2016-09-24 (Sa) Clockwork Theremin

I'm no illustrator. When I draw it is usually limited to technical drawings. Someone more experienced in this field probably wouldn't have made a whole day out of this animation.

One of the things I fail to do at the beginning of a project is to show what I hope to accomplish by the end. I have a grand idea in my mind with details and approaches but when I get to these journals I only share the details and document the procedure. This way the overall goal isn't shown until the end. That's not a good way to communicate an idea. This should journal have happened on the first day rather than a couple weeks into the project.

I've described that there will be large gears moving according to distance sensors but this is significant because the gears do two things. Functionally, they move a couple of potentiometers on a frequency generator. Theatrically, they move according to the movements of the performer. Hopefully, the gears will turn quickly enough that it will appear as if the performer has strings attached to her or his hands. This is exciting to me. The comically large gears will be right out in front of the performer and in plain view

Enough background
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Basic shapes were sketched on graph paper. Transparency between sheets of paper was useful as a dark sketch of the gears was made then transferred to the pages above it. The left and right side were both sketched to act as templates but only the right side was used.

Flipping through the sketches

Sketches were scanned and imported to GIMP. GIMP has been used several other times in this blog and it was used exclusively for this animation. Images were brought in, isolated, and scaled. The round gears were drawn twice and to show motion they were toggled between the two drawings. This was not meant to act as an accurate representation of interlocking teeth or gear movement proportions. The whole process took hours and was undoubtedly a matter of inexperience with graphic editing.

Animation showing the operation of the Clockwork Theremin

Downloads:
Parts list:

The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

First time here?


Completed projects from year 1.

Completed projects from year 2.

Completed projects from year 3.


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2016-09-12 (M)

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