So, have had a little play with face robot in the evenings,and to be honest, I wasnt expecting much at all.

However, I am bowled over and besides myself with the opportunities that will now arise as a direct result of its relative ease….

Motionbuilder for Face cap? Not here…

Quick test of Face Robot on Tom Stone face. from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

Looks like I need to buy SoftImage!

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Was a late night last night.

As soon as I finished the day job, I set up the Mocap volume for Face Capture, and set about getting data for Tom Stones tests….

This is just a clip from a much longer video about the process. Hope to upload the whole piece at the weekend…

A small tease of a video that should come later that will show the entire face cap procedure…

12 cameras from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

Look how small my studio is!

facecapture setup 001 from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

this is me just giving a little tour of the new setup in my pokey office

more mocap setup from Craig Crane on Vimeo.

Due to the small nature of the room I am working in, its been hard moving around and also the paintwork in the room creates a few highlights on the I.R tracking of the cameras and I have decided to get some black felt for the room to give me 100% control over the room. So, found some on ebay and should be here in the week in time for next Saturday

as you can see, size is cramped. Its not the best space to do this in, but its convenient

Its a shame, but I had to slide the camera i.r intensity so far down, they were barely on and I think that would cause me a problem if I decided to marker up and shoot. Its easier to address the physical restrictions in the week, and then maximize the tech capabilities as a result, instead of working with a compromise…

What a week…..! Week two on john Carter, and cameras rolled yesterday for the first time as planned. However, watertight NDA’s and sheer proffessionalism prevent me from saying anything else about the project.

But you know what, we have cameras rolling this weekend as well. P-P style. I set up 12 cameras for a face capture session tomorrow, and will be lip syncing to the Thunderous tones of my Tom Stone actor…… Now, it would be unfair to throw his name in here and then leave it at that. So, I plan to announce who is Tom Stone around about the same time that I show you a video of how tomorrow went, as well as a walkthrough the process. Then I can explain to anyone following the project just who has provided the thunderous yet silky tones of Stone!

The next time I do a TS test, I plan to get actor and voice all at the same time, so I dont have to mime to his audio. Trust me, his voice and my face do not look like they belong to each other Hopefully in the mean time, we can get a little head shot of him and a rendered Tom stone (just like the recent Lewis image) and of course that takes us all a step closer.

Anyway, the audio for the test has been recorded, cut, edited and sounds mighty fine. Its an abridged version of a scene from the screenplay where TS tries to get through to a somewhat distracted Lewis. It works as a standalone as well, but maybe thats because I know its context. To the viewer of the test, it may not be so clear. The next test, and one for the pitch will be a lot more concise and give the viewer a much better idea of things. Needless to say, my actor nailed it, and its great as I see him slowly start to take ownership of this character and wear it like a 2nd skin…

Of course, there are so many steps… but tomorrow though will feel like a hurdle overcome!

With Giz in Chichester also playing about with some fab musical themes and really embracing a lot of the themes I have mentioned in earlier posts, this really is starting to feel like its a living breathing entity…. Dam!    I forgot to add the Soundtrack to Who Dares Wins to his long list of things to listen to… *mental note to myself to find it and get him some ref…*

Who Dares Wins….. Its not just a motto, it lies at the very heart of Project-Palitoy! There is some daring & winning talent already attached, some waiting in the wings… watching with interest and more as yet undiscovered possibilies and delights waiting to be discovered. My Tom Stone actor being one of the most recent delights to jump on board….. so hears to seeing whats to come

Weekends and evenings have been reclaimed! Next weekend I am doing a face capture session for the audio that was recorded last year for Major Tom Stone. I think the plan is to design a new face template on Saturday and then shoot on Sunday. I will be videoing the entire process as I go along. Then, in parallel to that, I need to get the TS head and body finished. Im of to Utah in April for 3 months and plan to do ALL the post work on this test in the lonley Utah evenings

Shortly after the shoot, I hope to announce a little more about Major Tom Stone

Hey! We did a face capture test today. Andy was my lab rat today… and he did a great job….
I modelled Andies head a while back, so should be a breeze getting the markers and his face to line up well, so we get a good idea of what can be acheived. Unlike body mocap, there are many many ways to skin a face mocap cat…. so this week I plan to find the best way for me and PP.

Im loving the Optitrack setup. Each time I run it I learn new things, and if things do go wrong, its always down to a school boy error. The package is rock solid and really gives out great clean data. Still, have some interesting Mocap milestones to acheive. Two performers, more face cap. Audio sync was tackled today. We recorded live dialogue, but I asked Andy to do the snappy “pak pak pak” noises before he does his talking… and low and behold, it was a perfect solution that didnt require any extra markers for a clapper board. He WAS the clapper board!

This is the model I made last year. Pretty close I think, so lets see how it all maps out! I of course dont need to be so technical with the P-P rig as its going to be a case of the nulls driving controlers on the face rig, but this test may convince me to come up with a different approach to the facial animation controls…

face test from Craig Crane on Vimeo.