Camera Bumps

Camera bumps are literally the worst nightmare for animators especially when they are unfixable. When you have a very long animation shot and it takes you days or weeks to complete the worst this you can do is bump your camera. Even a slight touch of the camera is considered a bump and can wreck the beauty of the shot. There is no real solution to fixing a bump other than maybe pushing the camera close to its original position. You can also try to fix the bump in a compositing software by stabilizing the footage or isolating the animation and fixing the environment as a plate. Both of those solutions are extremes and usually only work on subtle bumps.

The only real solution is the prevention of bumping the camera. Depending on the setup you have for producing animation will greatly depend on how you prevent the bumping of your camera. For instance you should never touch the camera or camera stand after you start shooting. The exception to this is when you are doing camera tricks such as focus pulls and camera moves. It is however proper practice to not touch the camera.

Here are some preventative measures you can use to reduce camera bumps:

• Stabilize the Camera – You can stabilize the camera by gluing it down to the floor or table using hotglue. You can easily remove this glue with a little squirt of rubbing alcohol which makes cleanup very easy. (Kid’s don’t glue your cameras to your parent kitchen table. You’ll strip the finish off of it).
• Pull Back from the Action – Not my favorite solution but you can pull the camera further back away from the puppet to help prvent the chance of bumping the camera. (I like to keep the camera close to the puppet which gives a depth of field and focus effect to the image. This causes lots of problems when the camera is too close).
• Kick Plate – In major production studios we use what are called kick plates. These plates are basically 2×4 pieces of wood hot glood around the ligths and camera stands feet to prevent anyone from kicking the stand accidentally.
• Don’t Touch! – Don’t touch the camera unless you absolutely have to.

Conclusion:

Overall the best solution is to prevent the bump in the first place. Sounds simple until you actually bump the camera the millionth time. Don’t worry with practice you’ll gain a super natural awareness of your space and be walking around and animating like a ninja creeping through a fortress.