use at the moment but it has greater flexibility than Adobe After Effects The image morph results from the object moving over time; therefor any still objects remain undistorted. Slow movement from a static viewpoint produces less distortion than faster movement from sweeping viewpoints. The process lends itself to the human figure dancing very slowly, fairly static musicians, kissing, swimming under the water and a whole host of potentially boring situations such as scientists working (giving them a different angle). Images take on a surreal quality reminiscent of Salvador Dali's "soft objects." With a high enough shutter speed faster movements can be rendered at broadcast quality standard as well and played normally or in slow motion. These animated Time Morphs can be applied to any existing video footage or a movie provided that the movement is right. I believe when fully developed it will lend itself to weird dream sequences, sci-fi special effects, pop videos, 'instant art' and possibly visual demonstrations for scientific concepts such as areas of quantum physics. To get broadcast quality images approximately 8 seconds of uninterrupted single shot is required. The technique is such that the greater the number of points of distortion or the smaller the area of distortion required the fewer frames are needed to produce a quality frame of animation. Once the frame number is above the number making one frame each extra frame will produce a frame of animation. This is a truly digital technique requiring computer automation (single frames can be produced in PhotoShop with a few weeks spare). Four seconds of animation typically uses 30000 images. Capturing TV footage for time morphs is fun and compelling. Sort of like running a trace on a telephone call like they do in cop programs; you hope the shot will last long enough to get your image.
Art In Science fiction programs these days one of the main plots seems to be a permutation on the time continuum being disrupted. The trend got under way with 'back to the future… 1… 2 and 3.' Now theirs another spin on the story line with the recent interest in Quantum physics. Quantum leap headed the field; The X-files and now First Wave by Francis Ford Coppola have followed on. There is a theory of the block universe which argues that all times can exist together if we where able to step out of time into the 4th dimension, we would see it all mapped out. With my image processing we can take slices through this block of time and brake the conceptual block in an infinite number of ways. By using two video cameras as a pair of eyes it is possible to take 3D TimeMorphs as well some strange anomalies occur when you do this. I could well see an art movement existing that would encompass these areas of exploration. Maybe Edwin Abbott's Flatland could be a meditating point that ideas could form around. The story is about