This is another strange disc I found from Acclaim. I uploaded one of the videos to Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqvvXryTx6c There is a readme file on the disc. April 6, 2001 Ms. Carolann Dunn Major League Baseball Properties 245 Park Ave, 30th Floor New York, NY 10167 USA Cc: John Olshan, Major League Baseball Players Association Dear Ms. Dunn, InSpeck recently completed, during the 2001 spring training camps, the 3D scans of all the Major League baseball players and coaches under the contract awarded by MLBPA and MLBP. The latest state of the art proven 3D scanning technology was used to successfully capture almost 900 heads in less than 9 days. In order for the various MLBP licensees to assess the level of details and realism of the 3D models available from the 3D scans, we have included 3D models of two (2) players on a CD-ROM, i.e. Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams. These high-resolution 3D models are a sample of what would be offered by the MLBPA and MLBP. Also, because of the high level of details available today through the 3D scanning technique which cannot yet be fully taken advantage of in the current games, we have reduced the level of details in both player models to demonstrate the results that can be expected to use in the games. The low-resolution 3D models would not be provided by MLBPA and MLBP. They are only examples to show first the enhanced level of realism achievable in the current games compared to traditional methods. Secondly, that InSpeck software tools have all the needed features to reduce the resolution while preserving animation characteristics. Finally, 2 short MPEG animations using the 2 players are also included. This animation was featured during the last Game Developers Conference. Visitors at InSpeck booth had their face scanned and used in this animation in only few minutes. Following, is a series of Q & A describing the data found on the CD-ROM. Sincerely, InSpeck inc. Chris Rochefort Sales Manager What is on this CD-ROM? High-resolution 3D models of Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams as well as low-resolution 3D models. Two short MPEG animations are also included. How were these high-resolution 3D models created? InSpeck was contracted out to take 3D pictures of all the baseball players and their coaches using the latest InSpeck 3D scanning technology. InSpeck used its own EM software for editing and merging the scanned data into high-resolution 3D models. How were these low-resolution 3D models created? First the high-resolution (70,000 polygons) 3D model of Bernie Williams was simplified down to a low-resolution (4,000 polygons) 3D model using InSpeck EM simplification tools. Then the low-resolution model of Bernie was morphed to the high-resolution (71,000 polygons) 3D model of Jason Giambi using InSpeck EM morph tools. This effectively allowed the 2 low-resolution models to share the exact same geometry structure (control points) while preserving their original shapes. As a result the 2 low-resolution models are ready to morph from one to the other one. This can be demonstrated in Maya by opening the “Morph_Example†file. Are there other ways to obtain low-resolution 3D models? Yes, another way consists of importing in InSpeck EM an external template (geometry). Typically, a modeler/animator would create a template (geometry) with a given number of polygons (few hundreds or few thousands). Then this template is morphed to the 3D models of the scanned heads. This process effectively reduces the number of polygons while preserving the original shape and UVs. But perhaps the most important benefit is that all the scanned heads will share the same predefined vertices. How do these 3D models compare to photo-based 3D models? Because the 3D scan process captures the real measured points in real size, the actual geometry is exact and can be used to create a physical model. Then, as the texture is also captured for every single measured point it is also placed correctly without distortion. Photo-based methods normally wrap flat 2D pictures onto a standard geometry template so every body ends up with the same head geometry. Texture distortion is in most cases noticeable using this approach. How is the texture and can I modify it? The texture is a bitmap (24 bits) saved in common formats. It is UV mapped and saved as a complete single image editable with a 2D or 3D painter. How can I animate these 3D models? Using the simplified geometry structure from one scanned head and applying it to other scanned heads (as described above) allows creating a series of morph targets. Many 3rd party animation software tools will support this approach for creating animation. The other approach (also described above) consists of importing a template. All the resulting head models will share the same template (predefined vertices). When the animator imports the resulting head into a 3rd party animation software any predefined animation created using the template can be applied to that model. What’s the big deal about the short boxing animation? This simple animation, featuring a boxer, was created to show how simply and rapidly a scanned face could be brought into an animation. This examples demonstrates that all the necessary tools exists today to quickly bring 3D models from scanned heads into animation/games without having to re-do the animation for every single head. So this approach can be extended to a large scale to benefit from more realistic 3D scans where the workflow is streamlined for an efficient process. What tools can facilitate the animation of these 3D models? As described previously, all the necessary functionality is in one tool, i.e. InSpeck EM has all the missing links between high-resolution 3D models from scanned data to animation ready environment. Exactly what would be provided to the licensees? MLBPA & MLBP are offering high-resolution 3D models of all the baseball players and their coaches. InSpeck EM software is not provided by the MLBPA & MLBP, but can be purchased directly from InSpeck. InSpeck can offer other modeling services.
