Plug From the Haunted Email:

Here is a question from the old email bag that gets into the technical aspects of building an animation wheel.



It also gives me a chance to plug my ebook, Animation on a ShoeString (tm) which has all kinds of cool trick for putting together an animation studio without going broke http://www.agni-animation.com/shoestring.html

My ebook comes with reviews of animation products and links to lots and lots of animation supplies and suppliers. Along with how to paterns for building stuff like the Animation Wheel project. All for just $15 and handling. (if I am going to plug myself I am going all the way, it slices it dices, it cuts through led pipes)

Hi Larry:
I intend to build, or commission to build an animation light table with the rotating disk on top. You are the first to give details on the subject. I understand that the disk is not absolutely necessary, but I would like to make a try. If it turns to be rather expensive or difficult, I know I will get along with a simple illuminated surface. The problem is that I could not find a single reference or detailed description of the intimate mechanism for which the disk rotates and is assembled onto the tabletop. Yes, I find several guys who gave more or less detailed instructions to build the table, but not the disk. You are the first to give details on the subject. Your instructions are great, and really inexpensive. Nevertheless, I have some doubts. How many wheels or rollers do I need? Is it that I need only two rollers against the lower edge of the disk? If the disk is placed over a wooden tabletop, how could the rollers be installed? Thank you very much for any additional help you may give me.

Gustavo S_ _ _

I am going to assume that you have bought a copy on my ebook, Animation on a ShoeString (tm) and are not just trying to figure it out from page 25 of the abbreviated sample http://www.agni-animation.com/blog/shoestringsample6.pdf that I have up on my site. If not, I could use the $15 and any way you will find lots of other cool tips for animation studio building. So I might be bias but I truely think it is worth it.



That being said, the portable table I built for last year`s 6th edition can be improved on. I took the cheapest way as per my norm. I would replace the sliding door rollers with radio controlled airplane tires and I would use 4 of them, two at the top corners and two at the bottom.

The top two would be spring loaded so they hold the wheel in and the wheel can still be released and use separately.

I would also replace the plastic milk box base with a nice wooden base. It will up the cost but not that much. The cost now would clock in around the $200 mark, which is much better than the $2,000 plus you can expect to pay if you go the normal special order route of having a carpenter build a table around a $500 wheel from Cartoon Colour.

As for the wheel itself I would not change my pattern at all. A functional animation disk, without table, for about $35 and labor is a good deal. You can even use it without the table if you want to carry it with you to school. Although I would get a thicker Plexiglas face plate than I used on my prototype and I know I would take a little more care cutting the circle out of that Plexiglas. (I rushed it to have my new edition ready for the Stop Mo Expo in April)