Scanimate Tour: Patch Panels

The Scanimate had several patch panels. These panels were actually invented for the analog computer world. The cords had both male and female jacks and plugs so that you could stack several of them to connect multiple things to the same point in the CPU. There was an oscilloscope under the main rescan CRT so you could watch the voltages behave as you adjusted the various oscillators, bias pots, ramp generators, etc. The animators practically had the patch-points memorized, but I have had to draw little maps of each patch panels connections so I don't get lost. Notice in the picture above below the small square patch panel, a section of the machine called "Mouth Circuit". This interesting little circuit section took audio and through selective filtering generated analog parameters that made raster sections of scanned lip artwork move semi-convincingly in sync with the audio, all in real-time! One of the funniest things I remember seeing was Roy Weinstock hooking this up and supering ruby red lips over Walter Cronkite's face as he read the CBS Evening News one night!

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