A new camera-mounted 3D capture and tracking system that can aid visual effects (VFX) workflows by capturing spatial information during filming is set to ship early next year.
Standard cinema cameras fail to fully record much of the 3D information in a scene and while separate set scans and camera-tracking systems can preserve some of that information, VFX teams may still need to reconstruct missing depth, geometry, and camera position after filming wraps.
That work adds extensive time and enormous complexity to ambitious shots and makes some ideas impractical to pursue.
The new MANTIS by Leica Geosystems product, which hails from global measurement technology firm Hexagon, captures scene geometry and camera movement together as the camera rolls, creating a spatial record aligned with the footage for use in VFX workflows.
Chris Richter, President of Hexagon’s Media & Entertainment Venture, said: “Today’s audiences are more demanding than ever before, so productions now routinely combine live-action sets with virtual environments and visual effects. This makes accurate on-set metadata increasingly valuable.
“MANTIS records spatial data frame by frame on set, which enriches the images captured. This significantly reduces the steps required to composite live-action footage with CGI.
“We are excited to bring this product to the industry and help creatives on set and in post-production to improve workflows and to focus on making extraordinary content.”
Burkhard Boeckem, Hexagon’s Chief Technology Officer, added: “We’ve been working with the film industry for many years to help capture set data for better post-production flows.
“The instruments we had available could capture a full scan of the scene, but there is always room to do more. Almost every production today passes through tools that work in three dimensions, so we asked ourselves, why not include perfectly synced spatial data alongside the image?
“Using our expertise in measurement technology and spatial intelligence, we developed MANTIS to do just that.”