3D Head Scans, Mo-Cap, Bathroom Art and Turtles
I just returned from a wonderful visit to Los Angeles. The day I left here in Seattle it was supposed to reach 90 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. Touching down in L.A., we were informed that it was 62 degrees and raining. Oh Mother Nature, you are quite the jokester.
Our first stop was Giant Studios, which is not only home to the motion capture technology used on James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar," but also home to the friendliest bunch of people in Southern California. We got some really amazing facial capture demos from them, as well as some fully body demos, and as always were blown away.
We headed off to check into the lovely Buena Vista hotel in Santa Monica, and upon arrival I cracked a few lame jokes with the person behind the desk. They must like dumb jokes, because without even trying, I was upgraded to a suite. Suites are like a regular room only with twice as much space that you'll never use. I use my hotel's bed and bathroom. That's it. However I wasn't going to complain, especially since I got to view lovely art pieces like this when sitting on the toilet:
Seriously, what the hell is that? I stared at it for hours and still could not figure out what I was looking at.
Our hotel also featured a really nice pond with little turtles that we could sit and watch as we ate, as well as one of the most amazing trees I have ever seen in my life.
I loved just staring at this thing, and following branches and roots as they weaved their way in and out of one another. Just an amazing thing to see up close.
The following day we headed to House of Moves for more demos, and they also put on quite a show. The staff was super funny and warm, and we spent a great deal of the time just standing in a circle chatting and laughing. They had set up a really nice scene for us to watch as it was motion captured, and then we got to see what a roughly finished version would look like on the computer.
The final day we went to Gentle Giant Studios, which just blew my socks off. The meeting room featured a ton of little shadow box type windows in the wall with figures like these recognizable faces:
Not only that, but as I went to take my seat for our meeting, look what I found sitting on the desk:
The reason for our visit to GG was to get my head scanned in 3D. This turned out to be a very quick process where I sat in a chair for roughly 10 minutes while they took various expressions. It was amazing, yet creepy, to see my head on the computer screen. We were then shown some of the maquettes they're working on for "The Frog Princess," as well as some of their celebrity head scans. They can actually take these scans and then "print" them so that the result is a little Jay Leno head that you can hold in your hand. Amazing stuff, and I'll try to post images from my scan later on, if it's not breaking my NDA agreement.
On the way out, I had my co-worker snap this picture with one of their full-size models:
I have to apologize for the blur on this one, but the guy who was snapping the photo for me had just taken the top of his finger off with hedge-trimmers a few days earlier (no joke), so I can forgive him being a bit shakey when taking the picture.
I had a blast in Los Angeles and hope to return to work with all of these guys very soon. I want to thank everyone from Giant, House of Moves, and Gentle Giant for their hospitality, as well as to my company for allowing me the chance to get to take part in the trip.
Take care! Share this on: facebook
Our first stop was Giant Studios, which is not only home to the motion capture technology used on James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar," but also home to the friendliest bunch of people in Southern California. We got some really amazing facial capture demos from them, as well as some fully body demos, and as always were blown away.
We headed off to check into the lovely Buena Vista hotel in Santa Monica, and upon arrival I cracked a few lame jokes with the person behind the desk. They must like dumb jokes, because without even trying, I was upgraded to a suite. Suites are like a regular room only with twice as much space that you'll never use. I use my hotel's bed and bathroom. That's it. However I wasn't going to complain, especially since I got to view lovely art pieces like this when sitting on the toilet:
Seriously, what the hell is that? I stared at it for hours and still could not figure out what I was looking at.
Our hotel also featured a really nice pond with little turtles that we could sit and watch as we ate, as well as one of the most amazing trees I have ever seen in my life.
I loved just staring at this thing, and following branches and roots as they weaved their way in and out of one another. Just an amazing thing to see up close.
The following day we headed to House of Moves for more demos, and they also put on quite a show. The staff was super funny and warm, and we spent a great deal of the time just standing in a circle chatting and laughing. They had set up a really nice scene for us to watch as it was motion captured, and then we got to see what a roughly finished version would look like on the computer.
The final day we went to Gentle Giant Studios, which just blew my socks off. The meeting room featured a ton of little shadow box type windows in the wall with figures like these recognizable faces:
Not only that, but as I went to take my seat for our meeting, look what I found sitting on the desk:
The reason for our visit to GG was to get my head scanned in 3D. This turned out to be a very quick process where I sat in a chair for roughly 10 minutes while they took various expressions. It was amazing, yet creepy, to see my head on the computer screen. We were then shown some of the maquettes they're working on for "The Frog Princess," as well as some of their celebrity head scans. They can actually take these scans and then "print" them so that the result is a little Jay Leno head that you can hold in your hand. Amazing stuff, and I'll try to post images from my scan later on, if it's not breaking my NDA agreement.
On the way out, I had my co-worker snap this picture with one of their full-size models:
I have to apologize for the blur on this one, but the guy who was snapping the photo for me had just taken the top of his finger off with hedge-trimmers a few days earlier (no joke), so I can forgive him being a bit shakey when taking the picture.
I had a blast in Los Angeles and hope to return to work with all of these guys very soon. I want to thank everyone from Giant, House of Moves, and Gentle Giant for their hospitality, as well as to my company for allowing me the chance to get to take part in the trip.
Take care! Share this on: facebook
posted by Dave Johnson at
1:09 PM
2 Comments:
Thats all impressive an everything - but I think we need to ask why you where you spending hours in the bathroom..
Ha... yeah, well I would say it was because I was staring at the picture, but I think we all know the truth.
Hint: I was knitting.
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