Fuzzy Door Tech’s Olivia O’Hara recently directed a video shoot that highlights the capabilities of ViewScreen's (viewscreen.com) suite of products. Pink House serves as a case study, highlighting how the ViewScreen suite can be set up with little prep time and minimal gear to bring live action and CG characters together.
Fuzzy Door Tech is the technology division of Seth MacFarlane’s production company, Fuzzy Door, which was established in 2019. ViewScreen is a patented suite of augmented reality tools that simultaneously integrate VFX and live action in realtime.
"We had footage from the new Ted TV series that was launching in January, but wasn’t premiering until after we launched ViewScreen, so we weren’t able to use that footage," O’Hara (pictured) recalls. "We needed to capture videos to showcase the tools that we could share ahead of the show premiere."
As a case study, O’Hara says they wanted to see if they could push the power of the ViewScreen suite by setting up in a new environment, with zero prep time and minimal gear, to see if there were any complications. They also wanted to get some happy, pink content, as they've shot alien spaceships and a raunchy bear in the past.
"The project was a character exploration featuring Sally, a Pixar-esque girl who’s one of the ViewScreen starter assets we include for people to experiment with," she explains. "She reminds me of the characters you make up when playing childhood games - let’s pretend we’re in a mansion with pink furs and delicate china, and we’re going to discuss important matters over high tea. I wanted to explore that Little Princess, Francis Hodgson Burnett world with her, as a way to demonstrate what ViewScreen can do."
For Peacock's Ted the TV series, which premiered in January, ViewScreen was used to put a digital bear into all the cameras, so it looked like Ted was really there.
"For that show, I puppeteered the digital bear," she explains. "The Pink House shoot was the first time I used ViewScreen as a director."
The Pink House was already dressed for a tea party scene, though its owner had cultivated a specific ambience that had to remain pristine.
"We couldn't move any furniture or even change the lightbulbs," O’Hara recalls. "Some of the set decor was antique and one-of-a-kind, so we had to work around the fragility of those pieces too."
ViewScreen's small footprint allowed freedom to move around tight corners, despite the limitations of the space.
"This was a one-day shoot and we had a lot of limitations," O’Hara notes. "The location itself was gorgeous, but it was so booked that we couldn’t get in ahead of the shoot. We had to rely on pictures. Because of this, our DP, Elle Schneider, had no pre-lighting time. There was no wi-fi in the space, so we ran the whole system off a tiny mobile hotspot we affectionately called our 'hockey puck.' With all that considered, I showed up with the confidence that we could use ViewScreen to get the footage we needed. And because the software is compatible with a wide range of cameras, we were able to shoot on the Panasonic BS1H, which we like because it’s lightweight and has a great sensor inside its small footprint."
O’Hara appreciated the ability to see results in realtime.
"Without ViewScreen, the shoot would have been very different," she explains. "I would’ve shot coverage of our actor and clean plates for the CG character, and then sent the plates off to a vendor for weeks of back-and-forth before it looked like what I imagined - approving animation passes, comps and final renders. Instead, I could get a head start with live animation and an instant, realtime composite, and best of all, I could see how the character interactions worked right inside my monitor. It allowed me to give performance notes for the CG character like I’d give notes to any other actor. It was beautifully easy and a no-brainer."
O’Hara says she also didn’t have to worry about the VFX budget and getting certain “just in case” takes for VFX, because she could see that the production was getting the coverage they needed in the moment.
"If you weren’t shooting with ViewScreen, you might get a shot from your vendor weeks or months after production is done and find out way too late that it doesn’t work."
Some of the ViewScreen features used during the shoot included the markerless motion capture tool, which uses a separate iPhone to send live face and head movements to the character. Another was the game controller used to puppet Sally’s body animation.
"We also used our onboard lighting controls to match the digital lighting to the way Elle lit the Pink House on the day of the shoot," O’Hara notes. "This allowed Sally to seamlessly fit into the environment."
In total, three people were needed to pull off the shoot - Elle Schneider the DP and camera operator, Brandon Fayette the VFX supervisor and ViewScreen operator, and O’Hara the director.