Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Using iPi Motion Capture for “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D” is highlighted by www.indiewire.com - news, information, and networking site for independent-minded filmmakers, the industry and moviegoers alike.

“Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D:” Motion capture software doesn’t seem easy, but IPI Soft has a program that helps you “create realistic animations in a matter of minutes.” It was used in production of “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D,” which premieres at 2014′s Cannes Film Festival.

Author: Taylor Lindsay

http://www.indiewire.com/article/5-daily-tech-stories-filmmakers-and-film-fans-must-read

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The Graphic Film Company Sinks its Teeth Into iPi Soft Motion Capture Technology For Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D

Screening May 16 At Cannes Film Festival, 3D Animated Horror Classic Reboot Benefits From Markerless Mocap Workflow With Unprecedented Flexibility and Productivity

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	MOSCOW, RUSSIA – With a seemingly unquenchable appetite for zombie movies, movie-goers will get their fill in 2014 with Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D, a 3D animated re-boot of the original 1968 horror classic. The film features visual effects from The Graphic Film Company, Los Angeles, which relied on the iPi Soft’s marker-less motion capture solution. The software’s ability to easily create massive amounts of zombie action and seamlessly integrate it with the studio’s complex workflow, provided the filmmakers limitless creative  freedom. “There are a scant few examples of animated horror films, let alone ones that honor a classic like Night of the Living Dead, but this project is very special,” Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft’s Chief Technology Architect says. “The fact that most of the film features motion capture, with a substantial amount created using iPi Motion Capture, stands as the best evidence our motion capture solution accelerates creativity easily and affordably.” [Editor’s Note: Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D will screen at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16. For passes and more information please contact Anthony Hoit, Graphic Film Company, ahoit@thegraphicfilmcompany.com.]

Produced by noted Hollywood filmmaker Simon West (The Expendables 2, Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and Jib Polhemus, and directed by Krisztian Majdik and Zebediah De Soto, Night of the Living Dead: 3D Origins is a 3D animated (rarely seen in the R-rated horror genre) retelling of the 1968 George Romero-directed zombie classic.

The highly-stylized film, with a look somewhere between 3D animation and a graphic novel, centers on a group of desperate survivors fighting to stay alive barricaded in an abandoned apartment building. Confined, cut off from the world and under constant attack from the undead hordes closing in around them, the six main characters struggle to survive, while also confronting their own sense of compassion and humanity.

90-Percent Motion Capture:

Undertaking a completely 3D animated feature of this scale on an indie film budget, meant creating an innovative workflow that played to the strengths of motion capture, which Anthony Hoit, The Graphic Film Company’s Chief Systems Administrator and Stereographer/Technical Director on the film, says was 90-percent of the production.

Hoit explained that the project first began to take shape about three years ago when production began at LA’s Giant Studios, where they shot the principal motion capture with the main cast (including veteran actor Tom Sizemore) using a traditional motion capture stage set up with sensor suits.

From there, the project moved into post with Hoit and The Graphic Film Company’s team of as many as 20 animators and visual effects artists using iPi Motion Capture to create much of the zombie action seen in the middle and background scenes.

For Hoit, it was iPi Motion Capture’s ease of use and high-quality motion data captured that provided the technical advantage from both a creative and a budget prospective.

“What most impressed me was how easy it was to take an idea, capture it with iPi Motion Capture, clean it up using 3D animation tools like Motion Builder or Maya, and drop it into a scene,” Hoit says. “We’re talking a total time from concept to scene file of about 30 minutes. That’s pretty amazing.”

Spontaneous Creativity:

Hoit noted that The Graphic Film Company team also found iPi Motion Capture fast-tracked the spontaneity in action scene creation.

With members of the post team acting the movement, they were able to capture the motion right in their studio and composite it onto one of the many animated zombie character models they designed. Because iPi Motion Capture easily integrates with all of the leading 3D animation tools, they were able to take a sequence that on paper seemed complex and finish it in much less time than straight CG animation would.

For Hoit, the overall success of The Graphic Film Company is due not only to the studio’s embrace of new, cost effective tools like iPi Motion Capture, but also their ability to incorporate them into their workflow without disruption.

“Post production technology is changing very rapidly and integrating new software like iPi Motion Capture into our pipeline has helped streamline and speed our post production process.” Hoit notes. “One of the aspects of our company that is different than a lot of others is our forward-thinking approach to adopting and creating new technologies. That mindset is one of the reasons why we were able to complete 90-minutes of complex 3D animation on the budget of an independent movie.”

“Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D” is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16. It is scheduled for theatrical release in Fall 2014.

About The Graphic Film Company

The Graphic Film Company was founded in 2010 in partnership with Simon West Productions as a full service post-production visual effects house and self-producing computer generated film production studio. Bringing together talent from the film, visual effects and gaming industries, the focus is to provide and create visually striking and graphical visual effects imagery and films. Additional information on The Graphic Film Company is available at, http://thegraphicfilmcompany.com.

About iPi Soft:

Launched in 2008 by CEO and Chief Technology Architect Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft, LLC is the Moscow-based developer of iPi Motion Capture™, a markerless motion capture software tool that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s breakthrough technology digitizes the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it in expressive 3D characters for video games or computer generated films. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing or a 30-day free trial please visit, http://www.ipisoft.com.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Web Resources:

Press Release in PDF>>

Click here for more info on iPi Soft:

http://ipisoft.com/

Click here for more info on The Graphic Film Company:

http://thegraphicfilmcompany.com

Click here for the “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D” IMDB page:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1512222/?ref_=nv_sr_3

Click here to download “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D images:

https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/10286985_254975211355896_3158235780357638571_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t31.0-8/10285720_254975294689221_9065084679154274422_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t31.0-8/1557277_254975214689229_7132388376066900760_o.jpg

 

Media Contacts:

Vicky Gray-Clark, Ambient PR, vicky@ambientpr.com 408-318-1980

Ray Ecke, Right Word Media, ray@rightwordmedia.com973-726-3797

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Great coverage of the use of iPi Motion Capture on the Russian blockbuster “Stalingrad” in Digital Media World –
http://www.digitalmedia-world.com/Animation/main-road-post-animates-stalingrad-s-crowds-with-ipi-motion-capture.html#

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iPi Motion Capture Plays A Starring Role In “Stalingrad” – Russia’s Highest-Grossing Film Of All Time

iPi Soft Markerless Motion Capture System Aids Moscow-Based Visual Effects House Main Road|Post With Crowd Simulation And Previsualization

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA – The Battle of Stalingrad, among the bloodiest and arguably one of the most strategically decisive battles in all of World War II, is vividly brought to life in “Stalingrad.” The recently released Russian-produced epic film effectively used iPi Soft’s iPi Motion Capture markerless motion capture solution on numerous crowd simulation sequences created by the Moscow-based visual effects studio  Main Road|Post.

Russia’s highest-grossing film ever, “Stalingrad” has brought in nearly $68 million at the box office worldwide (it was released in March in the U.S. exclusively on IMAX screens). An epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II, “Stalingrad” tells the story of a band of Russian soldiers determined to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who’s been living there. “iPi Soft is committed to developing the most reliable and powerful markerless motion capture solutions to help filmmakers, animators and video game developers address their production challenges efficiently and affordably,“ Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft Founder and Chief Technology Architect, says. “We’re thrilled our iPi Motion Capture technology is being used by the Main Road|Post creative team here in our “own back yard” to achieve the motion capture challenges and accelerate workflow proficiency on this epic film.”

30 Minutes of VFX:

Bringing the action to visual life fell to Moscow-based visual effects studio Main Road|Post. Visual effects supervisor Arman Yahin and his crew worked closely with director Fedor Bondarchuk on the 230 visual effects shots in “Stalingrad”, many of which were quite lengthy, filling approximately 30 minutes of overall screen time.

Among the many software tools used during the post process, including Maya, Houdini, MARI and Nuke, iPI Motion Capture proved essential for creation of the CG crowd simulation sequences.

“Most of the CG crowd simulation work was done using a combination of motion capture and keyframe animation,” Alexander Lipilin, MainRoad|Post animation supervisor, says, “We used iPi Motion Capture with two Kinect cameras – I put them near my workstation, and played out all the movements I needed and immediately transferred them to the soldiers. The setup was fast and the program simple to use. It helped us to quickly react to changes, as well as create good mocap data on the fly.”

Two Key Scenes:

Lipilin noted that there are two specific crowd sequences – one in the beginning in which an oil tank explodes as Soviet soldiers storm the rugged steep bank of the Volga River. The second, a bombing sequence of the house as it’s assaulted by German troops, near the end of the film.

“In both cases using live action stunts was impossible due to safety risks, so we had to create CG crowds,” Lipilin says. “The crowds themselves weren’t that big — between 40 and 100 people — but the complex lie of the ground and various behavior of the characters required close attention to the quality of animation. We used all our knowledge and technology available to pull this off and iPi Motion Capture helped us to finish the job on time with excellent quality.”

Lipilin adds, “Attempting to capture motion in a more “traditional” mocap session with green screens and sensor suits in many cases would have been too expensive, slow and inefficient. There really is no equivalent to iPi Soft’s technology.”

About iPi Soft:

Launched in 2008, iPi Soft, LLC is the Moscow-based developer of iPi Motion Capture™, a markerless motion capture software tool that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s breakthrough technology digitizes the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it in expressive 3D characters for video games or computer. Recent projects that relied on iPi Motion Capture include the hit feature film “Now You See Me” and the upcoming horror classic reboot “Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D” and the acclaimed videogame “Halo 4.”

Web Resources:

Press release in PDF>>

Click here for more info about iPi Soft:

http://ipisoft.com/

Click here for more info about Main Road|Post:

http://www.mrpost.ru/

Click here to watch Main Road|Post’s “making of” montage:

https://vimeo.com/80796564

Click here for “Stalingrad” on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966566/

Click here to visit the official Sony Picture/”Stalingrad” website:

http://www.stalingrad-themovie.com/

 

Media Contacts:

Vicky Gray-Clark, Ambient PR vicky@ambientpr.com 408-318-1980

Ray Ecke, Right Word Media ray@rightwordmedia.com 973-726-3797

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iPi Soft The Focus Of “Trends in Markerless Motion Capture” Event at DMA/LA’s March Event

By Ko Maruyama

LOS ANGELES, CA April 4, 2014 – In late March, Digital Media Artists of Los Angeles (DMALA) hosted their monthly user group meeting, which focused solely on the iPi Soft and its markerless motion capture software solution iPi Motion Capture and its use in film, television and personal projects. Moderated by myself, the panel featured professional animators David (D-Lew) Lewandowski, Don L. McCoy, Anthony Hoit, and LA Siggraph’s Mike Amron.  Each spoke to the audience about how the adoption of iPi Motion Capture has changed the way they approached animation and production.

If there was one overarching theme to event it was how the landscape of motion graphics and motion design has changed quickly in the past few years thanks to a combination of accessible software and hardware that has allowed digital media artists to create new and innovative animations.

That combination includes the availability of affordable markerless motion capture that has changed the way smaller studios, individuals and students consider their approach to character animation. Specifically, iPi Soft software — in concert with over-the-counter video cameras — is letting digital artists from many disciplines incorporate motion capture into their creative pipeline.

Hoit, Lewandowski and McCoy each noted that they were encouraged by the ease and ready supply of support hardware. Motion capture requires cameras, and although iPi Motion Capture can work with several types of cameras, the panel found success using a simple Microsoft Kinect camera setup.

Case in point was Hoit’s work on the new Night of the Living Dead: 3D Origins – a completely 3D animated reboot of the horror classic set for release later this year — that used iPi Motion Capture with just 1 Kinect camera (it supports up to 3) on all of the film’s middle and background action. Hoit also offered attendees a preview of some select scenes in the film.

Following the Q&A, attendees were able to sample iPi Motion Capture’s ease of use first-hand thanks to three separate demo mocap workstations. The casual setting with professional users was the perfect way for attendees to see how easy it was to setup and capture data. The user group setting was a perfect place to showcase the ease of use and the calculation workflow.

For Ron Magrid, noted technology writer who attended the event, said that the event was different than he expected, which was more of a manufacturer driven show and tell.

“Instead, it was an insightful presentation from people who worked with motion capture for a living and used it to create some impressive effects,” Magrid said. “I loved the stories and the know-how they offered, and how freely they shared it. My guest and I, up and coming filmmaker Richard Gale, were stunned at how relatively easy to use and inexpensive iPi Motion Capture is.”

Given the interest in markerless motion capture I’ve seen among creative professionals and students in my classroom at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, coupled with the advancements iPi Soft has made to iPi Motion Capture, it’s clear that markerless motion capture will grow as a creative force to be reckoned with among filmmakers, videogame developers and animators for years to come.

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We had a lot of discussions in our team regarding which is the best of submitted videos. Finally, we decided that the winner is Mikołaj Jagodziński with “Virtuo” piece!
Mikołaj has increased his chances by sending the “Behind the Scenes” accompanying video.
Congratulations!

Description from the author:
All character animations were created in iPi Motion Capture (except for the running sequence, animation of the head, wrist and fingers). I used four PS Eye cameras.

Motion Capture Technology:

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Rodeo FX Pulls a Crowd with Mocap & Compositing Workflow

Adriene Hurst’s story in Digital Media World on Rodeo FX’s use of iPi Motion Capture on “Now You See Me”. Read article>>

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MEDIA ALERT

iPi Soft Sponsors “Trends in Markerless Motion Capture” at DMA/LA’s March 18^th Event

Leading Animators/Visual Effects Artists Anthony Hoit, David Lewandowski And Don McCoy To Discuss Their Creative Work Using iPi Motion Capture In Panel Moderated By Ko Maruyama

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA – iPi Soft, developer of the iPi Motion Capture line of markerless motion capture technology, is excited to announce details of the company’s participation at the “Trends in Markerless Motion Capture Workflow: The iPi Soft Solution“ event happening in conjunction with the Digital Media Artists/Los Angeles (DMA/LA), the leading association for professionals creating imagery for video, film and other media using desktop tools, on Tuesday, March 18 at the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles.

Ko Maruyama, the veteran animator, technology writer and video producer, as well as an instructor in the motion design/3D animation department at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, will moderate the event, which will include a mix of panels, presentations and demos from some of today’s most accomplished creative professionals who have adopted iPi Motion Capture into their production workflow thanks to its ease of use, affordability and seamless integration with other leading 3D animation tools. The event will also include ample time for networking and hands-on experiences.

The evening will begin with a panel discussion that addresses the benefits of the markerless motion capture workflow in production. Participants include Anthony Hoit, Systems Development Lead at the full service LA-based post-production visual effects house Graphic Film Company; LA-based Director/Animation Artist David Lewandowski; and VFX artists Don McCoy of S4 Studio, Los Angeles, whose credits include Showtime’s Homeland, and others.

Maruyama notes that he recently established the first-ever mocap studio featuring iPi Soft technology at Art Center and is eager to introduce the benefits of markerless motion capture to the DMA/LA community.

“iPi Motion Capture implements the use of a Microsoft Kinect or a Sony PSEye setup to capture data; hardware that many of many students and creative professionals already own,” Maruyama says. “iPi Soft is not only much more affordable than other professional systems, but allows artists to easily perform and ingest their performances in a small space that easily compliments animators’ studios. It is hoped that the educational event will give DMA/LA attendees insight that will help them better express their creativity through motion capture.”

In the second half of the evening, two iPi Motion Capture stations will be set-up in the Gallery Theater to help attendees understand the markerless motion capture process. This will permit the motion of each guest to be captured – as time permits. Following the event, the captured library of motions will be uploaded to a public sharing website, offering guests an opportunity to view their motions as a keepsake.

Date:

Tuesday, March 18

Location:

Gallery Theater at Barnsdall Art Park

4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

Time:

7:00 p.m. – 10 p.m. – doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Participants:

• Ko Maruyama, Moderator:

Ko Maruyama is veteran animator, technology writer and video producer, and for 10 years has been an instructor at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, in the motion design and 3D animation graphics department. He has just set up an iPi Motion Capture studio at the famed art school.

• Anthony Hoit, Panelist:

Anthony Hoit is the Systems Development lead at the Graphic Film Company, an LA-based full service post-production visual effects house and self-producing computer generated film production studio founded in partnership with Simon West Productions (Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The General’s Daughter, When a Stranger Calls). Hoit is responsible for artist supervision at GFC and for the company’s motion and facial capture technology. The studio has been using iPi Motion Capture, for the past three years, most recently on “Night of the Living Dead: 3D Origins” – a 3D animated reboot of the classic horror film scheduled for release in Fall 2014.

• David Lewandowski, Panelist:

David Lewandowski is a veteran animation director and visual effects designer whose credits include the films Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. He recently created the visionary short film, “Late for Meeting” (official selection of the SXSW 2014 Film Festival).  He is currently developing a CINEMA 4D character pipeline featuring low-cost motion capture for television.

• Don L. McCoy, Panelist.

Don McCoy is VFX artist and iPi Motion Capture enthusiast working with leading creative design and full service production studios in television production.

Food & Refreshments:

Food and refreshments – pizza, waters, chips, cookies – will be provided.

Event Sponsor/Door Prize:

iPi Soft is an event sponsor and will be awarding one (1) license of iPi Mocap Studio 2 to one DMA/LA guest in attendance.

Tickets:

Tickets to DMA/LA March 18^th event are available online at Event Brite.

Member of the Press:

Members of the press are invited to attend. For additional information or to schedule interviews with any of the event participants, please contact:

Vicky Gray-Clark, Ambient PR vicky@ambientpr.com 408-318-1980 or

Ray Ecke, Right Word Media ray@rightwordmedia.com 973-726-3797.

About iPi Soft:

Launched in 2008 by CEO and Chief Technology Architect Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft, LLC is the Moscow-based developer of iPi Motion Capture™, a markerless motion capture software tool that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s breakthrough technology digitizes the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it in expressive 3D characters for video games or computer generated films. For additional information on iPi Soft product pricing or a 30-day free trial please visit http://www.ipisoft.com.

Media Contacts:

Vicky Gray-Clark, Ambient PR vicky@ambientpr.com 408-318-1980

Ray Ecke, Right Word Media ray@rightwordmedia.com 973-726-3797

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iPi Soft Motion Capture Technology Accelerates
Post Production Workflow For “The Boy and His Robot”

MOSCOW, RUSSIA, February 05, 2014 – iPi Soft, LLC, announced that the company’s line of markerless iPi Motion Capture technology will be used to capture all the motion in the ground-breaking live-action mecha feature film, “The Boy and His Robot (TBAHR)”. Directed by Rich Ho, founder of the award-winning Singapore-based production company Richmanclub Studios, the film marks the first time iPi Motion Capture’s six Sony PS Eye gaming webcams set up was used for main actors and robot action, proprietary crowd simulation and more.

Read full press-release>>

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iPi Mocap was used to create crowd motions in Russia’s most commercially successful film, war epic “Stalingrad”. This is the story of love and heroism in the middle of the World War II greatest battle. The film was created in IMAX 3D, and includes 230 shots with visual effects. Many of them are quite long, taking approximately 30 minutes of overall screen time.

“I put the Kinect near my workstation, and played out the movements I needed, immediately transferring them to the soldiers.“ Alexander Lipilin, Animation Supervisor of the Main Road|Post, explains. “It was convenient. Guys at iPi Soft made the program, which was a unique solution for markerless mocap of the body with the use of Kinect. There is no equivalent of this technology yet.“

Here you can find detailed description of how VFX had been created, and what challenges VFX artists met during production:

http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/16324

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