Vicon, the motion capture technology specialist for the entertainment, engineering and life sciences industries, will announce the launch of its new VFX motion capture software, Shōgun at FMX 2017 (booth #2.3). Capitalizing on over 30 years of motion capture experience and years of research and development, Shōgun offers the entertainment industry a new level of efficiency and quality, to meet the growing demands of game, film and VR production.
Designed from the ground up and based on feedback from the industry and customers alike, Shōgun’s innovative new feature set delivers increased performance alongside intelligent real time system monitoring. A streamlined workflow delivers high fidelity real time data, helping mocap users maximise studio time in order to deliver projects on time and within budget.
Live calibration
Shogun eliminates the previously time-consuming process of calibrating performers from captured data in post. Performers now simply enter the capture space and are automatically detected and labelled, the calibration is then run in the background during the range of motion. Boasting a new skeletal mesh model, the software is designed to be highly functional, making data solving easy, visual and immediate. This cuts down the traditionally time consuming process of labelling subjects, cleaning data and calibrating markers.
“With today’s large productions featuring anything between 5 to 15 actors, Shōgun has been designed to help industry professionals streamline their captures, saving time and money. Subject calibration – a process that used to take 20 minutes can now be achieved in less than a minute.“ said Tim Doubleday, VFX product manager at Vicon.
Streamlined workflow
Shōgun’s data quality ensures that labelling and solving stays true. With Shogun’s unbreakable real-time it’s possible to capture multiple actors undertaking complex interactions, such as folding arms, hugs and stunt work with props. With direct support for all the major real-time game engines, the pre-visualization and animation processes are enhanced–providing direct visualization of the final scene.
Users are also able to record their data direct to disk, meaning onset review is almost instantaneous. This saves hours of postproduction time and allows artists to focus on the remaining pipeline. These enhancements help accelerate productions, shaving days off the post production pipeline while increasing data quality and efficiency.
Intelligent insights
Re-calibrating motion capture systems can cost time onset, especially for large studio shoots involving multiple actors. Working with Vicon’s industry leading cameras, Shōgun provides intelligent, real-time feedback to users on all the important factors affecting camera and system health. Enabling teams to quickly recalibrate cameras on the fly within minutes, while continuing to capture performances. New features such as the Data Heat Map assist users capturing very challenging shots, as Shōgun automatically finds, highlights and navigates users to frames where data may require attention.
Alexandre Messier, technical director at Ubisoft, a leading creator, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, who has been beta testing the Shōgun software for several months alongside Vicon, said: “Most of our game teams are now asking for real-time previsualization, with Shōgun’s auto skeleton calibration, we can now stream accurate data into 3rd party’s solution in seconds–allowing teams to maximize their precious time on the shoot floor. Shogun is adding speed to our data processing pipeline. Most importantly, that speed is not sacrificing any data quality. Instead it exceeds what we’re producing with Blade.”
Imogen Moorhouse, CEO, Vicon said “Shogun is a step change in the way our customers use motion capture. Whether you’re running a large production with a hundred cameras or a small start-up with a handful of cameras, Shogun has been designed to save you time, save you money whilst delivering the highest quality data.”
Martin Scorsese On “The Saints,” Faith In Filmmaking and His Next Film
When Martin Scorsese was a child growing up in New York's Little Italy, he would gaze up at the figures he saw around St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.
"Who are these people? What is a saint?" Scorsese recalls. "The minute I walk out the door of the cathedral and I don't see any saints. I saw people trying to behave well within a world that was very primal and oppressed by organized crime. As a child, you wonder about the saints: Are they human?"
For decades, Scorsese has pondered a project dedicated to the saints. Now, he's finally realized it in "Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints," an eight-part docudrama series debuting Sunday on Fox Nation, the streaming service from Fox News Media.
The one-hour episodes, written by Kent Jones and directed by Elizabeth Chomko, each chronicle a saint: Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Sebastian and Maximillian Kolbe. Joan of Arc kicks off the series on Sunday, with three weekly installments to follow; the last four will stream closer to Easter next year.
In naturalistic reenactments followed by brief Scorsese-led discussions with experts, "The Saints" emphasizes that, yes, the saints were very human. They were flawed, imperfect people, which, to Scorsese, only heightens their great sacrifices and gestures of compassion. The Polish priest Kolbe, for example, helped spread antisemitism before, during WWII, sheltering Jews and, ultimately, volunteering to die in the place of a man who had been condemned at Auschwitz.
Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday, recently met for an interview not long after returning from a trip to his grandfather's hometown in Sicily. He was made an honorary citizen and the experience was still lingering in his... Read More