Stereo Matchmove with Keying & Compositing

This shot will eventually be one of the central "glamor" shots of the film, featuring a beautiful vista of the city and a setting sun spread out before Li. The city will be created using matte paintings projected onto proxy geometry within The Foundry's Nuke, allowing for flexible art direction without the expensive render times of Maya. The matchmove was created in Boujou from the right eye camera and then a stereo rig was parented to this singular camera.

Stereo Keying & Compositing Test with Nuke

Stereo Matchmove Test

Although I am quite comfortable with matchmoving and compositing a moving camera, this is my first time trying to blend stereoscopic CG renders with stereoscopic footage. Unfortunately I am not yet able to reliably build Maya scenes based on recorded measurements of the set so the IO and convergence plane of my stereo camera are aligned by eye (based on anaglyph renders of the raw footage). Works well enough for a calm camera move like this but I will definitely need to engineer a better system for more complex shots.

(Sorry about how short the video is, I am trying to prove my post workflow and rendering two 2240x960 resolution images for each frame becomes expensive very fast.)

Improved Facial Mocap Rig with 1:1 Head Movement

A second test of Link's facial mocap performance. The rig has been tweaked, weights adjusted, and the MEL scripts improved. The rotation of the head is recreated by tracking the XYZ position of 2 markers on top of the actress' head from a front and side camera. I then create a central locator that attempts to point towards both markers at the same time. This provides a fairly accurate rotation value for the head, which could be improved by adding a third camera on the other side of the actress.

Character Model by Xiaoyu Zhang
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/xiaoyu-zhang/3/537/b77

Improved POV Running Sequence: In 3D!

An updated version of the previous running POV test, with more complex environments, a girl to chase, and anaglyph 3D. The female character is animated via a run cycle that I created a few years ago.

Custom Facial Mocap Test

First fruits of a recent facial motion capture session. The marked points on the actor's face are tracked by hand in Maya Live and then used to drive a facial rig. The process of applying tracked motion to the facial rig is handled by a MEL script that I developed for my short film Cultural Ambassador.

Character Model by Xiaoyu Zhang
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/xiaoyu-zhang/3/537/b77

POV Running Test with Motion Capture

One of the major scenes in Li is a reoccurring dream sequence where the main character runs across the rooftops of the city, chasing a girl who he never catches. Because the scene needs to have a dynamic POV perspective, and because the dual RED camera stereo rig is much too large to run around with, the scene will be built entirely in the computer. This crude render sequence was the fruit of my idea to create the POV camera and character animation at the same time in a motion capture studio. The position and rotation of the actor's head can be used to drive a stereo rig in Maya, granting a very realistic POV shot. For this test my actor simply jogged in place but eventually a treadmill could be utilized to capture a full fledged run.

Motion Capture Director / TD / Editor: Tim Little
Motion Capture Performance: Ethan Faure
Motion Capture PA: Peter Worwag