SPIKETM
Our award winning, High Speed Motion Control System is the perfect tool to capture stories and products in new and unseen ways.
» A revolution in high speed. «
Before SPIKETM, moving the camera while shooting in high speed was virtually impossible. Today, we are proud, that our very own invention generated copycats all over the world. But years of »on set« experience and improvement in soft- and hardware are not easy to catch up with. As an integral part of The Marmalade’s production environment, SPIKETM is constantly optimized to create the most cinematic result out of a motion controlled high speed effect shot.
Capabilities & Advantages
- Ultra fast, precisely repeatable camera movements.
- I/O Interface to sync up to 8 additional axes
and 16 multi impulse triggers. - Custom software built for film work.
- Design moves upfront in a virtual 3D studio.
- Fast and flexible move creation on set.
Inspiration
Here’s a small selection of previous projects that give you a better idea of what’s possible with SPIKE. These films are great examples for unseen choreographies involving food, drinks, people and even the sun.
Beko
Pepsi Max
Lurpak
Exactly repeatable camera moves modified quickly + interactively
SPIKETM can freely move a camera with unparalleled speed and precision, adding depth and changes in perspective to high speed imagery. No matter where the camera is pointing, it can always be moved image left-right, up-down, forwards and backwards. The same is true for panning, tilting and rolling the camera or performing orbiting moves around a point in space. All of this even works when periscopic lenses set up with arbitrary angles are used.
» Our real innovation is not that we attached a camera to an industrial robot. It’s that we created an entire eco-system, that’s optimized for practical on set use. «
All peripherals we use to create our complex effect choreographies are connected through a capacious I/O interface. Up to 8 additional external axes, for focus, turn-tables or other linear axes that are driven via servo motors can be controlled in sync to the camera move. Up to 16 additional effects can be triggered with freely adjustable timing, to create complex effect sequences.
With the rich pre-visualisation features of the SPIKETM software, creative options can be explored beforehand and completely detached from the hardware. 3D models can be imported, placed and animated in the virtual studio and seen through the virtual lens. What you see is what you get. The software takes all camera settings like the frame rate, the relevant lens parameters, the size of the backplate, f-stop and focus settings into account. The resulting camera moves can then immediately be performed for real on set.
Once a move path has been set up, the camera can be easily shuttled back and forth along the move path which is extremely useful when adjusting the setup of the scene and the lighting. Directors and cinematographers are enabled to share their vision using their natural film-terms, the SPIKETM operator never has to translate these ideas to robotic axes, which would is poison to the creative process that thrives when everything is in flow.
Set time is valuable and technology should never stand in the way or hold up the creative process. The biggest USP of SPIKETM compared to other camera robots is the result driven production environment that comes with it. With SPIKETM at The Marmalade you tap into the knowledge of more than a decade on active problem-solving and creating visual excellence.
FAQ
Which cameras can be used with Spike?
What kind of lenses can be used?
How fast is Spike?
Very, very fast. Actually, this is quite a tricky question to answer legitimately, as it depends on a number of factors, like the weight of the camera/lens and the exact nature of the move path. As a rule of thumb, we can achieve nice camera moves at very high framerates. The Spike Reel is a good indicator of what’s possible.
How long does it take to program a move with Spike?
Programming Spike is a very straight and interactive process. Creating a smoothly accelerating and decelerating move is as easy as moving the camera first to a start position and then to an end position and clicking one button. There is no limit to the complexity or duration of a move. For an art installation we once set up a choreography with 71 move points and a duration of 17 minutes.
The move path is stored as a three dimensional Bezier curve, which means that the camera move between two programmed points can be exactly controlled . The overall duration of a move can be changed by adjusting a single value. The dynamics of the move (how the move accelerates and decelerates, where it pauses, a.s.o.) can be adjusted by with animation curves, using any number of keyframes.
Is Spike mobile?
Spike can be transported by truck, plane or boat. The entire setup consists of a couple of flight cases.