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On Set 3D Laser Scanning Explained

image of on set use of lidar

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon received a Best Visual Effects Academy Award nomination this year. It’s a film that some might not realize contains substantial visual effects work, alongside live action photography and practical effects. Throughout its many battle scenes are digital soldiers in period costume, synthetic props, CG animals and also created environments. Scanning, LiDAR and photogrammetry were key aspects of on set visual effects work that aided in building these digital elements, while also providing a means to aid in tracking and matchmoving CG creations into plates. On Napoleon, that work was undertaken by Visualskies.

From an article in befores and afters by Ian Failes.

The company employed a dedicated crew, and a range of equipment–even drones–to scan over 100 locations, do more than 3000 cyberscans of people and props, and collect in excess of one million images.

Here, befores & afters learns from Duncan Lees, director of LiDAR at Visualskies, specifically about the LiDAR side of on set scanning, including the equipment used, how scans are processed, and where we’re headed in this field in the age of real-time and machine learning.

Where LiDAR sits in the visual effects world

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, involves using a laser to measure distances to various objects. The results are used to build up a 3D representation of an object or environment (and the capturing of photographic textures of the same objects or environment can also be used to start digital replica builds). All that data can be a huge ‘asset’ for visual effects studios which might need to re-create the same objects or environments, or place other VFX elements within or on them.

“LiDAR, in particular, is now integrated with a number of other different technologies, but mainly photogrammetry, to create exact measured digital assets that are exact copies of things that exist on set or on location in the real world,” explains Lees, who spent several months working on Napoleon. “It can be the entire countryside, or it can be a wheelbarrow. The way I describe it is where people are going to combine live action shots with CG elements. We create a computer version of something that’s real so that people can use that further down the line in any way that’s needed.”

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