Digitizing Photorealistic Humans Inside USC's Light Stage

We learn how actors are digitized and turned into photorealistic models inside USC ICT's Light Stage capture system. Paul Debevec and his team are focused on inventing technologies that create the most realistic-looking virtual people, objects, and environments. We were blown away by the capabilities of the light stage!
Shot by Joey Fameli and edited by Adam Isaak
Music by Jinglepunks
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Tested is:
Adam Savage / donttrythis
Norman Chan / nchan
Simone Giertz / simonegiertz
Joey Fameli / joeyfameli
Adam Isaak / adamisaak
Kishore Hari / sciencequiche
Patrick Norton / patricknorton
Frank Ippolito / frankippolito
Sean Charlesworth / cworthdynamics
Jeremy Williams / jerware
Thanks for watching!

[@JeremyEr10]

Loves how he tries to credit his team members as much as he can. These people don't get the attention they deserve

[@philiproberts3499]

Hear, hear

[@ericjx]

Totally agree. Nothing more annoying than the guy who claims he is the creator of all things because he asked someone else to do it.

[@Khanemis]

You are absolutely right, dear sir. This is such a rare virtue to acknowledge contribution of others on your projects.

[@oO_ox_O]

True, it's a bit futile though because nobody is going to remember the names.

[@teeroy666]

Paul is one of the most intelligent and human persons I've ever met. I met him several times at siggraph. SMRT.

[@bengtssonmorgan]

Norm is so well prepared and asks adequate questions.

[@adityagangal5744]

Agreed. It's refreshing to see intelligent journalism of this nature where we get to see the interviewer simply facilitating the real stars of the show rather than asking vague and general questions.

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

+Aditya Gangal Definitely. It really shows Norm did his research beforehand and expects more of his audience.

[@Moxtrox]

We need part 2 where digitized Norm is put into some lighting scenarios.

[@SCwirlify]

I agree. Looking forward to see what the digitised result looks like.

[@colhapablap]

this is why i love watching tested. always something interesting, doing the proper due diligence, and covered in a way no one else on youtube does.

[@JasonPatz]

This is one of your best videos.

[@Oscarmayer261]

agreed

[@NotTheLarryDavid]

Ditto!

[@sturvinmurvin9408]

yes!

[@evilferris]

These days you almost already take for granted photorealistic digital faces, cars etc. I found the simulation of real-world recorded lighting situations even more interesting than the digitizing of faces. Fascinating presentation and thank you for not making it just three or four minutes long!

[@graw777]

AWESOME!... Norm is the best for this job! He let the guy talk and knows about the subject enough to have a decent conversation. I had my doubts in the past but...not anymore.

[@Khanemis]

This is a really interesting video, one of your best I think. Pal Debevec is great at explaining things and you can see that he is really into his work and Norm's questions are on the spot. Thank you, Tested:)

[@JairMcBain]

The real hero of this video is Joey. Good job with all these crazy lighting conditions!

[@AnthonyGugliotta]

The capabilities of this machine are... spectacular ;)

[@renterp]

Wow the demo with the Christmas bulbs and the lighting reflection was quite amazing. Thinking outside the box. Awesome!

[@MrTangent]

Mind boggling technology.

[@F_I_J_I_W_A_T_E_R]

There's a demo made by Nvidia where they recorded someone with one of these and made it into a real-time animation

[@gregistopal]

+Rick Sanchez you would just put the people inside the computer

[@gregistopal]

+Rick Sanchez you would just put the people inside the computer

[@zackstetson7243]

This was my favorite video by far. Awesome job, Norm asking relevant questions to get good info to us, and I really appreciated your tour guide's ability to use lay men's terms so we can all understand. That was so cool.

[@S-K.]

What an amazing technology. Many people really don't realize the huge impact that lighting has in every aspect of our perception. Can't wait to see more.

[@harryassouline]

Paul Debevec, since I have seen your conferences on all RTC, I take such pleasure to have gathered a lot of your notes during the talk. Very interesting your path with various roles but constant determination over the two decades you have been in the business. You are a great inspiration !

[@westingtyler1]

this video kicks ass. the detail and awesomeness, and the guy you are interviewing is great. i have hypothesized about light rooms like this for many years, and it is great to see it really exists. lit by the lighting of a real location!

[@Oddi0]

That is so cool! The reflections in the mirror balls actually looked like buildings and the sky! I could even visualize that cathedral, and I don't even know the one they're talking about.

[@KaltatheNobleMind]

it's essentially an inverted digital camera:D rather than pixels capturing light for a digital space the LEDs act as pixels that emit digital lighting on real world objects.

[@KaltatheNobleMind]

***** oh i was talking about the light rig not the cameras. the LEDs are the pixels in that respect. also didnt intersteller or soem other modern space movie do something similar to get simulated lighting on live actors? only they used giant powerful flatscreens rather than specially rigged LED arrays.

[@ravindersembi3955]

Paul Debevec legend! great video, felt nostalgic seeing pauls first shot hdri's (we all 3d guys used to use them back in the day), actually illuminating in real life amazing!

[@mulleolsen]

Finally a really great Tested video. Please do more like this!

[@frank3manuel]

As much as the build videos are super enjoyable, this was one of the most fascinating episodes you've done. And Norm is asking all the right questions. Good job!

[@SardiPax]

I could have watched another hour of that. Great video, well done Tested.

[@TheJorith]

This really is a great vid! And what a great work to get to know. Hope we get to see more like this!

[@yorgle]

Really glad to see this here. I've seen Paul's work over the years and it's always impressed me. I experimented with two light source synthetic lighting inspired by his work years ago. I took two pictures of one scene, with two white lights, then using Processing, let you adjust the R,G,B intensities of the two images overlayed on top of eachother, and you can see the shadows interacting and color mixing live. Really fascinating stuff! :D

[@mrrogersneighbourhood]

This is both incredible and awesome. Proper lighting is everything!.. excellent video!

[@DavidTriphon]

This was incredibly cool. Thank you so much for making this video. I look forward to showing this to all of my media production friends.

[@Jokerdude444]

very interesting i would love a whole video on just lighting scenarios.

[@remmahsroht]

Perfect interview. Congrats to the Tested team.

[@4554squishey]

This is one of the coolest things I've seen!

[@RichShumaker]

Thank you for this video. This is exactly what I have been trying to reproduce for years. It is great to see something like this that is up and running and working.

[@popskism]

Holy shit, the cathedral skybox is outstanding. This is really something.

[@antivanti]

Top notch content guys! =D Interesting topic and people and Norm knows enough to ask really relevant questions.

[@MDK2k]

This takes me back to when I started doing 3D graphics and rendering. Pauls HDR light probe gallery was one of the most important resources for me back then.

[@schmaulie]

This was awesome, well done +Tested for another great video. Anyone else notice Paul's overshirt with the Avtr Weta Shots Dept on it? Nice!

[@orlandeuce6567]

Paul Debevec - a living legend for the CGI world #legend

[@Lecky42]

Amazing technology. Thanks for making a Video about it!

[@josephdavis2695]

Oh man, Norm is LOVING this! Kid, meet candy store.

[@StingrayOfficial]

Camera operator had to work hard that day haha.

[@thorbens.fitlife]

great video, i love the narration! Well prepared questions. As a followup video, i would love to see more information about what happens after the capturing and what the steps to the perfect lit and working 3d model looks like.

[@CybranM]

Id love to see a followup video showing the processing after taking the images. This was the most interesting video you've mad in a good while, well done!

[@crispybacon4240]

That's fascinating! I can vaguely make out the scenes being portrayed in the mirror balls. The cathedral was especially convincing.

[@Shinegamikira]

I love how pro you are at this Norm :D

[@Animuldok]

That was incredibly cool and well put together from an informative standpoint. Thnks :D

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

I had to work with lighting myself, for a short animated video, and I was in the process of designing a rig for 3DStudio that would help me manage different conditions such as bright noon sun, midnight, interior candle light, that sort of thing.... and as I added lights and controls to it, I realized I was spending more time rigging the light than actually making the video lol I concluded "yes, if it's ever completed, it'll be a very powerful rig, but I can get the same results by throughly designing the light _as_ I animate the characters" that thought process took me about a quarter of a second.... I just went "oh, gosh, you're terrible..." _delete!_ if you really want to account for the different angles, and colors and everything, it's like he said, it's a multi-dimensional array of millions of numbers that can make you go crazy if you don't _really_ need it.

[@Robertlavigne1]

Very cool video. Paul is an amazing presenter of information.

[@expierreiment]

Great Video! Never saw this before.

[@Sam-zb5fv]

this is absolutely amazing

[@cedarandsound]

this is unbelieveable, so cool!

[@michelleross9782]

Absolutely Fascinating

[@flaggerify]

I remember Debevec's to old animations. Groundbreaking stuff.

[@TiagoTiagoT]

I did not expect you were gonna be able to see the places in the reflections on the balls; blew my mind!

[@TadejKanizar]

An extremely interesting insight into lighting

[@nalutheskatingbully]

That's just awesome!

[@tehjamerz]

Always love a good Testees video

[@bareakon]

I'd like to see an in-situ render of an actor's face in the digital environment that the lighting is mimicking.

[@HeineArthur]

Norm is great, really impressive interview.

[@minggan2990]

great interview.

[@Dy-rf6oe]

Tested is so informative and educational. keep it up guys, don't go for clickbait

[@AQuantumCraig]

this video is really interesting and mind blowing!

[@TheSvaneMan]

I love this video, oh wow this is so good!

[@tatooweeny]

Norm, you are an awesome interviewer.

[@garnetk3751]

I've worked on those tutorial examples before in HDR, pretty damn cool

[@BrenainnJordan]

thanks! super useful info!

[@danielmeigs]

this is really amazing

[@NotTheLarryDavid]

Fascinating stuff!!

[@RoelfvanderMerwe]

This was awesome!

[@slikrx]

My god.... it's full of stars!

[@sladeuselton]

Nice reference there :D

[@branislavjenco4068]

It's amazing how you can see the scene quite clearly in the balls when the camera zooms out.

[@allluckyseven]

Congratulations, Norm!

[@landypaule]

I'm very impressed, this is awsome! But what about metameric colors? He said, that they can simulate almost every light color due to the additional amber and cyan. But using LEDs the spectrum still will be consisting of very sharp peaks. Maybe your eye will see the "same" color, but what about the reflection of colored fabric that acts as a filter for a now different spectral source? I reckon, there still are differences in comparison to the original light.

[@user-dd8ww9oi8w]

it's amazing) thank you very much)))

[@DanKetchum007]

Awesome stuff.

[@cambelleniouskorsakoff]

This was really interesting! 😀

[@xenlase]

A masterpiece of engineering.

[@PoltergeistWorks]

The truck in Terminator 2 was driven by Robert Patrick - T1000... Arnold was on a motorcycle. Come on man!

[@thePavuk]

Such a heresy!

[@tatooweeny]

Yeah I was yelling at my monitor when he said that.

[@MarCuseus]

Hasta la vista, baby

[@jimmysgameclips]

This is superb tech, I'm tempted to go get some polarisation film for my brilliant $100 lighting setup at home XD

[@oishisakana]

So cool!

[@dimitreze]

oh the human mind, amazing

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Can't wait to see when this is miniaturized down to even smaller and less expensive levels. Long distance phone calls would never be the same! JW3HH

[@Screamingtut]

really cool norm

[@TimeHarmonic]

this is so cool.

[@ManojEditz]

Thalapathy 68 ❤🔥

[@FishKungfu]

This is so amazing! It's also another reason to never ever believe video evidence (i.e., propaganda) that something happened.

[@Tfin]

So Duke finally sold the secret family recipe, forcing Jay into another line of work?

[@JulianButler]

Paul is wearing the WetaDigital Avatar Shots Dept shirt. Honour.

[@therawprawn79]

Wow!

[@bitume]

This guy is so neat!

[@bplem2007]

I wish they would remake Myst in VR using this technology.

[@RoySchl]

it's the tested CHRISTMAS SPECIAL everybody...

[@juschu85]

6:30 I wonder if they managed to synchronise the change of the lighting with the framerate of the camera somehow or if they are not changing the ligthing for at least the duration of few frames .

[@DavidSVega-cu1dv]

Cool, can I take a selfie with it?

[@proluxelectronics7419]

I think a rotating ring would give better dynamics if you forget about what it looks like in the human eye and sync light source controllers and cameras together in the computer.

[@RoodeMenon]

Its been more than a decade?? wow.....

[@antivanti]

7 Dimensions. I guess that would be 2 dimensions for the resolution of the surface of the spherical light-field, 2 dimensions for directionality of the light passing through each of those points, 2 more for directionality of the lighting and the last one is time for the animation? That's A LOT of data. I'd like to know the resolution of each of those dimensions. Even with fairly low resolutions of each dimension it gets staggeringly huge FAST.

[@ConnorNotyerbidness]

I have actually been to that light stage as i knew simeone who worked there

[@Hans-jc1ju]

I want to work there now

[@OliverMarkowski]

Does anyone know what type of polarizer they are using? I see some hints for either linear or circular polarization but at the same time I see hints that would rule out both options.

[@joansmith69]

Was this the thing in "The Congress"?

[@simeon24]

Yes.

[@joansmith69]

simeon24 Cool. Loved the movie. They might have mentioned this in the Tested feature, but it was so long, haha.

[@imsiege]

it looks like something darth vader would sit inside of on the death star

[@allluckyseven]

I wonder if, besides still photos, they can project video in that environment.

[@jonathannaranjo5428]

i read the title wrong i though this was about digitalizing photorealistic human's insides like guts and stuff