Systems and methods for managing the production of a free-viewpoint and video-based animation

A method for managing the production of a free-viewpoint video-based animation, the method including the steps of:

• obtaining data indicative of one or more operational characteristics of a capture subsystem, the capture subsystem being configured for controlling a set of video capture devices and for storing video captured at each of these devices on a first storage device, the set of capture devices being configured to define a capture zone in three dimensional space for containing a target object;
• accepting as input a first command indicative of an instruction to commence video capture;
• being responsive to the first command for selectively providing to the capture subsystem a second command indicative of an instruction to commence video capture at the capture devices;
• identifying video capture files stored on the first storage device corresponding to video captured at each of the capture devices in response to the second command, the identified video capture filed representing a file set;
• providing an interface for allowing playback of the file set, wherein the interface allows selective simultaneous display of a plurality of player elements each for providing synchronised playback of a respective one of the video capture files in the file set thereby to allow review by one or more persons of video captured in response to the second command;
• accepting input indicative of either approval or rejection of the file set and, in the case of approval of the file set, providing a third command indicative of an instruction to move the file set to a rendering subsystem;
• selectively providing additional commands to the rendering subsystem indicative of instructions to process the file set to produce a free-viewpoint video-based animation of the target object.

A method for managing the production of a free-viewpoint video-based animation of at least part of an actor, the method including the steps of:

• providing a set of video capture devices and for storing video captured at each of these devices on a first storage device, the set of capture devices being configured to define a capture zone in three dimensional space for containing at least part of an actor;
• instructing the actor to act out a scene at least partially within the capture zone;
• instructing each of the capture devices to capture video of the scene;
• reviewing acting characteristics of the captured video, and in the case that the acting characteristics do not meet a threshold acting quality standard, instructing the actor to act out a replacement scene;
• reviewing technical characteristics of the captured video, and in the case that the acting characteristics do not meet a threshold technical quality standard, instructing the actor to act out a replacement scene;
• in the case that the captured video meets the threshold acting quality standard and the threshold technical quality standard, providing an instruction indicative of approval of the captured video;
• and
• being responsive to the approval of the captured video for commencing the generation of the animation.

A method for managing the production of one or more free-viewpoint video-based animations, the method including the steps of

• (a) providing an interface for allowing user-creation and submission of one or more groups of tasks related to the production of a free-viewpoint video-based animation, each group of tasks having an associated priority rating;
• (b) being responsive to submission of a group of tasks for defining one or more subjobs for execution;
• (c) on the basis of the priority rating for the submitted group of tasks and a set of dependency rules, adding the one or more subjobs to a prioritised processing queue;
• and
• (d) being responsive to a signal indicative of resource availability at a processing node for providing the next subjob in the queue to the processing node.