Clear Angle Studios launches Volumetric Rig to accelerate photoreal VFX datasets

The shift from mesh-based geometry to Gaussian splats marks a significant move toward data-driven production that reduces rendering overhead. By capturing natural lighting and motion directly into a 4D dataset, Clear Angle addresses the high costs and labor requirements of manual mesh cleanup and texturing. For the streaming ecosystem, this technology enables higher-fidelity crowd scenes and digital doubles for cinematic original content without the typical VFX timeline extension. Watch for the first major film credits utilizing this relightable splat pipeline, which the company indicates is already facilitating work with major studios like Disney and Netflix.

Clear Angle Studios has positioned the Volumetric Capture Rig as a purpose-built solution for 4D Gaussian splatting, targeting productions that need photoreal digital performances without the manual overhead of traditional mesh-based pipelines. The VCR was first showcased in partnership with Union VFX, which used Clear Angle Studios' data to develop a new re-lighting solution for Gaussian splats, enabling productions to capture performances under controlled lighting and then tailor them to match any scene's specific lighting environment. The rig's modular design allows reconfiguration for close-up facial capture, single performers, stunt work, groups, and larger volumetric spaces, with the volume scaling to 2.5 cubic meters and offering 360 degrees of coverage.

Union VFX and Clear Angle Studios have jointly developed a crowds pipeline that demonstrates the VCR's practical application in production. The workflow uses Clear Angle's VCR to capture small groups of performers, then applies time-offset animation, varied placement, and image segmentation to generate crowds of tens of thousands. Union's image segmentation technology allows artists to isolate and adjust costume colors and materials, creating visual variety without requiring additional captures. David Schneider, VFX and technical supervisor at Union, noted that their relighting solution allows splats to behave like traditional CG assets while maintaining photoreal quality, and that splats hold up closer to camera than traditional CG crowd elements.

Clear Angle Studios has established itself as a preferred scanning provider for major studios including Disney, Universal, and Netflix, with over 13 years of experience in spatial data and structure-from-motion capture. The VCR represents the company's entry into neural rendering workflows, generating massive throughput of raw information purpose-built for next-generation applications. The system's 12-bit image capture and 450 individually programmable LED nodes support up to 120 different lighting scenarios, including point source, one-light-at-a-time, and shadow-cast setups, providing the ground-truth data needed for machine learning datasets and avatar creation alongside traditional VFX applications.