A Rotoscoped Animation of Rotary Nystagmus Due to BPPV

A few years ago when I made my claymation version of the Dix-Hallpike and Epley Maneuvers for BPPV, I also made a lame attempt to show an example of rotary nystagmus with a claymation eye but that didn't turn out so well and I forgot about it. I have now returned to the subject but with a new twist. I used some new animation software to create an animation of rotary nystagmus. I also threw in the claymation portion of the Dix-Hallpike video with a few modifications to parallel the test findings. It turned out even better than I expected it to. I used Toon Boom Studio 5 to rotoscopically animate a normal close-up video that I made of a face with one eye in the frame. Then I manipulated the eye layer of the drawing to simulate the rotational movements of the eye associated with BPPV. Here is the final product:

New Bulletin Board and the First Forum, Time-lapse Videos

Not too long ago I purchased the domain webiocosm.net through a different provider with hopes of finding a system of running not just my blog, but also the entire website without an expensive or obsolete program like Front Page. I am still mainly using the domain webiocosm.com at this time, but I am looking to employ or at least test some of the features readily available on this new service. As a result I have started the Webiocosm Bulletin board to promote discussion about topics that I and other readers find important. Here is the first Forum, which is about Time-lapse videos.

Update 08/16/07: Forget the Bulletin Board, it is too much trouble keeping the porn and medication peddlers off of there.

A Dizzy Diagnosis: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo

click to view video 

BPPV is a disorder of the inner ear which is a cause of vertigo in approximately 20% of patients who present to their doctor with this complaint. This occurs when otoconia are dislodged from their usual position within the utricle and they migrate over time into one of the semicircular canals (the posterior canal is most commonly affected due to its anatomical position). This Diagnosis can be made using the Dix-Hallpike Test and is frequently treated by use of the Epley Maneuvers.

In my practice, I make this diagnosis more often than many of my peers, mostly I think because I look for it. To me, it is about the only bright spot when dealing with the chief complaint of "dizziness". This is because treatment is so effective and no medicines are required. Patients have called back in a day or two just to tell me that it worked because they are so surprised. Honestly, when I first started doing it, I was surprised as well. It seems like most of the family practitioners that I talk to have heard of this simple procedure, but most of them never try it because for some reason it seems too magical or tricky. For that reason I have created this claymation video to serve as a visual aid for those who are interested. Keep in mind that this is not my specialty, this is not intended to replace a visit to your doctor if you experience vertigo, and you shouldn't try this if you don't have the training to know when you shouldn't do it. This is just a fun little video to give you very basic idea of how it is done. I will gladly accept any criticism of the technique, but don't expect me to change the video because the patient has been thrown out. Enjoy.

Claymation Eye Movement

7 sec., 1.5 Mb, QuickTime

This video was made during the same session as the Dix-Hallpike and Epley Maneuver video was made. I was going to try to demonstrate Rotary (torsional) nystagmus which becomes apparent with a positive Dix-Hallpike test. However the clay was too soft and the toothpicks in the back of the eye kept moving around instead of the eye moving properly, so I just did the best I could at making the eye look around and look as real as possible.

Claymation Water Drop

4 Sec., Quicktime, 780 kb

Back in July when I made my first claymation video, I thought I was going to make a ton of them, but since there aren't enough hours in a day, I haven't made another one until yesterday. I tried to produce a realistic slow motion video of a water drop falling into a bowl of water using one of my sons bowls and his blue play-doh. I only took 66 pictures and created a movie sequence using Quicktime pro. The video is not too realistic looking but it turned out better than expected. I spent about 2 hours and 15 minutes on the entire project. The above movie is small but good quality for a quick download. You can go to my time-lapse video download page to view the large version and a small WMV/AVI version.

My First Claymation Video

I can see that this is probably going to get out of hand. As I mentioned in my last post, I have always been a big fan of time-lapse photography. I will also mention that I have always been a big fan of animation and claymation which are variations of the same basic concept. I dreamed of being able to do this stuff when I was a kid. In fact I spent a great deal of time making animated flip books with cartoons about my friends. Now that I am a big kid with some new technology, I am about to go crazy with it. This morning I got up and spent about an hour and a half producing this short claymation video just to see how it would turn out. The original was much larger with a higher quality picture, but I greatly reduced it, just so it could be quickly downloaded. As you will see if you watch it, picture quality is not that important at this point. A couple of things I could do to improve the video would be to get better, more constant lighting and have the camera more stable. This video is 28 seconds long, and available in Quicktime (2.2Mb) or AVI (2.8 Mb) format.

First Claymation Video