Case Study:

3D Scanning of British Athlete Models for London 2012 Mascot Films

Tagged:

The Brief

Mario Cavalli, prize-winning filmmaker, photographer and animator approached Inition for help creating digital 3D models of a series of highly detailed maquettes modelled on British athletes.

These maquettes were created to act as a starting point for animators making a series of films aiming to inspire families to take up sport. The films were to be shown in cinemas ahead of the global sporting event taking place in London from 27 July-12 August.

During the creation of the first film, the detailed clay models were damaged in transit, forcing the animators to complete their work just using photos of the featured athletes for reference. As a consequence of this mishap, when it came to the second film, entitled “Adventures on a Rainbow”, Mario Cavalli wanted the models to be digitised to prevent any future setbacks.

 

Our Solution

The 30cm 3D models were scanned at Inition’s Shoreditch studio using our Mephisto 3D Scanner. Each of the six models (including Tom Daley, Mo Farah and Chris Hoy) took about half a day to be scanned from every angle. The digitised maquettes then underwent aligning and cleaning in post-production to create seamless and watertight digital models for use by the animation team.

Inition’s Mephisto 3D Scanning system is able to capture in extremely high detail, resulting in each scan having around six million polygons.

The Results

Barnaby Spurrier, producer of London 2012 Mascot Films said:

“Working with Inition to provide 3D scans of our clay maquettes was a remarkably simple and time saving process, enabling the CGI company in Beijing and the director and client in London to quickly share, develop and approve the character modelling process. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Inition again on a similar project.”

Watch all the films here

ADVENTURES ON A RAINBOW from Mario Cavalli on Vimeo.