Hello Stalkers!
Scanning solid objects is easy, since they tend not to move. Just place a doll in one place and it will sit there motionless as long as we want to (unless we change its position ourselves). The human model is not as stable - one sudden movement (even a very small one) of their hand ruins hours of work. On the other hand, collaborating with a human is much easier. You can ask the model to change its body position, instead of moving it from one place to another like some doll.
Jokes aside. The work of scanning people is exhausting, both for the scanners and the scanned. To make this clear to you, let us explain this whole process using the scanning of Tatyana as an example.
Let's start with the basics. Before we unfold the heaviest equipment, we need to take a lot of reference photos - those that will later help graphic designers in designing characters in the game, mainly in terms of external appearance. That's why Joanna, our model, had to pose on a white background in different dresses. Thanks to this many-hour session, we obtained plenty of photos for reference.
Sometimes we had the opportunity to fool around a bit :)
The next session took place on a green screen. This time, for the needs of the game, we wanted to record (in photos, but also on video) how Tatyana's hair would behave in the wind.
Another time we recorded Tatyana's individual movements. At the bottom you can see Joanna trying to play the violin before the shots on green screen. These materials will serve as a reference at a later stage for our game animators.
Ok, time for the main course. We couldn't afford half-measures when scanning a person. Everything had to be done relatively quickly and taking into account the optimization of the produced 3D models. That is why we invested in equipment that allowed for the most accurate reproduction of the human figure in a quick and accurate way.
For scanning characters, we designed our own structure composed of 114 (!) Canon SLR cameras with variable focal length lenses, along with flash lamps. We placed the cameras on a metal structure forming a regular polygon and in such a combination as to obtain a sufficiently large coverage of photos of the characters from every possible angle.
The entire structure is operated by 2 computers which, together with a system that synchronizes cameras and flashes, collect data in the form of photos after each shutter release. We usually collect photos in RAW form so as to be able to extract the best possible quality in the final result.
We place our model inside the structure. Then we frame the cameras to the previously determined position.
The next steps are to release the shutter and download the data to computers.
Next comes post-production, which involves processing photos and uploading them to a program that calculates a "cloud of points" on the model's body, on the basis of which a mesh of characters is created, on which a texture is then applied. The end result is a photographic representation of the model in the form of a 3D model, the mesh of which is taken over by graphic designers for further optimization.
And that's it. The character is ready to hit the road!
And there were more characters waiting in the queue to be scanned.
We hope you liked it. But this is not the end of the behind-the-scenes work on Chernobylite. In the next report we’ll show you some stunts!
That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!
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