Motion- and facial-capture companies Animatrik Film Design Inc. and Dimensional Imaging Ltd (DI4D) have entered into a collaboration which will yield state-of-the-art facial performance capture services for the VFX and video game communities across North America.
Animatrik technology has been used on such high-profile projects as Image Engine’s Chappie, Microsoft’s popular Gears of War series and Duncan Jones' upcoming Warcraft. DI4D’s technology has appeared in such shows as the BBC’s Merlin and video games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Quantum Break. The new collaboration will allow Animatrik and DI4D to bring even more true-to-life animation to similar projects in the coming months.
Animatrik has licensed DI4D’s facial performance capture software and purchased DI4D systems, which it will operate from its Vancouver and Toronto motion capture studios. Animatrik will also offer an “on-location” DI4D facial performance capture service, which has been seen before in projects such as Microsoft’s Halo 4.
“The collaboration with DI4D marks another huge step for Animatrik, said Brett Ineson, CEO of Animatrik. “In order to continue to win industry-leading motion capture projects, it is essential that Animatrik is able to offer the very best quality facial performance capture possible. DI4D offers the highest fidelity facial performance capture solution that we have seen, and we are therefore delighted to now be able to offer this to our highly demanding VX and video games customers.”
Colin Urquhart, CEO of DI4D, described Animatrik as “one of the industry’s leading motion capture and virtual production service providers. By collaborating with Animatrik, we expect to make our world-leading DI4D facial performance capture solution much more accessible to the VFX and video game communities across North America. Animatrik has recently completed some amazing movie and video game projects and we are very excited that Animatrik will use DI4D to deliver high fidelity facial performance capture on future projects.”
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More