Capture methods are constantly changing with the goal to achieve better fidelity, while providing cheaper and easier results (such as markerless). The multicam capture using gopros is now deprecated by move.ai, only available in their ‘experimental’ mode. In September they intend to be releasing a depth camera-based system, but that only uses a single view (one camera). Our feeling is, a true cleanup-free solution will utilize both depth and RGB (visual) in a multi-cam setup. This will help avoid occlusion and produce the best amount of data that can be used to chose the most reliable bone positioning.

The most current and best solution for face capture is via metahuman animator. It uses depth camera information to create a great facial animation from a performance. Tools required are iPhone and facial capture helmet. This recent tech is a game changer for motion capture and as mentioned previously, the depth information will extend to body capture as well. Previous to this, animating faces was daunting and out of reach for most. With this ‘solved’, more filmmakers are likely to try their hand making an Unreal movie.

SPACE: No matter the capture solution, actors will need space to move around and perform the actions. TECHS: Required to run sessions. DIRECTOR: Both Technical/Dramatic directors required. ACTORS: Consider systems that allow two people to be captured at once to have good interaction in your scenes. PROCESSING: It is not ‘automatic’, a great deal of time and care is needed to organize and prepare data for the processing stage, as well as managing that data once processed.

Otherwise known as “Animation”. To date, almost all but the most expensive capture solutions require clean up. The amount of clean up can range from filtering and smoothing to extremely involved manual animation. This stage cannot be under valued as it affects all characters in your film. AI tools are being developed to mitigate the clean, but until such time as they prove themselves, this can get expensive. fast.