The Deep Above – First Hunt

Director: Niklas Wolff (2024)
My Role: Mocap TD, Compositing, Lens Flare Research

A vast ocean at the firmament. Humans suffering in the darkness underneath, longing for the warm light of the Lumathans – giant sea creatures worshiped as gods and the only light source in the world. Will the explorer SINH manage to reach the ocean and steal the Lumathan’s light?

I supported the motion capture shoot with my expertise in Optitrack. My primary contribution was developing the anamorphic lens flare setup. I created a workflow for capturing lens flares using a motion control robot, which were then reproduced as point flares and glows in compositing. The research project won the best short paper award at CVMP 2024 and was presented at Siggraph Asia 2024.

You can read about the project on The Rookies.