Clear Angle Studios, a global leader in high-end 3D and 4D capture technology, has announced the launch of its Volumetric Capture Rig (VCR), an advanced solution designed for dynamic Gaussian splat capture. The new system enables the creation of highly photorealistic dynamic assets, allowing VFX artists to accurately recreate real-world performances within digital environments and deliver greater realism in visual effects workflows.
As expectations for realism in film, television, and streaming continue to rise, the industry is increasingly seeking solutions that deliver authentic digital performances with greater efficiency. Developed to meet this demand, Clear Angle Studios’ VCR enables the creation of highly believable digital assets while reducing manual post-production work and supporting tight production schedules.
Designed for flexibility, the VCR can be configured for a variety of applications, including facial capture, individual performers, stunt work, crowd simulations, and larger volumetric performance spaces. By capturing dynamic performances in a studio environment, the system allows VFX teams to seamlessly integrate photoreal assets into CG scenes. For large-scale crowd sequences, performers can be captured in groups and transformed into lightweight Gaussian splat assets that can be relit in post-production, combining visual realism with production efficiency.
The Gaussian splat workflow also offers significant efficiencies for VFX teams, reducing both production time and costs compared to traditional pipelines that require extensive geometry reconstruction, manual cleanup, texturing, lighting, and animation. By preserving the original behaviour and natural lighting of a captured performance, Gaussian splat assets deliver highly photoreal results with substantially less post-production effort.
The VCR was first showcased in collaboration with Union VFX, which used Clear Angle Studios’ capture data to develop an innovative re-lighting solution for Gaussian splats. This capability allows performances captured in the VCR to be seamlessly adapted to different lighting environments, expanding their usability across productions. Together, Clear Angle Studios and Union VFX successfully created a relightable Gaussian-splat crowd solution the first of its kind to be deployed on a major film.
“Our entire ethos is about being faithful to reality. The VCR delivers a dataset which fully preserves the talent’s original nuanced performance, in all its glory. By providing VFX teams with robust, accurate data as a foundation, we make life easier downstream and ensure the final result is completely grounded in truth,” said Clear Angle Studios CEO Dominic Ridley.
“It’s really exciting technology. As far as we know, we’re the only studio currently offering truly relightable Gaussian splats in production. Being able to relight splats opens up huge creative possibilities for digi-doubles with realistic hair and cloth simulation giving far greater realism and utility than building them traditionally,” shared Union VFX CEO and founder Tim Caplan. “The costume variation tools, alongside the human imperfection of the captured material, make our digital crowds feel far more natural and diverse than a traditional CG approach. The earlier productions start thinking about how they can utilise this tech the more time and money they can save across the production process.”
The VCR represents the culmination of 13 years of innovation at Clear Angle Studios, building on the success of the company’s Dorothy facial capture and full-body systems, which have been used by leading studios including Disney, Universal, and Netflix.
