How to become a character in a video game

Another World Studios LLC is a Los Angeles-based 3D scanning company with over 14 years of experience in providing 3D scanning services for virtual reality, video games, advertisement, and visual effects.

Film & TV

Games

RealityScan

The studio specializes in 3D scanning and customization of human digital doubles, which can be used as digital replacements in VFX for film or television, creating convincing and diverse cast members in video games or believable characters for VR applications. Besides the scanning of humans, the company also focuses on 3D scanning of products and objects.

In their portfolio are digital doubles for Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5, where they scanned over 1000 people; scans of thugs, soldiers, cartel members, and civilians for Ubisoft's Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series; and also creations for Square Enix’ Hitman and Hitman Absolution games.

To keep up with the evolving market and as a reaction to the market needs, Another World has started to focus on 3D scanning of human faces.

Production pipeline

Unless a fitting person is provided by clients, the studio goes out to find a suitable candidate on talent websites or casting agencies. Once selections have been approved by the client, they come to the studio where a make-up artist makes sure that all excess make-up is removed and all the hair is moved away from the face.

Scans are done with a multi-camera rig with 48 cameras attached. Three of the cameras are full-frame Nikon D810s in order to obtain the most detail from the face area. All the hardware is custom-built to provide power without too much clutter, and trigger all cameras simultaneously. Photos are automatically transferred to a computer in RAW format and processed in 3DLutCreator to make sure color and exposure settings are accurate and uniform.

The images are then imported into RealityScan to generate the 3D models. Scans are then cleaned up in Blender to remove noise and stray hairs. Eyes and ears are enhanced a bit to make retopologizing easier. Blender is also used to morph a low polygon base mesh to the scan, after which it is subdivided and shrink-wrapped to a high-resolution scan.

The mesh is exported and re-imported into RealityScan to bake high-resolution texture maps. Several different bakes are created using different image selections. These are then combined, masked, and cleaned up in Photoshop. Any additional clean-up work is done using texture projection in Blender.

The final steps before the delivery are the final touch-ups in ZBrush, using its ability to mask with texture maps. This process makes it possible to bring back some of the very finest details such as delicate wrinkles and pores.

During the course of larger projects, once they get up to speed, it takes about a day to finish each asset.

Hardware used:

Currently a PVC-structure multi-camera rig
48 cameras: 45x Nikon D3300 + 3x Nikon D810
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64bit); Intel Core i9-7900X at 4.2Ghz

Download RealityScan

RealityScan is free to use for students, educators, and individuals and companies with an annual gross revenue below $1 million USD.

Above the $1M threshold? Visit our licensing page to find out about your purchasing options.

Download the launcher

Before you can install and run RealityScan, you’ll need to download and install the Epic Games launcher.

Install Epic Games Launcher

Once downloaded and installed, open the launcher and create or log in to your Epic Games account.

Having trouble? Get support, or restart your Epic Games launcher download in Step 1.

Install RealityScan

Once logged in, navigate to the RealityScan tab in the Unreal Engine section and click the install button to download the most recent version.

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