GIANT ROBOTS --forced perspective

[knightly]

Small electric motors with potentiometers to adjust speed, cabled to furniture movers/ car creepers.

Mark the start points of the foreground objects, then adjust their speed to fit your needs one by one until they all play right.

Reset to 1.

wire all the elements to a single array of switches that you can throw all at the same time and roll camera, action.

Schematic:

9v______________/ ____________Motor---------------------------sled
                |
9v______________/ ____________Motor---------------------------sled
                |
9v______________/ ____________Motor---------------------------sled

[Zensteve]

Maybe don't even need motorised.

This stop-motion Transformers video (linkage) uses a variety of techniques.

The "making of" video for it (linkage) shows the tracks they used, at the very end. All eye-balled and guestimated - and moved by hand.

Not really about forced perspective, I guess, though.

The world needs more giant killer robots.

.

[knightly]

One could even do a single pull with pulleys to alter the speed of the individual runs.

<grumpy old guy DIY rant>
I bemoan the gradual replacement of the gameboy over the erector set that taught kids for many generations the physics of mechanical things. These concepts have become just pictures in textbooks over the past 20 years. It's shocking how much real world knowledge we've lost in the transition from the industrial age to the digital age. I remember making and playing with electromagnets built with random wire I had laying around and stray nails. Building electronics and mechanical devices with stuff I had laying around.

Now that I've ranted, I have to attempt to try to solve the problem (because I dislike it when people complain without trying to solve the problem):

Some electronics, physics, woodworking, model making and various random projects in this list of sites. From basic skills to advanced

http://makezine.com/
http://jap.hu/electronic/
http://www.electronicsinfoline.com/
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projec...tromagnet.html
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/#electricity
http://www.csiro.au/resources/DIYScience.html
http://blogs.scienceforums.net/swans...ry/diy-science
http://www.diyadvice.com/diy/built-ins/basic-skills/
http://home.comcast.net/~cinorjer/index3.htm

There, that should just about do it.
</grumpy old guy DIY rant>