The Imaginarium: Goal-oriented Real-time Intelligent Performance Retargeting

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The two-year project will research and develop new ways of processing and retargeting anactor’s performance, transferring it expressively and intelligently to a digital avatar so that itcan be reviewed in real time. This will be done at a level of quality and accuracy that issuitable for feature movie, TV drama and AAA games, with potential spillover to emergingfields such as holographic display, live entertainment and customised digital content. Theresulting software tools and pipeline for real-time intelligent performance retargeting andviewing will increase the quality of feedback to actors and directors, streamline the visualeffects pipeline, increase quality and reduce production costs.An increasing number of major films rely on performance capture technology to drivecomputer generated figures or avatars, and their return at the box office is above average.Games developers are also seeking full performance capture, combining face and body, to a higher standard than the traditional providers are able to deliver. The UK is a world leader in visual postproduction and effects, with an industry worth over £700 million in 2008; UK video games industry is the largest in Europe and the development sector contributes approximately £1 billion to GDP and 9,000 highly skilled jobs.The project will use existing third-party capture devices, concentrating on the development of automated methods and intelligent solutions that give bio-mechanically plausible results on humanoid and animal avatars alike. Technologies will be tested in The Imaginarium’s dedicated performance capture studio at Ealing, under real-world production conditions.Results will be exploited as novel performance capture services, provided by TheImaginarium, and through IP licensing to third-party specialist software developers. TheImaginarium is the only dedicated full-service performance capture studio of its kind inEurope.