BOSTON - San Francisco's Mova (www.mova.com)
is at SIGGRAPH this year with a "reality capture" system that uses Vicon 1.3
megapixel cameras, fluorescent lighting and glow-in-the-dark makeup to capture
and depict full-motion, realistic-looking CG characters. The company is
initially acting as a service provider, taking its combination of technology -
which it's dubbed the Contour Reality Capture system - on-site to client
locations, or capturing data on its own stage in San Francisco.
Contour's advantages are best realized in facial capture
scenarios. Rather than using markers, common to optical motion capture systems,
the Contour solution relies on glow-in-the-dark makeup and fluorescent lighting
that flashes at a rate of 96 times per second. When the lights are off, the
cameras capture the geometry data. When they are on, the cameras capture the
texture data.
The high definition, 3D, volumetric representation of the
action can be imported, modified or retargeted to other characters using
off-the-shelf animation software. The result is facial animation that's
incredibly detailed, requiring little, if any manual clean up.
Company founder/president Steve Perlman says the solution
can be taken anywhere in the world for a capture session. There may even be
future plans, he adds, to release Contour as a turnkey solution.