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Monday, June 28, 2010

Time lapse: Dallas’ Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge arch now completely arch-like


Oh, sure, they completed the arch -- but those dang palettes are still sitting there next to the road.

About a month ago I got word that the steel arch sections of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge were beginning to go up, so I began capturing images from the Trinity River Corridor's webcam with the thought of putting them together in a rough time-lapse sequence.

The result is what you see here.

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge arch completion time lapse

The final section of the arch was lifted into place Saturday morning, which kind of made this morning's official champagne toasting event something of a belated affair. (One wonders why they decided to complete the arch on Saturday instead of doing it real-time this morning as the corks were popped.)

At any rate, the Santiago Calatrava-designed span is scheduled for completion in late 2011 -- by which time the construction webcam will be no longer needed.



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juliettedc, anonymous:

We found out about the final arch placement a day before it happened because construction was early. When does that happen? So we decided to still have the celebration on Monday as it definitely was a celebration and a milestone for the Trinity! We had more than 100 attend, but missed seeing you.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

It's nice to be missed, Juliette, thanks! I caught a glimpse of you in the WFAA video post, looking pretty happy.

2 years, 10 months ago
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PowerOn, anonymous:

Hmm, I disagree on how you use with photo in lapse by use fade-in/out. That's annoying.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

Thanks for your observation, PowerOn. The problem with not using fade of some sort was that the camera view shifted around from one day to the next - a direct transition would potentially be even more annoying.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

So that's what that is. I figured we decided that St. Louis has had just about enough Arch-related fame.

And yeah, the shifting was weird. Why did they move the webcam around so much?

imo, should have captured all of the images, and made a longer movie out of them. It looks like they update every minute.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

In fact, I know that it'll be boring now, but I think I'll set that up. Someone remind me in like a week to make a video.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

You go, Pavel!

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Are there any other cool webcams in the DFW area? I remember searching about a year back, and couldn't find anything really nifty. I wish there was a comprehensive directory of that kind of thing.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Crunching through the last 24 hours, it's taking awhile. Prepare for some boring boring footage.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

I wait with bated breath. (Pass the Certs.)

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Okay, so it's converting it in a terribly lossy manner, and ffmpeg on OS X isn't playing nicely, so this might have to wait awhile. :(

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

What about the weather cameras?

http://www.wfaa.com/weather/cameras

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Hey, that's a good idea. I added them to my list, thanks! As soon as I figger out how this video-on-computer thing works, I'll see if I can just automatically upload 'em to youtube.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Figured out how to turn stills into a video and uploaded a sample result to youtube.

Sorry it looks so crummy; I resized the images before creating the video (otherwise it would take half an hour to upload.)

I think tomorrow I might be able to figure out how to automate the upload-to-youtube process, and just post nightly time-lapse videos. I have no idea why I'm driven to do this.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Also, looking at the original video, that might just be YouTube's processing screwing it all up. I might have to figure out another video host.

2 years, 10 months ago
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OEsophagus, anonymous:

that's really freaking cool

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

Pavel, that is fabulous! Plus, it's much more interesting with cloud cover moving across the sky. Reminds me of Koyaanisqatsi.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

Pavaanisqatsi - Pavel out of balance.

Nice work. Good to have geeks around, eh?

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

All we need now it the Philip Glass soundtrack...

2 years, 10 months ago
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:

Pavel, your work is brilliant

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Pavaanisqatsi - Pavel out of balance.

I'm currently using my laptop to take a picture of myself every minute. I'll try to turn it into a video and stick it on YouTube.

Gotta figure out how to put a soundtrack on there...

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

This is on like Donkey Kong.

Now taking votes on an appropriate piece of music to put on the video of myself going about my day.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

Time Becomes -- Orbital

2 years, 10 months ago
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:

i guess Thus Spoke Zarathustra (2001 A Space Odyssey) is too much of a cliche

maybe Air? "Sexy Boy" has the good title but isn't as soundtracky as "La Femme D'Argent"

or you could go with something nice and rockin' like Turbonegro's "F*ck the World"

really, anything by Turbonegro would work...

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

Arvo Part: Tabula Rasa

2 years, 10 months ago
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alexander troup, verified:

BACK TO CENTER...The reason they build Dealy Plaza in 1935/6 was that was where the center of the city was since 1845...the Cockrell bridge was build there in 1872 of steel not far from where the Commerce street bridge was later built..of the 1880s to 1929.....we call centers because they are in the middle of things,

The present bridge is in the developers center, not County and City, and The Dragon street property has doubled in 12 months....big deal...

And yet it is an impressive site in the wrong place... remember we are in Dallas Texas the 21st Century where anything stupid will happend...

And last this is a very big statement bridge.... not signature....A/T, Building bridges over troubled waters....

2 years, 10 months ago
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OEsophagus, anonymous:

99 Bottles of beer on the Wall

I Wanna Mohawk

My Humps

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Bigger version of video is now available, with a potentially copyright-infringing soundtrack to boot!

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

Nice. Music adds drama.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

From reader Dianna S., who offices in Fountain Place, comes this slideshow of the arch construction as seen (mostly) from her office window:

http://dispix.shutterfly.com/8359

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

Wow! That was really cool Pavel!

Um, yours was nice too, John! :)

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

jtmbls, I am more than happy for Pavel to have shown me up for a piker in the realm of video production. (But thanks for the compliment!)

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

This was nowhere near as interesting as I thought it would be.

Watch for cameos by my coworkers, and see if you can spot me picking my nose!

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

Ha! It seems to me you picked your nose a lot!

How many hours of film was that?

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

::nowhere near as interesting

Quick review.... Um... Pavel ... you.... um... work at a computer all day.

Unless that computer were strapped to a Saturn V rocket or in a submersible vehicle, you'd end up with footage slightly akin to ... um... well there really is no substitute:

Webcam watching paint dry.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

ok, who stole my link?

Webcam watching paint dry.

Seriously, I finally got an external link to work first time since the redesign (without ludicrous prepended url kruft) and it gets ditched? Foul!

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

ahem... my dumb.... move along . nothing to see here

2 years, 10 months ago
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Alex Bentley, staff:

Feeling sorry for Jason, so here's that link.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

That was from 10 to 5.

And fine, next time I'll get a timelapse of myself working in my top secret rocket base.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

Personally, I found it fascinating. Particularly the part where the water stain in the shape of the Virgin Mary appears on the wall behind you briefly.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Hm, the wfaa cameras aren't great. The indoor ones are boring, and they move the downtown camera around too much for it to work. :(

Anyone else know of any interesting webcam locations around Dallas?

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

More boring than you at your desk? Are you sure? ;)

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

well, it missed all the nude scenes.

2 years, 10 months ago
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jtmbls, anonymous:

I, for one, would like to see a time lapse of the process you have to go through to get the hawk up.

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

Hm, that one's not working for me.

2 years, 10 months ago
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alexander troup, verified:

Well it is coming along.....and by the time it is done all of the libraries will be closed for good.....who do you think payed for Dealy Plaza in 1934 when it opened up.........A/T, Bridges over trouble waters.....

2 years, 10 months ago
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alexander troup, verified:

Well it is coming along.....and by the time it is done all of the libraries will be closed for good.....who do you think payed for Dealy Plaza in 1934 when it opened up.........A/T, Bridges over trouble waters.....

2 years, 10 months ago
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Pavel Lishin, verified:

So, this is automated now. :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/pavellishin

2 years, 10 months ago
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Jason Rice, verified:

I SOOO hate that I have to admit thinking that something THIS geeky is cool.

2 years, 10 months ago
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John Meyer, staff:

This qualifies for über-cool status. (Do we confer that here?)

2 years, 10 months ago
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