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| This article explains a method called "digital double" using a digital character and uses the movie "SHINOBI" as an example. |
| * The movie "SHINOBI" began to be shown on September 17, 2005 at first-run movie theaters all over Japan. |
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| A digital double means an alternate or stand-in computer graphics (CG) character. It is used to create shots which are difficult to produce by shooting live action. In this article, the shot, in which Yashamaru, a ninja, jumped onto a roof by using his superhuman jumping power, is used to explain this process. |
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| Where to use a digital double should be carefully considered during the previsualization process. In addition, how to create the movements of a digital double must also be examined. For creation of this shot, we decided to shoot live actions for the former part and to use a digital double for the latter part in which Yashamaru jumps onto a roof. Considering the movements associated with the clothes and threads, we decided to create keyframe animation for the moment of jumping and to use MoCap (motion capture) for the movements in the air and the moment when Yashamaru landed on the roof. |
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| A digital character is modeled according to the actual body proportions of the actor, and the texture data of the actual costume is imported for digital processing. |
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| Reference shooting for modeling process and the modeled digital character |
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| We may have to modify or change processes regardless if we fully considered them during the previsualization process. In this shot, we had to modify camera work due to difficulties during the shooting process. After completing the live action shoots, we shot necessary actions with MoCap. In this shot, the action depicting an actor rotating in the air (by using a trampoline) and the action when he landed on the roof were separately recorded. |
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| The animation of this shot is created by a combination of MoCap and keyframe. AliasRMotionBuilder® is used for all operations such as connecting motions recorded by MoCap and keyframe animation. Animation for movements of threads handled by Yashamaru was created by drawing moving images manually and then tracing them. Match move for camera work was performed with 2d3TM boujouTM. |
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Movements of threads were created by drawing moving images manually and by tracing them |
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| Movements of clothes and hair are always important for realistically depicting digital characters. It is difficult to manually achieve such results created with animation software, so it is created by physical simulation. After completing the basic animation for body movements, movements of clothes were created by using Syflex Cloth Simulator, a plug-in for MayaTM , and hair was created by using the cloth-simulator of 3ds maxTM and a plug-in "HairFX". |
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After creating movements of clothes with cloth-simulation, their shapes were used for collision detection for simulation of the movements of hair. |
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| To replace Yashamaru with a digital double in the later part of the scene, Yashamaru was deleted from the original element. Elements with a digital double which were rendered by components were composited on the scene without Yashamaru. Elements consist of various components such as dust, shadows and small stones in addition to the ones shown below. Compositing was performed with Adobe AfterEffects®. |
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| click to download Acrobat Reader for this PDF files. |
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Oct/2005 |
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©2005 Links DigiWorks Inc. All rights reserved |
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