Motus Lets Users 'Film' Within Any 3D Environment 89
Zothecula writes "In the creation of the film Avatar, director James Cameron invented a system called Simul-cam. It allowed him to see the video output of the cameras, in real time, but with the human actors digitally altered to look like the alien creatures whom they were playing. The system also negated the need for a huge amount of animation – every performance was captured in all its blue-skinned, pointy-eared majesty as it happened, so it didn't need to be created from scratch on a computer. Now, researchers from the University of Abertay Dundee have built on the techniques pioneered by Simul-cam to create a new system that lets users act as their own cameraperson within existing 3D environments."
Re:Realtime Rotoscope: Death for makup/costume art (Score:4, Interesting)
Well essentially you're just transplanting the costs to someone else - where did that 3D model come from? It didn't just prop up out of nowhere.
Some things, like Zombies, are generally much cheaper on Make up than something like a talking Gorilla suit. One of the reason there are so many Zombie movies out there is because it's essentially the cheapest thing an Indie Film maker can make - They require little to no story writing, they don't require any special effects besides 1 good make up artist and a lot of cornsyrup and food colouring, and you can simply run around your city shooting.
Now - is it possible to make a Zombie model and transpose it over your actors? Definately. Is that cheaper? Not really. You're paying big bucks not only for the design of the model but the textures, skinning, skeleton work - there's a lot of stuff that goes into this.
One of the reasons this worked so well for James Cameron in Avatar is that essentially the world of Pandora was meant to be vast and immersive, which is really hard to do on a sound stage - or its extra expensive that way. Since the rest of the world was in CGI to cheapen the costs of producing an elaborate stage - it wasn't much of a stretch to move the Actors and Actresses into CGI as well - in fact for me personally I think it makes the parts with Live actors look more faked somehow (specifically the end fight scene).
So I don't think this is exactly "the end" for makeup and costume artists, because 100 yards of silk and a good tailor to do up Costumes can be a lot cheaper than a team of 3D modellers - and still look more real.
Re:Who invented it? (Score:3, Interesting)
If Cameron came up with the idea and had someone build it for him, I'd say you could argue he invented it
That sets the bar for the concept of "invention" pretty damn low. If one can claim invented status for anything you can dream of, then I can produce quite a list of inventions on my resume. It's the actually making it work that is the hard part
He may not have been the one doing the technical details, but if it's his concept developed on his dime ... well, my past employers own the works I did for them, so why not in this case?
owning is one thing, being attributed as the inventor is another.
Re:Who invented it? (Score:3, Interesting)
I specifically said "and had someone build it for him" ... meaning he didn't just come up with the idea, he footed the development costs, and probably had to explain his grand vision to people to try to get them to build it. He probably needed to iterate over a couple of prototypes to get to the final thing.
And, since the engineers likely weren't sitting around inventing this non-existent thing ... someone has to be the one who invented it.
It's a work for hire. I'm sure if the Academy gives an award for the technology, the guys who built it will be the ones receiving it.
But, for public discussion, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to say that if Cameron envisioned it, paid for it, pioneered its use, and made it become more than a technology testbed ... well, he may have invented it in the broadest sense of the word. He didn't build it, but maybe he did invent it.
Re:Who invented it? (Score:2, Interesting)
I was a member of that team and we weren't all engineers. What we were was a team of artists and artists-with-technical-inclination who assembled the bits and pieces he needed to fulfill HIS vision. He was often the guy that would point out exactly how to assemble what we needed.
So, no, I have no problem saying he invented it. I would concede, though, that 'created' is a better word. I believe my colleagues feel the same way.
Re:Realtime Rotoscope: Death for makup/costume art (Score:3, Interesting)
And different models as well - since you wouldn't want to see the same face with a different skin every moment either.
It's another advantage a makeup artist and a hundred extras has over CGI. It's pretty simple to find a bunch of people wanting to be a in a zombie movie, you can probably find a bunch of Teenagers off school willing to do it the whole day for like 20 bucks.
And then your costume and make up artists can spend 2 hours making them exactly how you want them - and you've got a wide variety for a fraction of the cost of having to model and skin each and every one
Re:THANK YOU! (Score:3, Interesting)
True, it's a glorified Wiimote. Nothing like what they used for Avatar.
OTOH the Virtual Cinematography feature in the next version of LightWave will be much closer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhJauu_vB2A [youtube.com] even though it only takes care of the camera part and not the kind of realtime two-stage (body + face) motion capturing Avatar used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhJauu_vB2A [youtube.com]