A lighting reproduction approach to live-action compositing

We describe a process for compositing a live performance of an actor into a virtual set wherein the actor is consistently illuminated by the virtual environment. The Light Stage used in this work is a two-meter sphere of inward-pointing RGB light emitting diodes focused on the actor, where each light can be set to an arbitrary color and intensity to replicate a real-world or virtual lighting environment. We implement a digital two-camera infrared matting system to composite the actor into the background plate of the environment without affecting the visible-spectrum illumination on the actor. The color reponse of the system is calibrated to produce correct color renditions of the actor as illuminated by the environment. We demonstrate moving-camera composites of actors into real-world environments and virtual sets such that the actor is properly illuminated by the environment into which they are composited.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: TOG
• Authors: Paul E. Debevec, Andreas Wenger, Chris Tchou, Andrew Gardner, Jamie Waese, Tim Hawkins
• Keywords: Actor, Inward-pointing Rgb Light, TOG 2002, Virtual