Discover how Reallusion brought the author to the forum as a 3D avatar.
(Image credit: SBS / Reallusion)
The Seoul Broadcasting System's SBS D Forum is one of South Korea's most important annual forums for discussions on the future of tech. In 2021 it had a special guest speaker: Neal Stephenson, the bestselling author of speculative fiction such as Snow Crash and creator of the terms 'metaverse,' and 'avatar'. Neal would be appearing remotely for his talk and video interview for the D forum from his hotel in San Francisco, but the team at SBS wanted to do something a little bit more special.
Early in October, producer Jun Park contacted the 2D and 3D character creation and animation software developer Reallusion to discuss creating a special experience for the guest speaker. Park wanted to create an animated digital avatar of Neal to deliver the first segment of his appearance. The D Forum was to take place barely a month after on November 18. Neal was put in touch with Reallusion and the work began.
The work to create the avatar, animation and voice began with Neal providing a video of him making his introduction so that his voice and facial gestures could be used as a reference to create a stylised character and animation. The performance was captured with Xsens Awinda, iPhone for Face with iCloneAccuLips lip-synch, and iClone Motion Live. With that material banked, Reallusion took care of the character design, teaming up with Actor Capture for the motion capture and animation.
Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash first introduced the concept of Metaverse and Avatar in 1992. (Image credit: Random House)
The avatars were made with Character Creator and the animation with iClone. James Martin, Max Thomas and Joel Mack from Actor Capture took the characters and generated the audio, lip-sync and mocap for the final performance. Epic Games generated the environments and surrounded Neal’s avatar and the stage with virtual world landscapes for a unique experience and a fitting tribute to Stephenson's work and futurescapes.
Jun Park, Chong AE Lee and Neal Stephenson (Image credit: SBS / Reallusion)
"When Neal Stephenson' took the stage as a digital human it was so incredible; obviously a big moment for the broadcasting industry and SBS D Forum," Park said.
John Martin, vice president at Reallusion, said: "Neal's cooperation on the project brought a real-world literary hero into our work and we are honoured and grateful to partner with SBS and with such a visionary like Mr. Stephenson.”
You can see a full recording of Stephenson's appearance at the SBS D Forum on YouTube.
Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
