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May 2011

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ers that with these tools we can do for you very affordably what we did on Avatar.” Knight Vision also offers cam-link tech- nology that enables a CG character to be overlaid onto a live-action plate for com- position purposes. “The live-action geome- try is loaded into the virtual world, and we place the motion capture actor in that world,” he explains.“The physical camera, a Red One for example, would have motion capture markers placed on it so it becomes a virtual camera as well.Now, the camera is being tracked in the virtual world, too.We stream the virtual world into the viewfinder or video tap — you green out everything but the character in the virtual world and the chromakey character on the live-action plate, then play back the charac- ter moving within the real world for char- acter-driven, organic film plates.You’re tak- ing the guess work out of shooting film plates for a combination live action/CG project,TV show or film.“We demo’d this system outside, in the sunlight — some- thing no one had done before.” The new company is keen to show the television market that motion capture can work for them, too.“We can work with TV budgets and TV schedules,” says Knight. “With our process you can get to a photo- real character relatively quickly.” In fact, the speed and ease of use of the PhaseSpace system means Knight Vision en- courages clients to think about using motion capture for animated storyboards and story pitches, as well. “There are more uses than straight-on performance capture,” Knight emphasizes. “And it’s not as expensive as people think.” SILVERDRAFT Billed as a digital facility on wheels, the Sil- verdraft (www.silverdraft.com) MobileViz unit brings mobile support to motion cap- ture shoots on location or onstage. Al- though the company was founded in Boise, ID, Silverdraft MobileViz is based in Los An- geles where its capabilities include working with digital dailies and editorial assets, and tapping MotionBuilder and Maya for real- time previs compositing. The trailer is outfitted with Apple Final Cut Suite 3, Maya Creative Suite and Mental Ray and VRay rendering, plus space for client-defined color correction (FilmLight’s Baselight is currently onboard) and com- positing (currently Autodesk Flame Pre- mium). MobileViz offers a high degree of flexibility enabling the truck to be configured to meet clients’ needs. In the motion capture arena, the truck’s additional rack space can accommodate a client’s system of choice, supported by the unit’s “big data center and strong render- farm,” says Michael Cooper, who’s in charge of business development. Silverdraft recently provided mocap post support to The Third Floor and Knight Vision on a proof-of-concept marketing piece pro- moting realtime motion capture in the field. “We used Arri Alexa and Red Epic cameras with Baselight color correction and Flame and Smoke to show how we can flow im- ages seamlessly to each other across a lot of different hardware and software platforms,” Cooper explains. The proof-of-concept took place out- doors with actors as well as mocap per- formers collaborating in realtime.“The re- altime aspect enables directors, cine- matographers and actors to react imme- diately and provides a more refined base” of images, he notes. “With everyone pushed by their schedules today, this process permits more decisions to be made during production and alleviates the need to ‘fix it in post.’” DO MORE, FASTER. NVIDIA® QUADRO® 4000 FOR MAC If you’re an artist, designer, or video professional with a Mac Pro, accelerate your entire workflow with the NVIDIA® Quadro® range of design, animation and video applications, Quadro 4000 for Mac allows you to do more, faster. To learn more go to www.pny.com/quadroformac © 2010 NVIDIA Corporation. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Quadro are trademarks or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. All rights reserved. The PNY logo is a registered trademark of PNY Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 PNY Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4000 for Mac graphics solution. Delivering excellent graphics performance across a broad

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