The Brief

To produce an immersive experience for the Henley River and Rowing museum that would allow visitors to experience a race in the Henley Regatta from the Cox's point of view.

Solution

Inition created a bespoke immersive 360 degree experience using a head-mounted display. Two races were shot at the Henley Royal Regatta and Women's Regatta. In order to capture the all the action, the races were shot using a custom designed 360 filming rig, mounted in the stern of the boat where the Cox would normally sit.

Museum visitors wearing the installed head-mounted display which, thanks to a precision intertial tracking, allowed them to look around through a full 360 degrees of the action. A stereo sound track was also created with audio recorded from the races.

Post-production took place at Inition's and involved a conversion of captured 'donut' high definition video into 360° panoramic format. Inition also developed the software to view the 360° video inside a head-mounted display and interface to the tracking system.

Inition helped Irish production company vStream create the world’s first personalised stereoscopic 3D experience – the AVIVA Stadium 3D Experience.

The concept of the project was to make the viewer feel that he or she was a team player in the Irish football or rugby team, creating a sense of anticipation and the rush of preparing to play to a crowd of over 50,000 people.

To create the illusion of ‘being there’, Inition chose to use 2 X Iconix minicams on a bolt rig attached to a steadicam. The signals from these were fed through to a StereoBrain processor so the footage could be monitored on a 2D 7” HD-SDI monitor and media was recorded to two Nano Drives.

The entire sequence was to be filmed from a ‘point of view’ perspective so Inition matched the separation of the two Iconix cameras with the natural distance between the human eyes. A Steadicam operator created a smooth flowing sequence, replicating the real motion of someone walking.

To further cement the sense of immersion, visitors had their photograph’s taken via a webcam as they entered the 3D Experience temporary building. Their face was then incorporated into the video and teammates and crowds would even refer to the viewer by name.

Inition also provided the 14 x 24” Hyundai P240W 3D LCD screens with 3D passive glasses which were installed into individual viewing booths.

The Aviva Stadium 3D experience later went on tour. With it being the first of its kind in the world, it attracted massive television media attention.

Leading extreme sports television producer Boomerang Film approached Inition to produce a high octane 3D promotional video to support Nissan’s sponsorship of the 2011 FreeRide World Tour after a successful collaboration shooting Tony Hawk on his European skateboard tour in Berlin and Brighton for Canal +

Inition provided stereoscopic consultancy, two portable 3D camera systems, a stereographer and camera assistant for two shooting days as well as 3D post production services including 3D fixing, depth grading and mastering.

Super Fast Turnaround

Inition were commissioned with the ambitious task of delivering a 3D online post, short promo film and 30 second trailer on a Blu-ray disc within 48 hours of the final shoot. Inition’s team edited approximately 4 – 5 hours of footage into a 2.5 minute compelling promo film in time for the opening of the Nissan FreeRide World Tour.

Behind the Scenes

The offline edit was undertaken by the client in Avid and the final post stages were completed at Inition. We were provided with a graded DPX sequence (Digital Picture Exchange) for the left and right channels which were ingested into our Speedgrade XR suite, where 3D geometry correction and a depth grade were performed. The final piece was then mastered in the side-by-side format for Blu-ray.

The Right Tool for the Job

The client required a stereoscopic video capture system which was as lightweight as possible, able to take POV shots and portable enough to be taken to challenging locations such as mountain faces. Always keen to embrace a challenge, Inition developed a custom built helmet with a mounted 3D rig based around two Toshiba Minicams recording to Nano Flash recorders on Compact Flash cards.

Small enough to achieve an interaxial separation of just 4mm, the custom built rig was highly versatile and could be controlled and genlocked with a camera control unit up to 30 metres away. The recorders were synced (in terms of being triggered for recording) via a breakout cable joined to a single trigger.

Alignment of the cameras was performed before mounting to the helmet with wedges to fix roll and vertical offset. Being a fixed interaxial, calculations were made to allow for the best 3D in the given environment with locked off cameras. The professional athletes were prepped before shooting, so that they were aware of the 3D limits i.e. how close to get to objects.

Conclusion

With its production partner Boomerang Films, Inition delivered an attention holding 3D promotional film to Nissan on schedule, which was taken on tour around major European ski destinations in a Nissan branded truck complete with 4D alpine mountain breeze effects.

Red Bee Media hired Inition to shoot a 3D advert promoting a new theme park based gameshow - 'Scream If You Know The Answer' for UKTV.

The brief was to replicate the adrenaline inducing feeling of riding the white knuckle rides at Thorpe Park and after a tough recce day trying all the coasters at the park, the team chose Colussus, the UK's only quadruple-corkscrew coaster.

At the front of the ride the Inition team installed two SI-2K Mini Digital Cinema Cameras in a parallel arrangement on a rugged mounting system designed by Extreme Facilities. To adhere to health and safety requirements, Extreme Facilities modified a crash dummy which housed and contained all the recording equipment.

The footage was finished in-house using our 2K Iridas SpeedGrade system which is suitable for large and small screen 3D projects, ideal as this 3D advert was shown in cinemas and on 3D TV sets in over 1,200 Sky 3D pubs.
 

Future of 3D #3: Design, Print and Fly!

Co-founder and director of Intion Stuart Cupit, also keen photographer and kite-flyer, decided to set himself a challenge to build a rig capable of taking panoramic aeriel photos from his parafoil kite...

The Spec
The rig needed moving parts, had to be light-weight but strong enough to hold servos and a digital camera and withstand the odd crash landing. Stuart designed the rig using 3D Studio Max and included 5 independent moveable stages, a complete gear system, fittings for 4 servos, a microcontroller, batteries and, most importantly, a digital camera.

The 3D Print
The final design was printed out in one go (yes, no assembly!) using our Invision-XT 3D printer. The various joints and gears were designed in place with the 0.1mm clearance between any two parts required to  allow them to move independently. The VisiJet SR200 build material used is strong enough to be for functional finished products.

Servo Control and Support
The gears, axels and sleeves freely revolve and the fleixble nature of the material, when printed in thin sections, allowed the servos to be held in place by sprung hinged latches. The servos follow a pre-recorded set of moves using a Milinst Wizard board.

A Picavet suspension allowed the camera rig to self-level and prevents twisting. A geared mechanism reduced the speed of one of the servos by 20 to 1 to allow the rig to be rotated. The gears were printed in place and once support material is removed just work with no assembly!

The Flight
The whole rig was attached to a Sutton Flowform 16 kite using a pair wire hangups on 200m of cord. The kite needed a 25mph wind to get the 1kg rig into the air. Flown from Hamstead Heath, the rig took 50 blurry photos the first time! The second flight got some great shots looking south across London, and some bemused looks from on-lookers!

The kit we used: 3D Systems Invision XT (in-house), 3D Studio Max, Sony digital camera, Milinst Wizard Servo controller board, Sutton Flowform 16 kite

Check out our 3D Printing Service and our Future of 3D blog at fo3d.posterous.com for our latest experiments in 3D.

About our 'Future of 3D' series

The 'Future of 3D' series is about exploring the boundaries of future 3D technology through non-commercial creative projects. Supporting this type of work is core to Inition's core values of developing new uses of 3D technology, supporting creativity and nurturing the passion of it's staff and collaborators. If you have an idea for a 'Future of 3D' project, we'd love to hear from you.

Future of 3D: #2 - Sketch, Scult, Print

As part of Inition’s “Future of 3D” series, our 3D printing team worked with BA design student Kristin Katzer from the London College of Communication to realise a packaging design for fruits.

Concept
The concept for Kristin's organic design was based on structures of nature, in particular her research into “tafoni structures” produced during the calcification of porous sandstone.

Freeform Design
Designing these organic structures using a typical 3D CAD package would have proved very difficult, however with Inition's guidance Kristin realised the design through the intuitive interface of the Sensable Phantom Omni in conjunction with the Claytools software. Claytools is a design package specially tailored towards haptic modelling, allowing the user to directly sculpt, manipulate and feel the surface of a model through a pen-line interface attached to a motorised force-feedback arm.

3D Print
After adding colour to the CAD model, the complex design was prepared for print Paul Armand, one of Inition's 3D printing specialists. Our full colour 3D ZPrinter 450 printed out the model over-night including two end caps with extruded lettering. The final design forms part of Kristin’s degree and was shown at the BA Design Show at the London College of Communication in June 2011.

Future of 3D
Inition’s “Future of 3D” series encourages work on non-commercial projects which help to push the boundaries of current 3D creative and technology. This was the first time we had seen a project go from sketched concept, through haptic modelling to a physical 3D printed model. Organic designs are not usually immediately associated with computers but with Claytools strength in creating organic shapes and our 3D printer's ability to print them, we see a great future for this combination of technologies in product design.

The kit we used:  ZPrinter 450, Phantom Omni with Claytools software

Thanks to Kristin for creating a great piece; the first thing we've 3D printed that has been created on a haptic device. Check out our Future of 3D blog at fo3d.posterous.com for our latest experiments.

The NanoPhysics group at the University of Bristol led by Prof. Mervyn Miles were supplied with two Cyberglove and Cyberforce arm systems from Inition. Inition advised on, and installed this advanced setup for the University to put them at the forefront of the emerging field of nanomanipulation with force feedback.

The University of Bristol have created a haptics system that allows a user to feel the forces exerted by microscopic/nanoscopic objects as they interact with them. Using their dynamic holographic assembler (DHA) they could use microspheres to squeeze a biological cell and, by mapping the resulting force changes to larger numbers, enable a user to feel the cell deform as they apply pressure to it.

The haptic element needed to be accomplished using a form of force feedback glove, with accurate 3D positioning and force mapping. The wireless CyberGlove II with CyberGrasp and CyberForce Arm is the system Inition recommended, sold, and installed for the University of Bristol. Inition also trained the University of Bristol in the use of CyberForce Arm which is a force feedback armature that conveys realistic grounded forces to the hand.

Manipulation and Feedback of Molecules

Inition believes this is a world first. The manipulation of molecules and atoms is the extension of predictions by visionaries Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle, where manipulation of atoms leads to production of materials with diamond like strength. Neal Stephenson's book, The Diamond Age,  popularized the engineering of materials in this way.

The live 3D transmission of a performance by Keane at Abbey Road Studios to a domestic 3D television marked a major milestone in the history of 3D broadcasting and pioneered many of the 3D transmission techniques to follow.

Inition conceived the idea in 2008 and was the primary technical partner behind the project which was backed by BSkyB, Island Records and Nineteen Fifteen Productions.

Keane 3D was broadcast simultaneously to three very different mediums – The Vue’s flagship Leicester Square RealD cinema; a dedicated website where Keane fans could watch the performance in anaglyph (red/cyan) mode and over the BSkyB transmission infrastructure becoming the first ever live 3D transmission on their network.

Sky Transmission

The Keane broadcast was the first ever 3D transmission to be broadcast over the BSkyB transmission infrastructure to a domestic display. The 3D feed was transmitted as a side-by-side frame compatible signal over a high definition satellite transponder using SENSIO encoding which was linked to two Hyundai 46 inch high definition 3D TV screens. A VIP audience in Abbey Road's world-famous Studio 2 were able to watch the full live Sky transmission nearby.

3D Webcast

A separate 3D webcast was streamed over the Internet in anaglyph (red/cyan) mode. This was the world’s first ever live webcast in 3D which Keane fans around the globe could watch in 3D by wearing a pair of anaglyph glasses. The webcast later went on to become nominated for The Innovation Award at the UK Music Video Awards 2009.

Vue Cinema Showing

A live broadcast via a satellite uplink to the 3D-enabled Vue cinema in Leicester Square, using SENSIO's 3D Cinema Encoder.

The Set Up

Inition supplied five 3D rigs for the historic event – three mirror/beamsplitter rigs and two side-by-side rigs (I thought there was a Toshiba MiniCam set up?) (one SteadiCam and one PoleCam). Each left and right camera recorded the Keane 3D broadcast in full HD for archiving purposes.

On set was a Jib cam, PoleCam, a dolly, a 45 degree angle shot and a wide angle shot. The Inition crew monitored the live and preview feeds via several StereoBrain Processors which can output a left and right signal in a variety of 3D modes.

As access to Abbey Road Studios were very limited, Inition’s production team pre-planned every single shot using stereo pre-viz animations. This allowed the team to determine the best focal lengths, rig positions and stereoscopic effects weeks in advance.

All the planning paid off and each individual transmission was a technical and creative success which was later praised by the national media.

Watch an interview with the band about their 3D performance here

Click here to read an article about the event in TVB Europe Magazine

Brief:
LG approached us to produce a 3D promo to showcase their new 3D smartphone’s multimedia capabilities in a way that would grab attention via LG branded in-store point-of-sale 3D displays.

Solution:
Inition a creative based around a 24" glasses-free 3D display and the concepts of shooting, sharing and gaming in 3D. The treatment involved parkour and acrobatic skills to demonstrate the filming capabilities of the screen in an eye-catching way. 3D graphics were developed for pop-out moments detailing the unique specifications of the phone. The production was completed entirely in-house thanks to our specialist 3D filming and post production teams. Inition also supplied 200 top-spec glasses free 'Alioscopy' displays for installation in mobile retailer outlets across Europe.

Production challanges:
Inition’s production team shot the three-minute sequence with our stereoscopic Red-based 3D camera system. The Red cameras recorded the stunts at 100 frames per second, allowing the post production team to include slow motion sequences and time-manipulated Matrix-style moves.

Traditional stereoscopic films require left and a right viewpoints but as this film was to be displayed on glasses free lenticular screens, 8 unique viewpoints were required due to the way these displays work.

Filming with 8 individual cameras wasn't practical (!) so Inition’s developed a novel workflow using a combination of high-end post production tools such as Nuke, Ocula, SpeedGrade and 3D Studio Max. The end result was a film that featured 8 virtual viewpoints as if it were shot with 8 unique cameras. Inition were delighted to work on the project which drew on our full range of 3D expertise from technical consultancy and hardware supply, to live-action stereoscopic production, CGI and post.

Six Nations Live to 40 Cinemas

40 cinemas across the country screened England’s home RBS Six Nations games live in 3-D. Archibald Ingall Stretton commissioned 3D specialists Inition to produce the matches which became the largest ever UK sports event to be broadcast live in 3D. Forty Odeon and Cineworld cinemas screened the matches, beginning with England’s official centenary game, against Wales on February 6, as part of a deal with O2, the England sponsor. The match against Ireland on February 27 was also screened live in 3-D.

3D Technology

Using the latest 3D camera technology, the matches were captured from seven camera positions providing a comprehensive view of the game which included replays, match statistics and on-screen graphics. Inition worked with outside broadcast experts SIS Live and used 3D 'Quasar' rigs from Element Technica for the shoot. Broadcast graphics specialists Wurmsers creating bespoke stereoscopic graphics for the game.

Production Team

The BBC is the UK TV rights holder for the 6 Nations – played between England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy – and assisted Inition in the broadcast. Inition has worked on a number of 3D productions from football and ice hockey to track and music events. Inition were also the 3D experts behind the 3D transmissions of England’s clash with Scotland at Murrayfield, in 2008, as part of a 3D test for the BBC.

Read TVB Europe's inside story on the project here

Read about the GOLD award we received for this project as winners of the Internationalist Awards for Innovation in Media here

When the producers of North One Television approached 3D creative services company Inition to provide the technical expertise for an ambitious 'virtual presenter' challenge, LILA was an obvious solution.

LILA is a portable motion capture solution which was used to capture the motion of The Gadget Show presenter Suzi Perry in London and transmit that captured data to drive an avatar of Suzi who was composited in The Gadget Show studios, all in real time.

Marker-less Motion Capture

Based on real-time 3D animation software Autodesk MotionBuilder, LILA is Inition’s marker-less motion capture solution which can provide show stopping interactive installations for brands, exhibitions, tours and marketing agencies.

Without any calibration required, Suzi stepped into the holo-deck style cube at Inition’s London studios where her silhouette was tracked by 14 x 2D cameras. No markers or special clothing were required. The vision processor software calculated a 3D mesh of her body from these views of which a digital skeleton was applied using the Organic Motion plugin.

The frame-by-frame motion co-ordinates from the data was then transmitted to the MotionBuilder system at North One Television studios in Birmingham via a special driver which then applied Suzi Perry’s features such as clothes, hair, skin tones etc in real time. The avatar of Suzi which was composited into the studios of The Gadget Show next to the real co-presenter Otis and an android version of Jason Bradbury who she was competing with.

Suzi’s avatar character included full face expressions and mouth shapes driven by Suzi's voice fed through LILA's voice recognition software.

The composited footage was sent back to Inition’s London studios via Skype which Suzi could monitor on a screen seeing exactly what the public would see.

A World First

This project posed several challenges, not least because of the processing power required to deliver the avatar in real time. This was the first time a motion capture system had been used to drive another avatar over the Internet.

The LILA motion capture is a complete attention grabbing solution which is available for events, promotions and exhibitions. As well as hire of the LILA system itself, Inition also provide a complete production service with the hardware, software, and creative design of the characters, environments and interactions.