Legendary, the movie production company that makes films like The Dark Knight, Pacific Rim and more recently the movie adaptation of Warcraft, is working with the Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality technology for a variety of uses.
You may remember that as part of the Warcraft movie premiere, Legendary used the HoloLens, combined with Microsoft's Actiongram app, to create videos that showed people interacting with one of the characters in the film, the Orc called Orgrim. In both a blog post and in a new video, Microsoft talks about how Legendary is planning to expand its use of the HoloLens:
With HoloLens, creators now have more than one way to make holograms, whether characters are played by actors or are CG-based. To capture actors and real objects as holorams, we use a holographic video capture studio. We record the actors using dozens of synchronized RGB and infrared cameras on a calibrated green-screen stage. We are able to capture the motion, shape, and appearance of the performer, producing something like video but viewable from any angle, at any moment of recording. Life-sized holograms of CG-created characters can also be made using 3D data.HoloLens gives storytellers a new medium to tell stories, develop richer characters, and delight people. With HoloLens, there is no longer the boundary of the screen between fans and the content they love. Characters can jump off the screen and into the living room – giving every fan the chance to direct and star alongside them in their own mixed reality movies.
In addition to creating mixed reality movies, Legendary says the HoloLens could also be used for pre-visualization in films, so that art directors can see what a set will look like before it's even built.
