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<div>Dave,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>That is a terrific website you have, very interesting. I have book marked it and will paw through it completely. I rubbed elbows with Scanimate at "Dolphin Prod" in NYC. I used to run over and maintain their quad machine. I never got into the Scanimate it'self as I was there mostly at night after work. I remember the first time I was there, there was an intermittent problem with the quad, I found a strange signal running thru the video system. I couldn't figure where it was coming from, but I had their head guy (Bruce Davis) working with me and he shut down each computer in the place one at a time and the damn signal was still there. About 2 days later, by accident I found an Ampex video DA hiding up under the top of the console with all outputs un terminated. It was oscillating to beat the band.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Does the name "Steve Rutt" ring any bells?? I knew him many years ago and I kind of associate him with Scanimate. Haven't seen him in a long time, he is one of the most brilliant people I knew.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Thanks again for the info in that website of yours.<br>
<br>
</div>
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<div style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Dave Sieg <dave@zfx.com><br>
To: Quad List <quadlist@quadvideotapegroup.com><br>
Sent: Thu, Feb 25, 2010 1:11 pm<br>
Subject: [QuadList] Scanimate - was CMX-600<br>
<br>
<div id=AOLMsgPart_3_01ccfd39-6ed8-4a22-8bda-409f2063ec31>
<div>(CMX-600 discussion - SNIP)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
Speaking of huge relics that belong in museums...
<div><br>
<div>I've communicated with several of the QuadList members about this but thought I'd take the opportunity to throw this out to the group. Its not exactly QuadTape related, but close.</div>
<div>So you can fine me for going slightly off-topic but I'm broke anyway... :D</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I have the dubious honor of owning the original R&D Scanimate system. It works.</div>
<div>Its in my studio currently. You can see more about it at my site <A href="http://www.scanimate.net/" target=_blank>http://www.scanimate.net</A></div>
<div>Scanimate is an ANALOG computer that makes computer animation in real time.</div>
<div>For about 10 years in the seventies, if you saw computer animation on TV it was </div>
<div>generated by one of the eight Scanimates. Lots of Sesame Street and Electric Company</div>
<div>graphics, the stomach-swelling Pepto-Bismol "indiGESTion" spot, NBC Nightly News opens, etc.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The Scanimates were produced by Computer Image of Denver, CO. There were two at</div>
<div>Dolphin Productions in New York City, two at Image West in LA (where I was CE for awhile)</div>
<div>one at RTL in Luxembourg, one in Sydney, Australia at the 9 network, one in Japan, and</div>
<div>the machine I have was in Denver then briefly at Interface in DC. I have kept the machine in </div>
<div>good working condition, and in fact recently did a job for <A href="http://buck.tv/" target=_blank>buck.tv</A> in LA where we shot the </div>
<div>CRT directly with a RED digital cinema camera at 4K and got some amazing results.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am relocating to Asheville, NC and would like to find a better home for this machine. </div>
<div>I have gotten offers from several museums, although none want to even pay to ship it.</div>
<div>They all want to turn it into a static display of a dead machine. I would like to find a home</div>
<div>for the machine where it can still be operated, since there seems to be a resurgence in</div>
<div>interest in all things analog, and in the work these systems produced over the years.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>To further complicate things, I was recently contacted by a guy who has all the parts and </div>
<div>pieces (including manuals and spare parts!) to a complete Scanimate system in Denver.</div>
<div>(Long story, I won't bore you with details here!) He is selling his house and needs to get</div>
<div>rid of it. Much as I would love to get this machine too, I've already got one too many.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Analog animation is of course a dead art. The "animator" had to design a complex circuit</div>
<div>and patch together phase-locked oscillators, ramps, summing amplifiers, bias pots, and</div>
<div>multipliers to "build the animation". Toggling the Initial/Final switch recycled and restarted</div>
<div>the animation, which came out in real time and was recorded on Quad machines </div>
<div>(SEE! I told you there was a connection, albeit slight!) and IVC-9000 2" helicals which</div>
<div>allowed things to go down an embarrassing number of generations. It helped that the</div>
<div>"Look" that was in vogue was kind of glowey and saturated (that's really all it could DO!).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>That being said, once the animation was set up, there were thousands of knobs that could</div>
<div>be tweaked to get the client (who usually sat breathing down your neck as you worked!) </div>
<div>happy enough to sign off on it and walk out the door with a quad tape of his project.</div>
<div>You just had to hope he didn't show up the next day requesting one SLIGHT tweak, since</div>
<div>there was no way to even come close to doing the same animation from scratch again.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So.. I know there are many of you in the same boat, having lovingly cared for and kept </div>
<div>the flame alive on some ancient, once-glittering marvel of technology thats now so far</div>
<div>beyond obsolete that its very existence is a minor miracle. This stuff and the ephemera</div>
<div>we talk about in this group needs to be kept alive somewhere. The interest the Scanimate</div>
<div>website has generated, and the continued sales of the DVDs I produced of its old work</div>
<div>and the people who "animated" with them demonstrates that this old technology is far from</div>
<div>dead or even dying.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One of the groups I've had brief contact with is the Moog Foundation, which is building a </div>
<div>museum in Asheville, NC to house some of the legacy of Robert Moog, the inventor of</div>
<div>the Moog synthesizer. There is a lot of commonality between the Moog and Scanimate,</div>
<div>but the Foundation is having trouble getting funding for their own efforts, much less</div>
<div>trying to expand to include Scanimate.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So I'm throwing this out to this group to see if anybody has any brilliant ideas for the</div>
<div>long term.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><B><I>*How do we protect and preserve some of this old technology that was the equivalent of <SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal"><B><I>the Apollo program in its own field back in the pioneering days?</I></B></SPAN></I></B></SPAN></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
<br>
-- <br>
Dave Sieg, President, ZFx inc.<br>
<A href="http://www.zfx.com/" target=_blank>www.zfx.com</A> <A href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/davesieg" target=_blank>www.linkedin.com/in/davesieg</A><br>
<A href="http://www.davesieg.com/" target=_blank>www.davesieg.com</A><br>
<A href="http://www.scanimate.net/" target=_blank>www.scanimate.net</A><br>
<br>
</div>
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