Multiplane camera

The multi- plan - camera or multi-level camera is a 1933 first developed by Ub Iwerks cartoon camera. The data necessary for an animated film backgrounds were drawn on glass plates and then taken staggered in depth. This created at camera movements to the sides a realistic 3D effect, as move through the parallax the image planes while moving against each other.

This effect alone would, however, also be implemented with several directly superposed films which are set in accordance with fixed camera between exposures of the individual images. The distances for the offset are for the foreground of the largest and decrease with increasing the apparent distance to a mostly stationary background.

Because of the high effort in both methods are mostly limited to one or two action- leading image planes, as in addition of course the individual motion phases of the actors need to be replaced for the simulation of three-dimensionality. The construction is completed usually only reinforced by one each foreground and background level, which is not animated in the rule itself, but through their shift the impression of spaciousness.

With the Multiplan camera, it is also possible to focus on shallow depth of field with some images to emphasize the three-dimensional effect even more. At that time - before the introduction of computer animation - this was the only technically acceptable way to realize fuzzy contours in the cartoon. Thus, so-called focus - zooms are feasible, ie, the image sharpness "wanders" in a smooth transition, for example, from the foreground to a deeper image plane.

The Disney Studios put a 1937 self-developed multi - camera plan in the short film The Old Mill (1937) and widely used in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( 1937 ) Pinocchio (1940 ) and Bambi by 1942.