Pendulum Studios Mark
Antony 
San Diego, CA – 15 October 2006 One of the
most difficult aspects of creating believable 3D CGI characters and
impactful digital acting is the portrayal of genuine emotion. Animation
and digital FX studio Pendulum has
been pursuing this challenge by dedicating substantial R&D efforts
toward creating a unique solution for this growing need in the
entertainment industry. Partnering with the motion-capture experts at House of Moves, the Pendulum team is diving deep into
the complex realm of high-end digital actors with the development of
its new proprietary facial motion-capture software, and a uniquely
powerful 3D character creation pipeline unlike anything else in the
industry.
A fundamental hurdle in bringing digital actors to the screen
is
achieving realistic facial animation. With the most recent
implementations of the Vicon motion-capture
system, Los Angles based House of
Moves is able to achieve an unparalleled level of precision in
the capture of facial motion. But applying that data efficiently,
cost-effectively, and in a manner which successfully breathes life into
a lifeless digital model has been painfully difficult. Pendulum’s research into this area
has resulted in the creation of a proprietary software application,
called Alter Ego.
Their primary goal is to make it not only possible, but efficient and
economical to bring the nuance of a real actor’s facial performance
into the virtual world.
To fully demonstrate this new technology, Pendulum’s owners, Robert Taylor
and Michael McCormick, needed to capture a powerfully expressive
performance which delivered a wide emotional range. “We wanted to put
the process through a vigorous and unforgiving test to see if our
digital actor could really emote… and what could possibly be a better
source of emotional acting than Shakespeare?”, notes Taylor. They chose
a passionate monologue from Antony
and Cleopatra, and proceeded to build a 3D Mark Antony and a
richly textured environment appropriate to the play. Pendulum’s artists then sculpted
over 40 facial
“blend-shapes” for the character. These sculpted expressions can be
realistic or
exaggerated, allowing a digital character infinite stylistic
possibilities, ranging from life like to cartoony. Next, they worked
with the House of Moves team
to simultaneously capture the full performance of the actor, including
his body, hands, facial motions and even his voice. The data
was then applied to the digital character using the studio’s new
software,
and Mark Antony came to life.
The new paradigm allows Pendulum to
transform extensive amounts of facial mo-cap data into extremely
realistic and accurate facial animation. The process delivers
exceptional results at surprising speeds with very little fine tuning
needed, yet still provides directors and animators a great deal of
flexibility to tweak or add to the character’s facial expressions.
While the implications for the film and commercial industry are
obvious, Pendulum is already
applying the technique in the games development arena as well. With
this proven approach, the realism of facial and full-body performance
is only limited by the quality of the actor and the director’s vision.
Pendulum Studios is the San
Diego based 3D animation and digital fx studio specializing in high-end
character animation and story-telling. Owned and operated by directors,
Michael McCormick and Robert Taylor, the studio strives to produce the
highest quality animation for commercials, game cinematics, film, and
their own animated shorts. For more information about the studio,
please visit www.studiopendulum.com.
Mark Antony Project Credits:
Pendulum
Michael McCormick – Director, 3D Lead, Shading &
Lighting Artist
Robert Taylor – Director, Executive Producer, Sr
Compositor
Wade Ammon – Producer
Michael Hutchinson – Software Development, Character
TD, FX Artist
Reed Casey – 3D Environment Artist
Bryn Morrow – 3D Character Artist
Gina Adamova – 3D Character Artist
Stefan Minning – Shading & Lighting Artist
Matt Schiller – Character TD
Emil Bidiuc – 3D Animator
Kevin Jackson – 3D Animators
Paul Jewell – 3D FX Artist
Scott Mitchell – Jr Compositor
James Caffery – Motion Capture Actor
House of Moves
Gary Roberts – VP of Production
Scott Gagain – Exec Producer
Greta Anderson – Associate Producer
Chris Bellaci – Production Manager
Amy Calcote – Technical Producer
Andre Petrossian – Stage Manager, System Operator
Vince Argentine – QA Lead
Laura Siewert – MoCap Artist
