Hasta La Ideas

An evil thought just occurred to me: What if the law mandated that all automobile rims be outfitted with zoetrope animations, calibrated to the diameter of their wheels, that held steady at 55 m.p.h.? And seemingly rotated forwards or backwards at faster or slower speeds, respectively? That way cops could tell if someone was exceeding the speed limit without using a radar gun.

I know, I know, the plan breaks down when you consider that in some states the speed limit is 65 and even 75 m.p.h., plus this would do nothing to tell you if someone was speeding in a 30 m.p.h. zone. I guess that’s why I’m a blogger and not an evil scientist. Anyways, I got the idea from looking at UK-based designer/illustrator/animator/cyclist Katy Beveridge’s project to get a zoetrope animation on her bicycle’s wheels:

This is a piece created to question whether it was possible to film animation in realtime. Part of my [Central Saint Martins] 3rd year disseration project I was looking at proto animation (really early basic animation) in contemporary design. I’ve taken a lot of influence from other contemporary designers who are using these techniques to explore the way we look at animation and how its made….I have interviewed animators such as Jim le Fevre and in my research referenced other people using this technique such as David Wilson and Tim Wheatley who did this before me. I developed this project based on what is being done in animation right now as well as a lot of primary research into the history of animation techniques.

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