Create a Light Painting Animation

A couple months ago I created a light painting animation for my schools annual film festival. Unfortunately after several mishaps it was not able to be played that night, so I put it on facebook and it got good reception. I have decided to publicize how I've created this animation, because I find that people can do incredible things, and while I was rushed while making this (it could've been tons better) I believe others can do 50x better jobs, which i'd love to watch.

I have a true love for light painting and other niche types of photography and cinematography, so hopefully my video will inspire others to share in my passion and create works for others to enjoy.

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Step 1: What You Need

There are many ways to create light painting photographs and also many ways to create stop motion animations on a computer. Because of this people may be able to do this with very little equipment, and others will want to use luxurious and expensive gear. I will tell what equipment I had at my disposal, as I believe this to be the recommended gear for this type of photography/cinematography.

You Will Need:

- Friend to lightpaint with
- DSLR (or point and shoot that supports full manual shooting, bulb mode, and manual focus)
- Tripod (the sturdier the better)
- Remote shutter release
- Strong Flashlights
- LED Lights
- Plenty of water (for late night adventures)
- Fairly modern computer
- Video editing software (I will explain process on adobe after effects)

Things That Help:

- External flash
- Head lamp (or other handless flashlight)
- Fireworks (sparklers mostly)
- Food
- Your rights as a photographer (in case you're stopped by the man)
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers

vayu says: Nov 26, 2012. 9:41 AM

Thanks! I really appreciated how thorough and well explained this tutorial is. The overview nature of your explanations really helped me understand.

How did you get colors in the light paintings? The one time I did light painting with a flashlight the painted light was the white/golden color of the flashlight.

nkraus1 (author) in reply to vayuNov 26, 2012. 10:30 AM

I used colored led's whenever single led's were used, and I made custom color filters for all the flashlights I used, which were originally white.

I did this by cutting out plastic discs from sheet protectors, coloring them with sharpies, and slipping it in the flashlight housing so the light came out colored.

chathorne says: Sep 7, 2012. 10:50 AM

i think the Spirograph could be done with a bycycle tire (or even better a unicycle) on th e inside of a tunnel or drainage culvert. mount your light to the outer edge somewhere and start rolling. thats the only way i can see the perfect spacing.