ABSTRACT
Traditional Camera Movements Before the Digital Age all animation was shot on a down shooter camera, called at times a ‘ Rostrum camera ’ or an ‘ Oxberry camera ’, named after the American engineer John Oxberry (1918 – 1974) who designed an industry-standard camera stand. These cameras set-ups could be as simple as a home camera with a single frame shutter, clamped on a shelf or table, up to the huge, motorized two-column professional camera stands . But, in most cases, the set-up was similar: a single frame camera was mounted on a column and the animation artwork was placed on pegs on a compound table and held down by a heavy glass plate called a ‘ platen ’. The table had long top and bottom peg bars to move (pan) artwork, could rotate 360 degrees (a ‘ tilt ’ angle) and was equipped with a light box underneath to do bottom-lit shots. The camera had an auto-focus so no matter how the camera or artwork moved, the lens adjusted. The earliest camera stands even had wooden frames, where camerapeople would pin artwork not in use.
