Normally, 29 men walking around in an endless circle would be the stuff of an [M.C. Escher] engraving. [Tobias] turned this into a reality with a little help from some LEDs and a 3D printer.
Like his earlier project, [Tobias] built himself a nice little strobing zoetrope that maintains the illusion of movement by flashing LEDs at precise intervals. Instead of a flat 2D image, [Tobias] went for a walking 3D figure that marches to the beat of a timer circuit. The figures themselves were printed via Shapeways.
The electronics were improved for this iteration. Formerly, [Tobias] used a 555 and a whole bunch of auxiliary components. The circuit was improved for this version to uses Schmitt triggers and an optical encoder. The easy-to-build-on-perfboard schematics and layouts are available, so feel free to build one for yourself.
[Tobias]’ zoetrope isn’t much different from the gigantic Charon sculpture seen at last year’s Burning Man. Sure, it’s not 40 feet tall but it’s still a nice piece of work.
I love it! The light artifacts on the camera are pretty cool too.
Now all he needs to do is make it play “Around the world” in a loop.
while(1)
printf(“Around the world”);
That’s badass.
Cool stuff! Very neat!
Wish I had a 3d printer. Cool project!
The link to the “gigantic Charon sculpture” is broken.
Haters gonna hate.
Hateqs? what haters?
All the comments on the zoetrope have been positive.
I think it’s great, I’m reminded of a similar zoetrope of walking matchtick men on a large disc which was also ‘animated’ through strobe lighting, it had the men walking down invisible stairs.
Someone’s first day on the internets detected.
On-topic: awesome project!
Matchstick men would be more my budget. Any link to that project?
Woops, replied to the wrong comment below. As I intended though, “Matchstick men would be more within my budget. Any link to that project”?
I think the broken link should be…
http://hackaday.com/2011/09/16/burning-man-2011-peter-hudsons-charon-strobe-sculpture/
(do I win a free zeotrope?)
Awesome! I totally need one of those for my front window next Halloween. Any chance of selling them (cheap) ?
Looks cool, i love the way they walk. No go make a Terminator themed one, that would be awsome.
Normally, 29 men walking around in an endless circle would be the stuff of an [M.C. Escher] engraving.
Or a porno.
Awesome stuff. Would love to have one of these. Shouldn’t cost more than a few bucks if made in Hong Kong :D
@HAD..
I had to laugh :)
This is amazing. WITCHCRAFT!
thanks for the comments
I aimed for easy and cheap reproduction with the drehkino design. It has a minimum of mechanics and electronics.
The 3D printed disk is expensive though.
You guys are declining: in last drehkino project, porn was already mentioned in the 3rd comment.
I think it’s a very amazing project and animation, one of the best zootropes I’ve ever seen.
Congratulations and greetings from sunny Spain.
to make this all the more awesome
1.motorize it
2.put the encoder on the backside
3.put the flashing leds on the perimeter, so the it’s an 360 wheel of endlessly walking men
4. put clock in the now unused middle
5. ???
6. profit
Very nice. You could make them walk forward AND backwards so it looks mor like dancing. Then play this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4
Awesome
Wow!! that is awesome
Seriously awesome project, but that was a lot of material! For those with a lower budget who might be interested in 3d printed zoetropes I would look into something like a 200mm case fan as a starting point for the rig. You could print the animation as new fan blades and the whole thing would spin when blown with air/could be run @ 3600rpm to achieve ~60fps. Remember, a zoetrope does not have to be in a vertical configuration!