Bullet time
Eadweard Muybridge placed a line of cameras along a racetrack in 1878. Each camera snapped shut as a horse galloped past, triggered by a taut string stretched across the track. This experiment produced dozens of studies on foreshortening horses and athletes. The University of Pennsylvania published these images as Animal Locomotion in 1887. Muybridge captured photos from six angles at the same instant for some studies. He also recorded series of twelve phases from three different angles. Later, he assembled pictures into rudimentary animation using a zoopraxiscope. This device rotated a glass disk with stroboscopic shutter to trace motion. MIT professor Harold Edgerton followed this path decades later. In the 1940s, Edgerton used xenon strobe lights to capture iconic photos of bullets. These images froze motion that was previously invisible to the human eye.
Tim Macmillan began producing pioneering video work in 1980 while studying at Bath Academy of Art. He arranged sixteen millimeter film pinhole cameras in a progressing circular formation. By the early 1990s, still cameras capable of high image quality became available for his array. Macmillan founded Time-Slice Films Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1997. His artistic practice included a video projection titled Dead Horse exhibited at the London Electronic Arts Gallery in 1998. Another precursor emerged in 1985 with the Accept music video Midnight Mover. Zbigniew Rybczynski mounted thirteen 16mm film cameras on a hexagonal rig encircling performers. The resulting footage created an illusion of band members spinning in place while moving in real time. Michel Gondry and BUF Compagnie employed morphing-based variations in the 1990s. They used the effect in a Smirnoff commercial depicting slow-motion bullets being dodged. Tim Macmillan directed the Dil Cheez music video from 1996 featuring similar animation.
John Gaeta and Manex Visual Effects created the version of bullet time seen in The Matrix. The 1999 film combined gunfight action scenes with superhuman bullet-dodging reflexes. Rigs of still cameras were set up in patterns determined by simulations before shooting began. Cameras fired either simultaneously or sequentially to add temporal elements to the effect. Interpolation effects and digital compositing improved fluidity of apparent camera motion. Gaeta credited Otomo Katsuhiro's Akira as artistic inspiration for the technique. He noted that their method moved around objects themselves in motion unlike static action in earlier videos. The term bullet time became popularized through this specific 1999 release. Subsequent films like Blade featured computer-generated bullets and slow-motion footage to illustrate characters' reflexes. The Human Body television program also utilized these visual strategies during its run.
Remedy Entertainment released Max Payne in 2001 as the first true implementation of bullet-time gameplay. Players gained limited control such as aiming and shooting during the slow-motion mechanic. This feature was explicitly called Bullet Time within the game interface. Cyclone Studios had released Requiem: Avenging Angel in March 1999 featuring similar slow-motion effects. F.E.A.R. series later used the mechanic extensively to combine squad-based enemy design. Players could use bullet time to avoid being overwhelmed by multiple opponents. Creed performed live music using the technology for their DVD Creed Live in October 2009. These applications transformed passive visual effects into active player choices. The transition allowed audiences to experience frozen moments interactively rather than just observing them.
A set of still cameras surrounded the subject to achieve the original effect photographically. Cameras fired sequentially or all at once depending on desired outcome. Single frames from each camera arranged consecutively produced an orbiting viewpoint of frozen action. In The Matrix, camera paths were pre-designed using computer-generated visualizations as a guide. Cameras aligned behind green or blue screens formed complex curves through space via laser targeting systems. Trigger intervals occurred extremely close so action continued unfolding in extreme slow motion while viewpoint moved. Individual frames scanned for computer processing allowed insertion of extra frames to slow down further. Frames dropped to speed up action provided greater flexibility than purely photographic methods. Universal capture became a machine vision guided system focusing on common human subjects like Neo.
Sophisticated interpolation software inserted extra frames to improve fluidity of movement especially frame rates. Virtual cinematography and universal capture evolved past simple virtual camera concepts into actual virtual cameras. Paul Debevec pioneered image-based computer rendering techniques in his 1997 film The Campanile. George Borshukov custom evolved these methodologies for The Matrix trilogy as an early collaborator. Free viewpoint television emerged as live action version without slow motion later in development. State-of-the-art image-based rendering integrated depth based media within computer constructs. These technologies enabled volumetric photography where subject viewed from any angle simultaneously. Depth based media could recompose spatially integrated elements inside generated environments. Modern approaches formalized what is becoming known as free viewpoint television technology.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When did Eadweard Muybridge place cameras along a racetrack to study horse motion?
Eadweard Muybridge placed a line of cameras along a racetrack in 1878. This experiment produced dozens of studies on foreshortening horses and athletes.
Who founded Time-Slice Films Ltd in the United Kingdom and when?
Tim Macmillan founded Time-Slice Films Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1997. He began producing pioneering video work in 1980 while studying at Bath Academy of Art.
Which film popularized the term bullet time and who created its version?
John Gaeta and Manex Visual Effects created the version of bullet time seen in The Matrix. The 1999 film combined gunfight action scenes with superhuman bullet-dodging reflexes.
What year did Remedy Entertainment release Max Payne as the first true implementation of bullet-time gameplay?
Remedy Entertainment released Max Payne in 2001 as the first true implementation of bullet-time gameplay. Players gained limited control such as aiming and shooting during the slow-motion mechanic.
How many millimeter film pinhole cameras did Tim Macmillan arrange for his circular formation?
Tim Macmillan arranged sixteen millimeter film pinhole cameras in a progressing circular formation. By the early 1990s, still cameras capable of high image quality became available for his array.