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Published 2 Apr 2018

Making 360 degree GIF Photos

I wanted to automate the creation of 360 degree animated GIF photos. The obvious way to do it appeared to be to use an Arduino board to control a stepper motor and synchronize the camera. I had previously created such animations by manually moving the camera and taking many photos, then manually aligning the images and stitching them together to get a more or less smooth animation. But this requires a subject that stays still as it takes a lot of time, and the images inevitably are slightly out of alignment.

Doing it the hard way, the first animation shows the raw frames jerking about, and the second shows the manually aligned frames giving a smoother animation:

Finished result, trimmed manually adjusted frames:

Animation created by trying to move a camera around the subject at a fixed distance.

(Published: Naturewatch)

Overview

The advantage of automating this by putting the subject on a rotating turntable is that the camera, lighting, distance to the subject, alignment and background all remain static. Additionally the number of images taken to get a smooth animation can be easily adjusted, and frames are in alignment without the necessity of editing or scaling to rectify variations in camera distance etc.

This was to be my first Arduino based project, so I looked for examples that had already implemented the tasks required. I came across shapespeare-scanner, a homemade 3D scanner to create 3D models. I didn't need 3D models, but just the basic automated image capture. So I purchased an Arduino Uno board, plus LCD shield and stepper controller module. I already had a bunch of stepper motors, so set to work.

Hardware configuration

Arduino Uno clone (duinotech UNO classic r3, p/n XC-4410)

LCD keypad shield clone (duinotech 2 x 16 LCD Controller, p/n XC-4454)

Stepper Motor controller (duinotech L298N based, Dual Stepper Motor Controller, p/n XC-4492)

I had a choice of a number of recycled stepper motors, and settled on using a msaf200b51, a Sankyo Mitsubishi flat motor with 1.8º/step (200 steps per revolution) and runs off a 12V power supply. Its low profile, and lack of any protruding shaft from underneath meant it could just sit on the desk while testing.

The hardware setup consisting of the Arduino UNO with LCD shield, stepper motor controller, stepper motor, and an infrared LED for controlling the shutter on the camera (the green and white wires to the left go to the 12V power supply for the motor, the rest is powered from the USB port)