What's being projected is
(mostly) CG, it's just not done through post production
techniques. The system knowing the position and orientation
of the robotic arm at all times relative to the camera POV
(like how the realtime line of scrimmage and yards-to-go lines
are created for live sporting event broadcast) makes the
orientation of projection surfaces easier to derive compared
to having to track them in post.
You could, additionally,
sync a second motion controlled camera to photograph a
completely different live scene, instead of using pre-rendered
or on-the-fly CGI, to project onto the surfaces. After 5th
Element we built a system within Houdini to interface to the
Digital Domain motion-control stage that allowed animators to
design physically accurate moves for motion control miniatures
rather than the screen-based methodology that was standard to
the industry that often introduced "skating" and other kinds
of motion or performance artifacts that have plagued flying
miniatures for decades (though miniatures were phased out
shortly afterwards so it was a neat proof of concept that
never really got used). This adds a projection component to
that sort of realtime telemetry and view-dependent spacial
awareness.
I didn't see specific info
on the website or VIMEO but I'm wondering if the projector is
on-axis with the composite camera via beam splitter or if
they're pre-distorting the projection so that the projector
can be fixed, up out of frame and not attached to the
composite camera.
It's neat looking, however
it's done.
The imagery being projected is being generated in
realtime, most likely. It's really simple graphics.
It's likely more expensive than doing it in post, because
of the large robots and the motion controlled camera, which is a
third, unseen robot as well as bespoke software to handle
integration of the telemetry, motion control and imagery.
Setting this up means calibrating the three robots to the
host software so that it knows the position and orientation of
the tip of each at least, controlling position and orientation
of the projection surfaces (which would be known dimensions) and
the camera (which would also have known dimensions). MoCo
software that calibrates itself to a fixed origin has been
around forever and takes minutes, if that. This is doing that
at least three times and then you're set for the shoot. The
rest is mostly involved in generating the realtime imagery being
projected.
On 25-Sep-13 04:58, Phil Spitler wrote:
Production Company: BOT & DOLLY
Executive Producers: Bill Galusha, Nick Read
Creative & Technical Director: Tarik Abdel-Gawad
Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz
Lead Graphic Designers: Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr
3D Artists: Scott Pagano, Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr, Conor Grebel
2D Animators: Conor Grebel, Ben Hawkins, Pedro Figueira
Director of Photography: Joe Picard
Lighting Designers: Joe Picard, Phil Reyneri
Projection / TouchDesigner: Phil Reyneri
Robotics Animation: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Brandon Kruysman, George Banks, Michael Beardsworth
Robotics Operator: Michael Beardsworth, Brandon Kruysman
Prop Fabrication: Matt Bitterman, Ethan Dale
Script Supervisor: Ian Colon
Sound Engineers: Joe Picard, Michael Beardsworth
PAs: Sean Servis, Dakota Smith, Nico Mizono, Eric Wendel, Patrick Walsh
Editors: Ashley Rodholm, Ian Colon
Music / Sound Design: Keith Ruggiero
Sound Mix: Joel Raabe
Performers: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Iris, Scout
Phil Spitler | Creative Technologist | Bonfire Labs | t : 415.394.8200 m : 415.571.3139
Website | Facebook | LinkedIn
On Sep 24, 2013, at 6:50 PM, Chris Zwar wrote:
This video has the studio talking today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo#t=22
Someone said the graphics were done by Gmunk, I haven't checked if that's right or not. Still, a very cool piece of eye candy.
-Chris
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