Mova has developed the markerless Contour Reality Capture System to capture the intricacies of soft tissue motion such as pursing lips or billowing fabric. Courtesy of Mova Contour.

But Contour doesn't just capture a scene in 3D; it tracks the polygons in a scene from frame-to-frame. The reason this is critical when it comes to workflow is that it allows faces, characters or cloth to be retargeted. So a face, for example, that is captured can be altered to appear younger or older, or even transformed into an entirely different face in realtime and still retain the nuanced performance of the actor. In the case of a videogame, a performance could be used to drive a lower resolution model, and the videogame developers could decide what facial features are most distinctive for conveying a character that might be played by a celebrity.

As for on set previs, Perlman states, "Since Contour is a photographic system, the reconstructed 3D images captured are generated automatically. During the shoot, the Contour system provides the director, vfx team and actors with reconstructed 3D captures to evaluate on the set. These are not skeletons or simple cartoon characters, which is all that is typically available for realtime marker-based on set playback. These are detailed 3D reconstructions of the actual actor's face and/or body and clothing, accurate to sub-millimeter precision. It looks just like the actor as if he or she were shot with HD video. The difference is that it is completely in 3D, captured volumetrically in gigavoxels rather than megapixels, so you can move around the image and view it from any angle. Thus, Contour delivers data that is effectively impossible to recreate cost-effectively using any other method."

Although Contour received a glowing endorsement last year from David Fincher, Perlman is not able to confirm its involvement in the director's reverse aging fantasy with Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "We are working with A-list actors and directors, on major motion pictures and on breakthrough videogames. Also, I can say that everyone we've done a test with is continuing to work with us. And, I can say that what we are hearing from the people using the technology is that it is revealing subtleties in facial motion that they have never seen before. And, yes, an A-list actor asked us to do a private capture of his face to archive a perfect 3D record of himself at his current age. But we can't tell you who, what projects, etc.

Mova President Steve Perlman shows off the Contour Reality Capture System. Courtesy of Mova Contour.

"As an example, Contour is really transforming the way people are using FACS (Facial Action Coding System). Before Contour, the actor was holding his/her face rigidly in each FACS pose as the face was scanned. Well, it takes a lot more muscle strength and different flexing to hold a face in an expression pose than it takes when the face naturally passes through an expression pose. So, the face is shaped differently that it is during a normal performance. With Contour, FACS poses can be captured during a real performance while the face is in natural motion. And, the results are far more natural looking, and don't look as stiff or strained."

According to Brian Nilles, CEO of Vicon U.S., "The innovation by the team at Mova is quickly coalescing into the most profound improvement in CG facial animation since our own MX40 camera. For CG animation that requires both the performer and the CG character to be the same, the Mova Contour system should provide a clear and significant step toward the holy grail of a photorealistic final product. We are proud to be both collaborator and integrator for Mova's work with the Vicon system."

J. Paul Peszko is a freelance writer and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He writes various features and reviews as well as short fiction. He has a feature comedy in development and has just completed his second novel. When he isn't writing, he teaches communications courses.