CAMERA is always excited to develop talent and has created a new Student Technician Team to work within the studio on research and commercial projects, both within the University and with external industry clients.

The chance to get involved in motion capture shoots and be trained in the post-production processes gives the students the opportunity to access industry relevant training and experience of working on live projects. Being part of the team gives the students invaluable, work place experience which can fit around their studies.

Our team come from a range of subject areas and academic levels from undergraduate to PhD. We caught up with the them to find out what they had learned and how they are hoping to apply their new skills and knowledge in the future.

Yordan Monev – School of Management, BSc Marketing

‘When I saw the job vacancy I instantly knew I wanted to work at CAMERA. The best part was the last day when we worked with the Xsens system which works with no cameras, but relative positioning of the magnetic sensors. It’s fascinating seeing your actions mirrored on screen in real time.

I was surprised at how many approximations had to be made when post processing optical footage in Shogun and how well the software made them. A marker would go missing every second of the footage and it’s location had to be “guessed” by Shogun using the location of the two markers closest to it. And it did a great job pretty much every time. Judging by this I think an algorithm could be used to make post processing completely automated.’

Delia Gander – Dept. of Computer Science, MSc Digital Entertainment

‘I’m hoping to work in Visual Effects so was interested in getting more familiar with different aspects of the Visual Effects pipeline. I had heard that CAMERA had done cool work in the past with the entertainment industry, and the way that motion capture has changed the game for cinema is amazing – it’s really nothing short of wizardry!

Working with software and equipment that is actually used in industry has been great experience – I think that the skills we are learning are really transferrable.’

Yordan putting the Xsens Suit through its paces

Josh Miles-Coppard – Dept. for Health, MSc Sport and Exercise Science 

‘On my placement year, I worked with 3D motion capture in a clinical setting. The biomechanical data we collected was used for research as well being a useful tool to provide rehabilitation practitioners with information about the patients movement patterns during particular exercises.

When this opportunity arose, I was intrigued to how 3D motion capture could be used when creating films and games. I feel there are many transferrable skills to gain when working in this setting that will help me in the future when hopefully working in rehabilitation or human performance enhancement.’

Sinéad Kearney – Dept. Computer Science, PhD in Visual Computing and Student Technician Team Leader

‘I’m hoping to work in the industry once I complete my degree, so I’m eager to gain any experience beforehand that will benefit me when I start applying for jobs.

I have led some training sessions with the rest of the team, which is not something I could see myself doing before joining the team. It’s made me push the boundaries of my comfort zone but also see how far I’ve come since I first joined CAMERA.’

Eleanor Crellin – Dept. of Computer Science, PhD in Visual Computing

‘The best part of joining the tech team so far has been learning how to use the XSens suit. It was really interesting to see how capture can be done without markers/cameras.

I have learnt a lot about motion capture pipelines and what it takes to carry out a shoot, and the postprocessing that is required.’

For more information on the Student Technician Team please contact Oscar De Mello.