camera
Test shots in Dragonframe
Dragonframe
Definition
A test shot in Dragonframe is a full-resolution capture taken in the Cinematography workspace with the current camera settings. It is stored outside the take, so it never becomes an animation frame. Test shots are how a stop-motion camera crew proves composition, exposure, focus and lighting on the real sensor before the first frame of animation, and how it checks later that a scene still matches after a break.
Overview
Everything about a stop-motion shot is fixed before the animator touches the puppet: the lens, the exposure, the lighting, the focus. Once animation starts, changing any of them shows up as a jump on screen. Dragonframe's own manual says every project should begin in the Cinematography workspace, to make sure composition, exposure and focus are right, and the test shot is the tool that does that work. A test shot is a real high-resolution capture with the current camera settings, stored in its own tray. It does not interfere with the animation, so the crew can shoot as many as the setup needs.
A separate capture is needed because live view cannot be trusted as the final image. The manual warns that some cameras, including most Nikon DSLRs, do not simulate the final exposure in live view, so the high-resolution photos may look very different, and Dragonframe's FAQ addresses the same mismatch. Only the real file shows what the sensor recorded. That is why the evaluation tools sit next to the test-shot tray: a histogram; a clipping view that shows where colour information will be lost; a grayscale mode; a digital densitometer that compares the light values of two sampled areas in approximate stops; and an A/B tool that splits two images along a line you can drag and rotate.
Test shots are also a memory. Frames can be dragged from the exposure tray into the test-shot tray, and images from other scenes or takes can be imported, so today's setup can be compared with one shot weeks earlier. A separate References tray holds the few images a scene must keep matching. On a production that returns to the same set across many shots, this is the practical defence against continuity drift: lights age, rigs get bumped, and a side-by-side check catches it before it reaches the edit.
Test shots matter most in multi-pass work. A scene with several exposures per frame, such as a lit beauty pass plus separate lighting or matte passes (see Multiple-exposure lighting passes), has several looks to prove, not one. Dragonframe lets each exposure hold and lock its own camera settings, and the 2027.01 development builds add a direct shortcut: alt/option-clicking TEST SHOT shoots "a set of tests of all exposures", alongside listed improvements to test-shot group functionality. In our view this is the right direction. The pass nobody test-shot is the one that fails in compositing, and proofing the whole stack in one action removes the temptation to check only the beauty pass.
Workflow
- Set up the camera in Dragonframe and open the Cinematography workspace before animating anything.
- Set shutter, aperture, ISO and white balance in the Camera Settings pane, then lock them so they cannot drift.
- Press TEST SHOT to take a full-resolution test with the current settings; the thumbnail lands in the test-shot tray.
- Evaluate the test shot rather than the live view: check the histogram and clipping view, sample key and shadow areas with the densitometer, and confirm focus.
- Adjust lights or settings and shoot again; move the approved frame into the References tray.
- If the scene uses multiple exposures, lock each exposure's settings and test every pass (on 2027.01 development builds, alt/option-click TEST SHOT to shoot all exposures at once).
- Before resuming a scene after a break, take a fresh test shot and compare it with the reference using the A/B tool.