Vicon Standard 2020

VICON STANDARD 2020
VFX
CROSSING THE
UNCANNY VALLEY
CARLOS CRISTERNA
Principal and RadLab Director
Neoscape
Neoscape is discovering new horizons through motion
capture storytelling
MY HOPE IS THAT IT
BECOMES SO EASY AND SO
INGRAINED IN OUR PROCESS,
THAT IT’S JUST A MATTER
OF FACT THAT WE’RE GOING
TO BE PUTTING CUSTOM
ANIMATED CHARACTERS IN
EVERY SINGLE PIECE”
We’re about telling stories regardless of the
medium that we use, whether it’s a still
image or a film or an app or a brochure,” says Carlos
Cristerna, RadLab Director for Neoscape. While motion
capture has been a powerful storytelling tool for years,
Neoscape is pioneering its use in new sectors.
Neoscape is a full-service marketing agency founded as an
architectural visualization firm. The studio was created in 1995 and
in the years since, has worked internationally with some of the
biggest architects and real estate firms in the world. More recently,
the business has also made a shift into visualizing more traditionally
unusual projects.
Whether they are static 2D images or animations, the visualizations
that Neoscape creates serve an important purpose – to bring
scenes to life for communities and other stakeholders in
development projects.
TAKING A CUE FROM THE
ENTERTAINMENT WORLD
In more recent years, Neoscape has begun looking to
Hollywood for techniques and tools that can elevate its
craft to the next level, allowing it to incorporate layers of
storytelling that help clients bring their projects to life.
“The architectural visualization and entertainment industry are
kind of apart, even though it’s the same skill set and the same
tools,” Carlos says. But across that divide Carlos saw a solution to
a recurring problem for his sector: the use of human characters.
“People in architectural visualization films, they’re
always in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing, and
they’re the wrong people. There’s a guy talking on a cell
phone, and then there’s no cell phone,” says Carlos.
“They walk like they broke their legs. It’s horrible.”
Green screen is one solution, but it comes with its own set of issues.
“It has its place for different foreground elements, or if we have
a main character that needs to fit a certain ethnicity or a specific
look and feel. [But] that can be expensive and time consuming.”
Carlos and his colleagues had been considering a motion capture
system as a way to redress some of these problems for a while,
but the cost was a problem. While Neoscape is one of the largest
studios in the architectural visualization field, it doesn’t have the
budget that VFX houses in the entertainment industries do.
When Carlos and his team got the opportunity to do a day-long
shoot on a Vicon stage in Mexico, however, they were sold. The
price-performance ratio of the Vero, with its ability to perform in
their compact Boston studio, convinced the studio to take the leap.
It’s paying off. “We’re trying to find the right balance of storytelling
and just bring the quality of the work we do up a notch,” says
Carlos. “It’s partly about narrowing the uncanny valley, so you send
these subconscious messages to people that this is a real place.”
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