Scanimate Tour: CRT Rescanning
Today, most image work is done in digital frame buffers, or in large RAM-based memory arrays.
In the days of the scanimate, the CRT could be considered the analog "memory" of the system,
with the scan manipulations being address offsets to the information "stored" in memory.
The big difference was that the information was actually represented optically, so the
animators could defocus the rescan camera, place diffusion, refraction, reflection, or star filters
between the camera and the CRT.
Somebody discovered that toilet paper made interesting diffusion patterns, and a whole new
style of effects was born.
At one point, I motorized a star-filter, and connected it to a variable voltage power supply.
Rotating star-filter highlights were in vogue for a while as a result. (Sorry!).
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