HomeAboutDownload
Contact
‍@nicovuignier

The Genesis

I’ve been dreaming to create a project using “Data” instead of images since the day I saw this interactive music video for Radiohead. It was captured with a Lidar scanner and the data was later open-sourced, allowing other artists to create their version of the music video.

The project

I rapidly found out that Lidar would never work for capturing a sport like skiing. I kept the idea in the back of my head for several years, until I found out about this new technology allowing motion capture outdoors using a suit filled with sensors. I just started to playing with C4D, and immediately thought about all the possible things that could be done with this data.

I had imagined using 4 kinects, to capture a trick

In 2019, I found a Swiss company that owns one of these suit and hired them for a day of capture in the Snowpark of Crans-Montana.

We captured 10 different tricks along with 4 camera angles, a 3d scan of the snowpark, and a 3d scan of myself.

How it works:

Step 1:
Wear a suit that records my movements.

I put on a motion capture suit that records the position of each of my limbs. The resulting data is a digital skeleton. The suit can be worn under my ski clothes and is wireless, giving me total freedom of movement.

Step 2:
I go skiing.

Step 3:
3d scan the terrain.

The snowpark is photographed from every angle using a drone. The pictures are treated by a photogramettry software in order to create a 3d model of the terrain.

Step 4:
Get 3d scanned

Using an array of cameras, my silhouette is reproduced into a polygonal 3d model.

Step 5:
3d scan is combined with recorded movements

The resulting animation data is mapped to the 3D model captured in the previous step. Now the model performs the same actions as me.

Step6:

Data is interpolated and transmitted to computer graphics artists via the world wide web

The suit does not record the gps position nor the height of the subject relative to the ground. This is all done by painstakingly hand-animating the position frame by frame, using videos from the action as reference.

This is how
I made it:

Step 1:
Wear a suit that records my movements.

I put on a suit filled with sensors that record the position of each of my limbs. It can be worn under my ski clothes and is wireless, giving me total freedom of movement.

Step 2:
Go skiing

I recorded around 10 laps in a snowpark. In addition to the suit I had 3 static camera angles recording as reference.

Step 3:
3d scan the terrain.

The snowpark is photographed from every angle using a drone. The pictures are treated by a photogramettry software in order to create a 3d model of the terrain.

Step 4:
Get 3d scanned

Using an array of cameras, my silhouette is reproduced into a polygonal 3d model.

Step 5:
3d scan is combined with recorded movements

The resulting animation data is mapped to the 3D model captured in the previous step. Now the model performs the same actions as me.

Step6:

Data is interpolated and transmitted to computer graphics artists via the world wide web

The suit does not record the gps position nor the height of the subject relative to the ground. This is all done by painstakingly hand-animating the position frame by frame, using videos from the action as reference.

Then what?

Digitalstunts.xyz

My initial idea was to collaborate with 3d artists I love, and open source the motion capture data for anyone to play with, very much like the Radiohead video I mentioned before.

This website will be a home were this project can grow, grouping all the creations made with these animations, instead of only being sprinkled around social media. the featured artworks will hopefully inspire more artist to join this journey.

My idea was to create a skiing edit recorded with data. My plan to achieve this goal is to open-source the raw animation data and invite any 3d/AR artist to participate. With the ambition of creating a unique compilation of the best works.
‍
All the data is available for free under creative commons
(CC BY-NC 4.0)
‍

Artworks

Discover the first creations stemming off this project.

check it out ↗

About Me.

I am Nicolas Vuignier, a professional freeskier from Switzerland. I've always been obsessed with filmmaking and technology and spend my time trying to create original ski videos.I use skiing as a channel to express myself artistically and experiment with new things.

My most known video is undoubtedly the Centriphone. I've also created a black/white clip for Nowness, skied at night using flares attached to drones as a source of light, created a poor man's drone, etc...

Links
homeAboutdownload
Contact
Email

email

Licensing
licensing requests