Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/683118
Leaping forward four decades with the advance of com- puter processing, 3D animation was used in the motion picture Futureworld (1976). As technology and computer speeds improved, new techniques were sought to capture human motion. A more sophisticated, computer-based motion tracking technology was needed, and a number of technologies were developed to address these developing human images. What Is Motion Capture, written by Scott Dyer, Jeff Martin and John Zulauf in 1995, defines the process as "measuring an object's position and orientation in physical space, then recording that information in a computer-usable form. Objects of interest include human and nonhuman bodies, facial expressions, camera or light positions, and other ele- ments in a scene." The majority of motion capture is done by our Video Engineers of Local 695 and requires high technical skills at problem solving often in the form of writing new software. Glenn Derry and Dan Moore are perhaps the busiest and most experienced in the field of motion capture with cred- its such as Avatar, Tin-Tin and The Aviator. I spoke with Dan at their new seven-thousand-square-foot facility in Van Nuys and Glenn and Dan a week later via a phone con- ference in Vancouver and Atlanta respectively. Their most recent screen credits include the sophisticated and elegant imagery seen in Disney's The Jungle Book. Glenn Derry describes the unique challenges of their work on The Jungle Book. "We've got the character Mowgli, played by Neel Sethi, and he's the only live-action element in the entire picture. All of the work in terms of shot design has happened months before in a completely virtualized environment with the Director of Photography, Bill Pope, holding the camera and creating the shots, and working with the CD (Computer Design) team to come up with the look. We were lighting our physical elements to match the CD in contrast to the traditional shooting of live action driving the computer graphics." Dan continues, "We designed a way to track the camera in real time so that we could overlay their hyper photo realistic virtual scenes, shot months before and mix it with the live action as we were shooting in real time." They shot on multiple stages requiring video feeds in every location, interfacing all the tracking cameras, deliverables and dailies for editorial. Dan and Gary Martinez managed a large server with the master footage while designing solu- tions for Director Jon Favreau. Derry, Moore and Martinez came up with an elegant solution to project shadows in real time on Neel, who was walking on a forty-foot turntable. "We were always developing software," Derry continues. "On The Jungle Book in particular, we wrote a few dif- ferent applications including a delivery tool that enabled them to view all of the material. One piece of software that we at Technoprops wrote for the show dealt with color reconstruction of the camera raw images." 'Debayering,' a common term used for this process, was named after Dr. Bryce Bayer at Eastman Kodak. "Once the software was written, we titled our process the 'De Bear Necessities,' and delivered this to editorial and production. Normally Opposite page: Mowgli and Bagheera walking through the jungle. Top: Snow White 1936 rotoscope work; 3D CAD model of a head rig. (Photo: Disney ©2016, All Rights Reserved.)