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With the overnight halt in flights and the almost immediate shift to working from home, lockdown changed the way the world worked. Adaptability and technology were key to getting things up and running across all industries, and the Chancellor, via Innovate UK (IUK), invested in tech developments that would make industries more robust.
Target3D took on the challenge to create a web-based platform that would enable us to continue capturing mocap shoots, whilst minimizing the number of people in the studio.
The idea was essentially a telepresence platform. Instead of working with a single video camera on Google Meet or Zoom, we created a platform that would enable us to have multiple cameras, like multiple eyes on the stages, in our studio while the Director, Producer or Choreographer work from a separate location yet still controls the shoot. They communicate via text chat and VOIP within the platform and have complete control over what the cameras look at. The whole team who dial in have a completely interactive experience, and as they move their robotic camera round the space they roam, hence the name ROMOCAP.
By tracking the literal robotic cameras that roam around the studio, the production team can not only choose what they are looking at but can also affect the virtual camera that we see inside of our motion capture software and also inside of previz engines like Unreal. They decide on the shots they want to use in the composite - deciding that something looks better from a certain angle for instance, or to drive through the scene while the performers are creating a shot - whilst we record the trajectory for them to use when rendering.
The really cool bits are that ROMOCAP is super low latency and, as no data goes through the cloud, highly secure.
Initially aimed at enabling social distancing, ROMOCAP opens up shoots for companies without access to mocap suites to capture everything they need for music videos, video game sequences and feature films, without having to fly a film crew to set. The economical and environmental benefits are why Virtual Production is such a hot topic at the moment - clients can stay where they are and we can render their shoot from a Hoxton studio.
Bruno Martelli, of art duo Gibson / Martelli, directed a shoot using the new ROMOCAP platform and was impressed by its ease of use; “It’s like Zoom for motion capture studios! I like that it works in a web browser, I don’t have to download software and install it. I just put a URL in and it’s good to go. It’s totally simple and has the potential to save a lot of money.”
Watch ROMOCAP in action:
Find out how ROMOCAP can change the way you manage mocap shoots, get in touch with Target3D today.
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