Bodies in Motion.
A New Kind of Filmmaking
Modern motion pictures are increasingly moving to a blended live action/CGI shooting method for both characters and environments. This provides unprecedented flexibility to create new worlds, but makes it difficult for directors and actors to see how everything lines up when on a stage.
Motionbuilder can drive the real time rendering of animated characters and objects Previzion using a live UDP data output. Each UDP packet contains the information needed to position the virtual characters inside the Previzion scene using a MotionBuilder plugin called Prelink.
Previzion then renders and composites the resulting virtual character performance along with the live action subject’s performance against the virtual background rendered with full depth of field inside of Previzion.
In this way, live action characters can interact with real time rendered CG characters driven by motion capture data against a green screen, with the complete integrated shot preview immediately visible.
Coordinate Coordination
Previzion’s adjustable coordinate system defaults to match Motionbuilder’s coordinate system, promoting a seamless match between the two. Since FBX is the native scene file format to both Previzion and Motionbuilder, Previzion can be easily integrated into any real time environment that is already based on Motionbuilder.
Motion Capture Compatibility
Previzion’s powerful data driven transform model is easily adapted to read data from various motion capture systems. Support is planned for PhaseSpace and Vicon, among others. Please contact us if you are interested in connecting Previzion to an existing motion capture system.
A New Stage Standard
Lightcraft is interested in making it easier for multiple stage systems to talk to each other. Click here to read a white paper on a simple real time data format based on Collada.