Seth MacFarlane‘s production company Fuzzy Door has deployed its tech division’s ViewScreen Studio real-time performance capture system on the production of the new Ted television series.
While he directed and performed simultaneously – how does he do that? – the crew were able to insert his loveable but dysfunctional animated bear character into scenes involving human actors.
“Filming with VFX components can be challenging because an essential part of the scene is left to the crew’s imagination. On Ted, using ViewScreen meant that everyone could see the composited scene, including the digital bear, in video village in real time.”.
Brandon Fayette, Chief Product Officer,Fuzzy Door Tech
“ViewScreen Studio was critical for planning shots and how the team approached filming. It allowed them to visualize the digital asset in real time and treat Ted like any other actor or live-action element. By removing the guesswork, ViewScreen transformed the creative process which resulted in a faster turnaround time,”
Faith Sedlin, President, Fuzzy Door Tech
Things were made easier for the Director because he could offer creative feedback based on a composited scene. Camera operators could frame shots more easily and get what they wanted in fewer takes because they had Ted, complete with the right facial expressions, rather than a stuffed toy in the viewfinder, including on shots where he’s moving.
About ViewScreen
The ViewScreenTM family of products, which includes ViewScreen Studio and ViewScreen Scout, is a suite of production visualization (ProVisTM) tools that simultaneously integrates visual effects and the real world to accelerate television and film production. ViewScreen Studio is built for full-scale productions to let filmmakers visualize and animate an entire scene, including digital assets, in real time, across multiple cameras. And ViewScreen Scout is a real-time scouting app for the iPhone that lets people record how digital assets will look on location or on a soundstage – before filming begins.
For advice, guidance and support on getting the best out of real-time performance capture and animation systems for your next production, please get in touch. Your contacts at Mondatum are Colin Birch (colin@mondatum.com) and John Rowe (john@mondatum.com).
Source: Silicon