V I R T U A L T H E A T E R
SOFTIMAGE Special Projects creates the Virtual Theater
SOFTIMAGE Virtual Theater
The ability to have real-live human beings interact with animated
characters is nothing revolutionary, provided you have months of
production and months of post-production to bring the whole thing to
life. But imagine being able to capture the experience in real-time.
That is the magic behind Virtual Theatre, a new technology developed by
Softimage, and debuted at this year 92s NAB tradeshow.
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"We felt the best way to illustrate the concept was to re-create a live
program on the show floor, where we could not only have interaction
between the animators, the cameramen and the director, but also the
audience as well," said David Morin, Director of Special Projects at
Softimage, "In this way, we created animation with the energy of live
production."
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The "energy" was apparent to anyone who witnessed the performance.
Especially when it was recreated and improved for the SIGGRAPH 95
tradeshow, just months later, where it stole the show. It was then that
people were introduced to the character Maurice the Alien.
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"The challenge for Maurice was to build a character that was mobile
enough to respond to a greater range of emotions and expressions."
The formula of an Actor and Puppeteer to control movement of the
computer-generated character was improved upon, and something magical
started to happen. As character animator Olivier Ozoux puts it, "It managed to acquire a
personality very rapidly."
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Another improvement at the second showing was in the hardware being
used. The addition of a second Onyx for live mixing and editing, and a
change in the network protocol supported even more real-time channels
allowing them to modify content on the fly.
This natural extension of existing Softimage 3D animation software,
gave the director, the cameraman, and the actors direct feedback
between all of the team. The application was developed by the Softimage
Special Projects department.
Making it happen
APPLICATION STORIES
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