Welcome to week six of my Pinhead Internship blog! This week was spent preparing for, and shooting one of two upcoming projects that Digital Domain will be working on. As well as learning more about the technical side of preparing for these shoots, I learned a lot about the logistics and business side of coordinating motion capture shoots at DD.
On Monday and Tuesday, I spent a lot of time working with Ruel Smith and Christian Deanda to prepare the digital assets for the video game shoot that was scheduled for Wednesday through Friday. Ruel and Christian work as “Real Time Operators” during these shoots, meaning that they are in charge of preparing the virtual environments so they can be seen live (in real-time) to assist actors and the client crew in visualizing these virtual environments. Motion capture data, when viewed in real-time, is only a set of points and bones in an empty space. This marker/skeleton structure is called a VSK, (Vicon Skeleton) file.
Example of three actor VSK’s
In order to see characters “driven” by this data, rather than just the VSK, people like Ruel and Christian must prepare the character models to be properly driven by the actor’s VSK. For example, if the character that the actor is driving is a 10-foot tall beast, then the models must be properly scaled to ensure it behaves correctly relative to the actor’s performance. The photo at right (pulled from Google), represents three actors and their VSK’s. It is the job of the real-time operator to make these skeletons drive character models, such as three monkeys, in real-time for reference.
In addition to preparing the character models, Ruel and Christian also had to prepare the environment and prop models to be seen in real-time. This real-time work is all done in Motionbuilder by Autodesk, and is done for every shoot because real-time output is essential reference material for the client crew (particularly the director) to ensure they are getting the performance they need.
I also spent some time on Monday and Tuesday cleaning the stage from the previous shoot, then building the sets and taping the floor for the upcoming shoot on Wednesday-Friday. We only build what is necessary for the actors to interact with (doors, stairs, chairs, etc), then we mark their location in the volume with tape so it can be easily reassembled on the day.
Wednesday was rehearsal day for the shoot. The client crew came in and we collaborated with them to review the assets, shot lists, and other logistics for the shoot. The actors also came in, and we suited them up in suit and helmets with head-mounted cameras, as again, we would be doing body and facial capture, as well as final audio. Later in the day, the actors worked with the director, producer, and cinematics lead as they rehearsed all of their scenes for the next two days.
Our shoot schedule for Thursday and Friday were very similar to last week:
- Digital Domain Crew Call at 7:00am
- Breakfast served at 7:00am
- Shooting begins at 9:15am
- Lunch served at 12:30pm
- Resume shooting at 1:30pm
- Wrap shooting around 5:30pm
- Leave around 7:00pm
For fun, I thought I’d add photos of the craft services, which includes snacks, treats, and drinks to keep the crew happy and energized. Definitely a fun little bonus of shooting!
The client crew brought in their own witness camera operators for this shoot, so I had different responsibilities when I worked on this set, which all fell under the umbrella of my role as “Production Assistant”. This included wrangling cable, prepping physical props, building and striking sets, and other miscellaneous jobs to help the crew.
The catering area in the parking lot where we ate breakfast and lunch!
Saturday, I went back in to work for the day for preparation for our shoot on Monday. Most of Digital Domain’s mocap crew had to come in to work that day because a lot of prep is needed the Monday shoot, which will be for a feature film. I got in a mocap suit as well as put on additional finger markers (which are rarely used) to run through some testing for the Monday shoot. We built a new VSK with me wearing the finger markers (because I didn’t previously have them), which was made by capturing a full range of motion, then labeling the markers to correspond with their respective body parts. We then worked with some members of Monday’s crew who came in as well, to walk through each of the scenes that will be shot in order to ensure everything (environments, characters, props, real-time feed, virtual camera, witness/reference cameras, timecode, etc) was working properly before Monday.
In my little free time during the week, I ran every day Westchester and Playa Vista (right around where I’ve been living). It’s been fairly hot out so I run in the early morning before work or in the late evening. One afternoon, Greg and I made a visit out to Santa Monica for dinner at nice little Italian restaurant, Fritto Misto. They served homemade pasta that was delicious! That evening, we had a chance to walk along the coast, and even headed out on the crowded Santa Monica pier to get the “full Santa Monica experience”.
Along the coast in Santa Monica overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway
Today, Sunday, I spent most of the day relaxing at Greg’s and catching up on some personal work, but this evening he surprised me by taking me over to the USC campus since I had expressed interest in visiting a few weeks ago. On the way there, we drove on the commuter lane connecting the 110 to the 105 which was where the opening scene for La La Land was filmed! Then, after spending an hour or so walking USC’s beautiful campus, we headed into downtown LA to find a place to eat dinner, where we stumbled upon not one, but two more La La Land filming locations that were located directly across the street from each other. For those of you who have been following, that now makes 6 unique La La Land filming locations visited during this internship! Not bad!
Opening scene of La La Land
Visiting USC
Yes, more La La Land
For only $1, we took a ride on the historic tram!
Another La La Land location across the street from the tram!
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