Vicon has announced that it will launch its new VFX motion capture software, Shōgun at FMX 2017 (booth #2.3). Capitalizing on over 30 years of motion capture experience and years of research and development, Shōgun aims to offer the entertainment industry a new level of efficiency and quality.
Reportedly designed from the ground up and based on feedback from the industry and customers alike, Shōgun’s new feature set delivers real time system monitoring.
Shogun tries to eliminate the previously time-consuming process of calibrating performers from captured data in post. Performers now simply enter the capture space and are automatically detected and labelled, the calibration is then run in the background during the range of motion. Boasting a new skeletal mesh model, the software is designed to be highly functional, making data solving easy, visual and immediate. This cuts down the traditionally time consuming process of labeling subjects, cleaning data and calibrating markers.
“With today’s large productions featuring anything between 5 to 15 actors, Shōgun has been designed to help industry professionals streamline their captures, saving time and money. Subject calibration – a process that used to take 20 minutes can now be achieved in less than a minute.” said Tim Doubleday, VFX product manager at Vicon.
With Shogun it’s possible to capture multiple actors undertaking complex interactions, such as folding arms, hugs and stunt work with props. With direct support for all the major real-time game engines, the pre-visualization and animation processes are enhanced – providing direct visualization of the final scene.
Users are also able to record their data direct to disk, meaning onset review is almost instantaneous. This saves hours of post-production time and allows artists to focus on the remaining pipeline. These enhancements help accelerate productions, shaving days off the post production pipeline while increasing data quality and efficiency.
Re-calibrating motion capture systems can cost time onset, especially for large studio shoots involving multiple actors. Working with Vicon’s cameras, Shōgun provides real-time feedback to users on all the important factors affecting camera and system health. Enabling teams to quickly re-calibrate cameras on the fly within minutes, whilst continuing to capture performances. New features such as the data heat map assist users capturing very challenging shots, as Shōgun automatically finds, highlights and navigates users to frames where data may require attention.
Alexandre Messier, technical director at Ubisoft, a publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and services, who has been beta testing the Shōgun software for several months alongside Vicon, said: “Most of our game teams are now asking for real-time previsualization, with Shōgun’s auto skeleton calibration, we can now stream accurate data into 3rd party’s solution in seconds – allowing teams to maximize their precious time on the shoot floor. Shogun is adding speed to our data processing pipeline. Most importantly, that speed is not sacrificing any data quality. Instead it exceeds what we’re producing with Blade.”
Imogen Moorhouse, CEO, Vicon said “Shogun is a step change in the way our customers use motion capture. Whether you’re running a large production with a hundred cameras or a small start-up with a handful of cameras, Shogun has been designed to save you time, save you money whilst delivering the highest quality data.”
