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The Nicholas Group is now TNG Visual Effects
Photo Real 3D scanning or a Model?
This is a controversial question as a good artist can now create a photo realistic model. The question is how long does it take and how exact does it look? There are a number of 3D Scanners on the market today and seems like the price point is starting to come down. This is an argument to purchase and let the graphics department take it over.
The issue to be considered here is how often do you need this technology? If it is only once in a while it is better to go out for service as technology changes and skills are forgottten. A 3D Scanning Service bureau is using this equipment all the time and has mastered it. They have experence to handle break downs on set. Working quickly with the talent and double checking the data to make sure it was captured and backed-up. Whether you buy or use a service bureau a 3D scanner can make you work faster and in most cases better looking.
Another aspect that you can typically get a 3D scanning service to do is blend shapes to capture different expressions of the talent. They may be handy to use in your production or just handy to have on the contact sheet to refer to.
The whole idea is to capture your talent very quickly to avoid loosing the talent and having to wait until they free up again. We also found that if you have a project like an episodic that the talent will need effects several times, it may be more effective to capture them once in a swimming suite or body suit and reuse the data a number of times with the appropriate outfits created in software.
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| Building, sets and enviornments |
| Now comes the scanners that can be used for Pre-Vis as well as building out a set with models scanned, such as cities or valleys, trucks, trains, large aircraft. These scanners are normally Lidars scanners.
Like all industries, there is competition from Surfacer and Lieca both to do this type of work. However, once you decide on what exactly you would like done, the service bureau should be able to get the 3D scanner that does the best job. The system that will scan In less time without compromising quality, translating into lower costs.
Another way to do Lidar scanning would be from the sky. The following image is a little more than a mile from the city of Vancouver in about 1 hour. This will still call for clean up as all scans do, but with scanning that fast, big projects become more affordable.
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