The next mixed reality studio to partner with Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture technology is opening today in Los Angeles, California.
Metastage, as the venue is called, comes fully equipped for volumetric capture, using a range of cameras fitted to a circular rig to record real life and turn it into a virtual asset with ease. The system could take an actor’s performance, for example, and then stitch the images it’s taken together to quickly produce a 3D model of that same person, accurately reproducing every step of their performance inside the rig. You can then import that asset into a VR app to bring a realistic-looking virtual human into your experience in no time, or even bring it to AR headsets like HoloLens to put digital people in the real world.
There are several examples of great VR apps already using volumetric capture, like the Natural History Museum’s Hold the World, which has you face-to-face with a virtual version of Sir David Attenborough. Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab, meanwhile, puts you deeper into the sci-fi universe with believable characters.
Metastage is the first mixed reality studio to partner with Microsoft in the US and the fourth venue of its kind overall. Microsoft has official centers in San Francisco and Redmond, while last year we got a look inside Dimension, the first studio to partner with Microsoft and the only one of its kind in London.
