Programmable Image-Based Light Capture for Previsualization
ii Abstract Previsualization is a class of techniques for creating approximate previews of a movie sequence in order to visualize a scene prior to shooting it on the set. Often these techniques are used to convey the artistic direction of the story in terms of cinematic elements, such as camera movement, angle, lighting, dialogue, and char- acter motion. Essentially, a movie director uses previsualization (previs) to convey movie visuals as he sees them in his ”minds-eye”. Traditional methods for previs include hand-drawn sketches, Storyboards, scaled models, and photographs, which are created by artists to convey how a scene or character might look or move. A recent trend has been to use 3D graphics applications such as video game engines to perform previs, which is called 3D previs. This type of previs is generally used prior to shooting a scene in order to choreograph camera or character movements. To visualize a scene while being recorded on-set, directors and cinematographers use a technique called On-set previs, which provides a real-time view with little to no processing. Other types of previs, such as Technical previs, emphasize accurately capturing scene properties but lack any interactive manipulation and are usually employed by visual effects crews and not for cinematographers or directors. This dissertation’s focus is on creating a new method for interactive visualization that will automatically capture the on-set lighting and provide interactive manipulation of cinematic elements to facilitate the movie maker’s artistic expression, validate cine- matic choices, and provide guidance to production crews. Our method will overcome the drawbacks of the all previous previs methods by combining photorealistic ren- dering with accurately captured scene details, which is interactively displayed on a mobile capture and rendering platform.
[Show full text]