At the end of the 100 day schedule, there will be a fully edited film in a hardware rendered state. How is this different than a previs of the film? Previs often has rough animation. Characters slide across the floor like chess pieces. Because of our motion capture sessions, we will be using nearly final animation.  Nearly final, because once we select our takes, they still need final cleanup and to add the facial expressions.  This also means that all the camera moves are final.

Not to oversimplify the remaining work, but after editing we will only need to upgrade the backgrounds, create any effects, and render.  Once you know exactly what is in camera frame, we only need to flesh out what is seen, so the process is about as efficient as it can be.

Headed to Siggraph in Los Angeles?  Hu Yuan, one of the characters from White Tiger Legend, will be there with Phasespace, the cutting edge motion capture system used for the film. So head over to the interactive area - "the Studio!" - and put on a motion capture suit! See what its like to drive a character from the film!  Check it out!

Here is how we animate the film.  We cover setting up the faces, and combining them with the body capture.  The data we are using to edit is 'raw' - just rigid bodies on a skeleton.  What this means for us, is we can edit our film immediately. So we only clean up the parts that make the cut.  Then we animate the eyes, add the lights, and render!  Its the most technical of our websiodes to date, but the results are great!