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Mova & Gentle Giant Demo Moving 3D Sculpture of Live-Action Performance

Performance capture studio Mova and Gentle Giant Studios are unveiling a unique 3D Zoetrope that uses persistence of motion to bring to life a series of 3D models of an actor's face captured live by Mova's Contour Reality Capture System in booth #1229 at SIGGRAPH 2007 in San Diego this week.

Two-dimensional Zoetropes, a precursor to motion picture technology, have been around since the 1800s, and recently 3D Zoetropes have shown animated characters in motion, but this 3D Zoetrope is the first to show a live action, natural 3D surface in motion. The resulting effect is a physical sculpture of a speaking human face that comes to life with perfect motion, faithful to the original actor's performance down to a fraction of a millimeter.

"Just as the 2D Zoetrope offered a glimpse of the coming future of full-length 2D movies, in our lifetimes we'll be seeing not only 3-D live-action movies, but 3-D interactive experiences that look as physically real as this 3D Zoetrope," said Steve Perlman, founder and president of San Francisco-based Mova. "Contour Reality Capture will eliminate the restriction of a single camera viewpoint, allowing us to freely move around and into a live-action scene, while still maintaining complete photorealism."

"The 3D Zoetrope is an example of capturing a live performance, digitizing it and then returning to the physical form to create a type of realtime, stop motion animation," said Brian Sunderlin, vp of operations of Gentle Giant Studios in Burbank, California. "Gentle Giant Studios provides an integral component to visual effects creation for feature film via 3D scanning of actors. Combined with the revolutionary process that is the Mova Contour Reality Capture System, we envision a seamless integration of true, motivated performances that will wow audiences worldwide."

The Zoetrope on display at SIGGRAPH consists of 30 3D models of a face in motion. The models spin on a wheel and a strobe light illuminates each as it passed by a viewing window, much as still frames projected intermittently are perceived as a moving image. To the viewer, it looks like one 3D face in continuous motion.

Mova used the Contour Reality Capture System to capture the live performance of an actor using an array of cameras with shutters synchronized to lights flashing more than 90 times per second, beyond the threshold of human perception.

The glow from phosphorescent ("glow in the dark") makeup sponged onto the actor is captured by the camera array. Triangulation and frame-by-frame tracking of the 3D geometry is then used to produce more than 100,000 polygons to create a 3D face, to an accuracy of a fraction of a millimeter.

Gentle Giant Studios used the captured 3D surface geometry and formed 30 individual models with the help of a 3D stereolithography printer, which creates the models layer-by-layer using a plastic resin. Gentle Giant designed and fabricated the actual Zoetrope mechanism.

The apparatus is presented in an enclosure at SIGGRAPH to keep out extraneous light with a window to look in to see the 3D sculpture in motion.

With Contour, every subtle detail of a human performance--from an arching eyebrow to widening eyes to a sly smile--is recorded in realtime, offering directors and producers greater creative control.

Contour's high-definition, 3D volumetric capture of the action can be imported, modified, manipulated or retargeted to other characters using off-the-shelf CG animation software. Contour can quickly and easily import true human behavior in all its distinct complexity into the virtual realm and works well with both marker-based motion capture and key frame animation systems.

Traditional marker-based motion capture is used to create incredibly realistic performances for skeletal captures, but was never designed to capture the intricacies of soft tissue motion, like pursing lips or billowing fabric. Contour captures the motion of any 3D surface, deformable or not, with sub-millimeter precision at up to 120 frames-per- second. The result is a totally real, digitized performance that requires minimal manual clean up.

Contour is compatible with popular animation software and hardware systems, including Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Motion Builder, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Softimage|XSI, Softimage|Face Robot, all Vicon software and the Vicon MX family of motion capture hardware. Contour data can also be exported as OBJ, C3D or Autodesk Point Cache 2 files and synchronizes with SMPTE time-codes.

San Francisco-based Mova (www.mova.com) provides 3D performance capture services and technology for feature films and videogames. Mova's clients include Digital Domain, Rhythm & Hues, Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal. Mova has worked on such projects as the Electronic Arts' THE GODFATHER and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and Vivendi Universal's ERAGON, as well as major motion pictures currently in production. Mova was founded by Steve Perlman within the Rearden creative and technology incubator, which also incubated Ice Blink Studios, that Perlman co-founded with Doug Chiang (production designer, THE POLAR EXPRESS, BEOWULF).

Burbank, CA-based Gentle Giant Studios was created by Karl Meyer more than 10 years ago. Today, Gentle Giant has teams of concept artists, traditional and digital sculptors creating content for television, feature film and videogames. Gentle Giant Studios works with Industrial Light & Magic, Rhythm & Hues, Sony Imageworks and many others.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

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