Clear Angle Studios

Check out this awesome article from TVBEurope for a deep dive into 4D scanning and the facial performance capture pipeline we developed with DI4D and TexturingXYZ. Dominic spoke to journalist Matthew Corrigan just before Christmas, discussing the history, the hardware and the hard work behind this game-changing technology, the practicalities of shooting this kind of data, as well as the future of the industry and data capture in particular. It's a great look at one of the coolest things we do here at Clear Angle Studios, we hope you like it. And thank you to Matthew for taking the time to speak to us.

As awards season approaches it's climax, with the BAFTAs last night and the Oscars in a couple of weeks, we wanted to share a little bit about our work on some of the fantastic projects nominated for the big awards. Head over to our website for a little look at what we get up to on films like Dune: Part Two, Wicked and The Substance. Enjoy!

We're very proud to have once again combined with DI4D and Symbiote from TexturingXYZ to provide 4D facial performance capture and processing for this wild and wacky Mountain Dew Super Bowl commercial by Untold Studios. We captured Seal (the human, not 'a' seal) performing the song in the Dorothy system at our LA studio in Culver City. Then the team at DI4D used their markerless tracking to produce an animated mesh, while Symbiote worked their magic on the texture maps, bringing 'Seal as a Seal' to life in incredible fidelity and with Seal's real performance at it's heart. It's a great example of what can be acheived with our 4D facial capture pipelines. We hope you enjoy it!

Towards the end of last year, we had a chat with Matthew Corrigan from broadcast industry outlet TVBEurope about the challenges of capturing 4D scan data, our collaboration with DI4D and TexturingXYZ / Symbiote, as well as our thoughts on where emerging technologies like 4D or radiance fields could take us in the future. We think it’s a really interesting piece, and another opportunity for a little look behind the curtain here at what we get up to at Clear Angle Studios. Let us know what you think!

Congratulations to all our friends and colleagues on their respective nominations. We were privileged enough to have been part of Alien: Romulus, Dune: Part Two and Wicked, and we’re very proud to see them nominated for best Visual Effects at this years Oscars. Best of luck to everyone!

If you need a bit of reading for the dark festive nights ahead, check out this great article from 3DVF . There's some really interesting stuff about our work on films like Dune, the Substance and Mission Impossible: Fallout; we talk about how we have developed our rigs and decided on the software that we use; our perspectives on new tech and a take look to the future. It's a cracking read, even if we do say so ourselves.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s right, it’s awards season! Whilst we obviously love Christmas, there’s no better gift than seeing the crews we’ve been a part of recognised for all of their fantastic work. The long list for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects features 9 projects that Clear Angle Studios has worked on, and we wanted to send our congratulations to all of our colleagues on Alien: Romulus, Civil War, Deadpool and Wolverine, Dune: Part Two, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Gladiator II, Here, A Quiet Place: Day One and Wicked. We’ve got our fingers crossed that you make it on to the short list next Tuesday, and while we’re at it, congratulations to all the other projects who made it onto the list. Best of luck everyone!

We’re thrilled to finally announce the opening of our new full-service studio in Culver City, Los Angeles! Character scanning, photometric head scanning in 3D and 4D; facial capture; full body photogrammetry; prop, LiDAR, and aerial environment scanning and processing services are all available now in this beautiful new space. The new hub has already provided scanning services for five major film productions and three games industry projects, and we’re so excited to bring our expertise and passion for the industry to such an exciting city. We hope to see you soon!

We're big fans of the Futures Festival, having participated in both of the UK editions, so we're thrilled to see Pinewood taking it overseas, inspiring the next generation and giving the filmmakers of the future what might be their first real taste of the action. We'll be back for Futures Festival UK in 2025, we hope to see you there!

It’s not all cameras, drones and A-listers here at Clear Angle Studios, and it takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes to keep the wheels turning. The main server room, managed by our IT department, contains 7 server cabinets and 167 PCs that are accessed by over 100 remote workers around the world. As if that wasn’t enough, the ever increasing complexity of the capture systems themselves provides the team with numerous additional technical challenges. Take a look at this case study from NETGEAR on the challenge we faced when developing the newest iteration of the Dorothy system, where the amount of data generated by the new 4D performance capture capabilities required a significant rethink of the IT equipment on the rig. #clearanglestudios #ukfilm #vfx #visualeffects #3dscanning #photogrammetry #lidar