WondAR Studios and AIR3 are collaborating to bring new animation projects to life, combining the world of 3D with that of cinema: "Motion Capture. Motion Future".
La tecnica di animazione in Motion Capture è protagonista di un cambiamento tecnologico nel mondo del cinema e dell’intrattenimento, che andrà a costruire un futuro più interattivo, innovativo e digitale. La startup innovativa italiana WondAR Studios e l’Associazione Italiana Registi AIR3 consolidano i primi passi in direzione di una collaborazione che possa dare spazio e forma a nuovi progetti d’animazione, unendo il mondo del 3D a quello del cinema.
In particular, Antonino Valvo, pioneer of this project and vice president of AIR3, and Paolo Aralla, founder of WondAR Studios, a cutting-edge reality in the use of innovative entertainment modes and providing directors and creatives with software and technologies for the creation of digital avatars, have been working for months to bring this link between the two realities to life, in such a way as to enhance modern digital systems, especially Motion Capture technology, to create new storytelling styles.
Motion capture in Italy: an evolving path
The innovation introduced by Motion Capture technology expands the boundaries of event and entertainment visualization, creating a connection between multiple national and international realities, and implementing a path of continuous evolution that aims to embrace different sectors.
The WondAR Studios team responds daily to the latest news and updates of various software with the aim of improving and experimenting with new techniques and solutions, for example, using increasingly consumer-oriented systems such as Lidar scanners implemented in smartphones. Ennio Pirolo, CTO of the startup, is developing, together with his team, a new "consumer" Motion Capture system, using the new Lidar installed on iPad Pro and iPhone 12, and accessible to everyone through an app for Smart Glasses, not yet on the market, but which will replace current smartphones within a decade.
The key point of these new tools is undoubtedly the rendering returned by various software, which makes projects increasingly realistic despite the digital matrix. An example is the pursuit of photorealism by Unreal Engine, which in the various versions of the program gets closer and closer to the goal, making lights and shadows protagonists of the final result. These latest requirements are also met, and above all, by digital avatar creation software that in 2021 has reached very advanced levels of photorealism, such as Character Creator, by the Reallusion group, which, starting from a photograph of a close-up of the face, can reconstruct it in 3D, or MetaHuman, software that can be used for free in the cloud thanks to the computing power of Epic Games servers, which allows modeling of morphological traits through an infinite number of physical variables.
How the Xsens suit works for Motion Capture
La tuta di Motion Capture MVN Link di Xsens al suo interno contiene 17 sensori, posizionati lungo tutto il corpo, che consentono di trasmettere live i dati del movimento, creando un vero e proprio scheletro animato, collegabile a qualsiasi character 3D. La tuta viene già utilizzata in numerosi film di Pixar e Marvel.
For hand tracking, WondAR Studios uses Manus gloves containing highly sensitive flexible circuits, also used by NASA and MIT with one of the most advanced finger tracking systems in the world. As for facial tracking, thanks to the new potential of Apple and a dedicated helmet, it is possible to collect numerous data and information that reconstruct facial animation in real-time on a computer through the new ARkit augmented reality system.
An important strength of WondAR is also the daily contact with professionals in the industry, including Mattia Scarparo, CG and VFX artist and founder of 3D Corner, capable of visualizing animation in real-time in both Unreal Engine and iClone software.
Networking
An important characteristic of these technologies is the continuous transformation of hardware and software systems, which make networking between developers and creatives of fundamental importance. Collaboration thus becomes a source for innovation, where nights spent discussing give rise to cutting-edge digital creations; this is perhaps also due to the young age of many players in this market. Thanks to the meeting between WondAR Studios and AIR3, the idea of being able to build together a new form of creativity, combining stories and new ways of telling them, was born.