Dimensional Imaging (DI4D), one of the world’s most advanced facial capture companies, has revealed that it provided the animation for a key scene in the Oscar-winnning Blade Runner 2049 which won Best Visual Effects at the 2018 Academy Awards.

The Company’s DI4D PRO System was used to capture actresses Sean Young, who played the replicant ‘Rachael’ in the original Blade Runner (1982) and Loren Peta, who took over the character in the new movie.

The Di4D technology enables the capture of highly-detailed facial data without the use of special markers or makeup. The company captured and tracked Loren’s facial performance, while the movie was being shot on location in Budapest.

Douglas Green, Dimensional Imaging’s chief operating officer, said: “I’d like to congratulate all the VFX Teams who worked on BLADE RUNNER 2049 and we are honoured to have been a part of this amazing movie – its Academy Award is well-deserved!

“When DI4D were asked to capture the facial performances for this crucial scene in BLADE RUNNER 2049, we knew that our system could deliver the highest possible fidelity of data that the VFX Production Team required.

“Being able to capture every nuance of Loren’s facial performance was crucial for this particular scene. We tracked her facial performance using a 7,400 verts (vertices) mesh – the densest mesh that DI4D has tracked to date. We subsequently increased the resolution of the tracked data to approximately 30,000 verts. This resulted in the delivery of highly realistic facial animation for this pivotal scene.”

Richard Clegg, VFX Supervisor at MPC said; “Quality data capture, especially for facial performances, is an integral part of producing digital humans. Dimensional Imaging came through for us with Rachael on Blade Runner 2049. Their team was highly professional and very accommodating”

The company has worked on a wide range of movies, television series, video games, virtual reality and advanced research applications. Alongside Blade Runner 2049 the company recently worked on the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as well as Microsoft’s new video game Quantum Break. Research customers include University of Glasgow, Imperial College London and Dallas Children’s’ Hospital.

[Image courtesy of Alcon Entertainment]