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Home » GoldenLane Studio Turns To iPi Motion Capture For “Five Nights At Freddy’s” YouTube Series

GoldenLane Studio Turns To iPi Motion Capture For “Five Nights At Freddy’s” YouTube Series

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – What began as an indie mobile game in 2014, Five Nights At Freddy’s has grown into a multimedia franchise with multiple games, novel adaptations and even a feature film in the works. There is also an array of fan-inspired videos – none more popular than those produced by the Kiev, Ukraine-based GoldenLane Studio. Led by Co-Founder Roman Maltsev (along with Alex Portman and Oleg Smolyaninov), the studio’s “Five Nights At Freddy’s” YouTube video series relies on the iPi Soft markerless iPi Motion Capture software solution for reliable character animation. The series continues to be viewed by millions, including an astounding 25 million that watched the initial trailer.
Maltsev noted that among the key benefits of using iPi Motion Capture (in conjunction with a Windows PC running on an Intel Core i7 8700K processor and NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti graphics card) is not having to rely on expensive green-screens and motion capture suits, and that animations can be exported into either SFM (Source Filmmaker’s proprietary format) or the more universal DMX format, to ensure a quick post production workflow.
 
Ideal For Creative Studios:
The motion capture tracking and design process begins at GoldenLane with a rough pre-visualization (previs), without animation and lighting. All characters are first created in T-pose, a standard default shape for humanoid game model content creation, to understand where action is going to take place, character placement, etc. Following, iPi Motion Capture is used to record and track motion to the previs scenes and then transfer to each character.
“iPi Motion Capture is ideal for small, creative studios like ours as it helps to simplify and significantly speed up production,” Maltsev says, who serves as the sole actor in his videos, often performing multiple parts. “It’s also a lot of fun for me to get to play the hero in my own movies.”
Although Maltsev is currently the only actor featured in the video production, should that change, the capabilities in iPi Motion Capture (Pro version) provide tracking features of up to three multiple actors at the same time without the need for manual sync.
 
Complex Kiss:
One particularly challenging scene for Maltsev was playing two characters named Zoe and Ellis that kiss. “I recorded the kiss using the iPi Recorder independently for each character, as a single-actor motion,” he recalls. “To accomplish this, I had to stand in the center of the room twice, hug the air and pretend to kiss someone. After that I synced motions manually inside Source Filmmaker. This seemingly simple act proved the most complex, and also was pretty amusing.”
The “Five Nights At Freddy’s” mobile game series is centered on the story of a fictional restaurant named Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a pastiche of restaurants like Chuck E. Cheese’s. The game involves the player working as a nighttime security guard who must use several tools, most notably security cameras, to survive the night shift against animatronic characters that become homicidal after-hours.
 
350K Subscribers:
GoldenLane borrows from the basic premise of the original Freddy’s series, but introduces new characters, settings and scenarios, such as the HAZMAT team investigating the dilapidated state of the Freddy’s restaurant; or the wandering traveler who is stalked by one of the animatronic characters.
According to Maltsev, the original characters he creates run the gamut from those that will appear only once, to more nuanced ones that will inevitably play important roles as the series develops.
“iPi Soft is a key content creation tool that helps to visually ‘describe’ a character through the use of motion,” Maltsev says. “We develop characters with the aim to give each a unique style. How a person moves can be very revealing into who they are. A military person might be more sure-footed and stride confidently into extreme situations, whereas a civilian might move more cautiously and awkwardly.”
Maltsev’s passion for the project and level he puts into his characters and plotlines has clearly resonated with fans as evidenced by millions of views and 350,000-plus subscribers on YouTube. The popularity of the series has also spurred donations via the crowd-funding site Patreon.com, enabling Maltsev and his GoldenLane partners to work solely on creating content for YouTube.
For Michael Nikonov, Founder and Chief Technology Officer at iPi Soft, the company remains committed to motion tracking software development that delivers exceptional processing speed optimization and tracking accuracy.
“We’re pleased that recent enhancements to iPi Motion Capture are providing indie filmmakers, like Maltsev, with the near real-time feedback capabilities they need to quickly track results that can be transferred to 3D characters at the time of recording motions and improved animation export features for an optimized workflow.”
“When I uploaded the first Freddy’s trailer, there were no plans on developing it as a on-going series,” Maltsev adds.  “People clearly like our vision of this cinematic universe and when we saw how popular it had became, we decided to move ahead and will deliver new episodes later this year.”
 
About iPi Soft:
Launched in 2008 by CEO and Chief Technology Architect Michael Nikonov, iPi Soft, LLC is the Moscow-based developer of iPi Motion Capture™, a markerless motion capture software tool that uses sophisticated image processing and computer vision algorithms to recognize and track the human body. The company’s breakthrough technology digitizes the movement of a human skeleton, rendering it in expressive 3D characters for video games or computer generated films. For additional information, on iPi Soft, product pricing or a 30-day free trial please visit, http://www.ipisoft.com.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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