The new James Bond film will depict aerial action as never before, thanks to the so-called Snakehead camera, designed and built by SpaceCam Systems using SolidWorks 3D CAD.
The unit is the first plane-mounted gyroscopically stabilised, remotely controlled periscope, with a 360-degree spherical range of view, that’s also compatible with movie and HD cameras.
Veteran aerial cinematographer Dwayne McClintock, also a mechanical engineer who co-designed the system, says the camera provides super high quality resolution, with the lens maintaining a level horizon, “solidifying a frame of reference to keep viewers in the story”.
With the Snakehead, pilots can fly as aggressively as they dare, he says, without sacrificing the drama of the shot – proven last month in the canyons of Baja, Mexico, for the upcoming Bond film, Quantum of Solace. “We shot some astonishing footage, like nothing you’ve seen before.”
SpaceCam collaborated on the design with engineers at Ballista, which engineered the optics, also using SolidWorks CAD software.
Walt Caldwell, vice president of production and operations for Ballista, says that the Snakehead posed several significant design challenges, including battering from weather and debris, mechanical rotation and image inversion. Ballista used SolidWorks to create a fourth, ‘derotation’ prism to keep the filmed image upright in the periscope.
“What I like most about SolidWorks is the flexibility,” says Caldwell. “Whenever you start a project with nothing but an idea you wind up in a different place than you thought you would, constantly making multiple iterations with major changes.”
The result: “As they will see in the Bond film, the Snakehead puts moviegoers in the middle of the action instead of just observing, or worse, being virtually tossed around in the theatre,” says McClintock.
“The Snakehead is by far the most challenging design I’ve ever attempted… SolidWorks let us design a better product by cycling through dozens of iterations and working with flexible subassemblies. We had many original crazy and weird-looking parts that, thanks in large part to SolidWorks, went together seamlessly the first time.”
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