How OnPoint Studios helped Robin Schulz realize ‘In Your Eyes’
Released early this year, Robin Schulz’s ‘In Your Eyes’ video has swiftly embedded itself into the public consciousness. But it originated at OnPoint Studios in Berlin. Writer Pete Carvill visited to find out more.
By PETE CARVILL, OnPoint Studios
Our motion capture studio in Berlin
It did not take long to go viral. Released at the beginning of the year, the video for ‘In Your Eyes’ by Robin Schulz swiftly began to ratchet up views on YouTube. By July, that number had reached over fifty million views and been given over 413k likes. Another Schulz video, ‘Alane’, released in the middle of June, has managed within only a few weeks to gain 3.7m views, along with 70k likes.
While both seem worlds apart, what the two videos have in common is that they were created with motion capture elements. This approach is becoming increasingly common in music videos as people seek to replicate the success of CG-heavy productions from bands such as Linkin Park. In going down this route, motion capture is the most time-efficient way to produce successful results.
The motion capture work for Robin Schulz’s ‘In Your Eyes’ was done at OnPoint Studios in Berlin. It is based north of the city, about twenty minutes from the main train station, and housed in an anonymous-looking office block. There is not much around there apart from a garden centre and a business park. I’m greeted in the reception area by Niklas Bothe, OnPoint’s head of motion capture.
The actual motion capture studio
The studio is set up with thirty-six OptiTrack motion capture cameras. It is, say Niklas, a ‘passive motion capture system’, meaning that the work is done using infrared reflection. Its opposite number, an ‘active system’, utilizes suits with sensors built into the fabric, and is most often used for doing remote capture. The resulting work is used for both video productions and virtual reality projects. For facial expressions, the studio has been using a variety of different solutions like Faceware, but is also continuously looking into new possibilities such as the iPhone-based livelink workflow. Another core product that the team uses for pre-visualization and other virtual production is the UnReal Engine.
For the uninitiated, ‘remote motion capture’ is when motion capture data is sent to a different location, eliminating travel costs. It also allows for more flexibility than a traditional shoot. Niklas says that it is one of the most-innovative concepts in the industry today. “Our remote motion capture workflow is just one example of how we are working hard to be as innovative and flexible as possible in an ever-changing industry.”
Virtual production consultant Marian Woller, who also works at OnPoint, picks up the thread. “The last few months have been awful for everybody,” he says, “but it’s also led to a rebirth in the effects industry. Before now, everyone used to have their own place and stage. Now, there’s no issue with everything being remote. It was possible before, but no one was doing it.”
Making ‘In Your Eyes’
The team with the actress doing the motion capture for “In your eyes”.
The work that OnPoint Studios did for ‘In Your Eyes’ video began with an approach from production company A Current State. Based in Berlin, the company has produced four videos for Robin Schulz.
“The director came to us,” says Marian, “with a handful of demos. The issue was that some of them were too complicated to achieve in such a short timeline. So you have to find a way around. It’s that sort of flexibility that is what we specialize in.”
OnPoint worked on roughly the first forty-five seconds of the Schulz video, from the beginning until the exit from the ‘garage’. That included the animation of the characters, their environment, the camerawork, and the editing. The process took about two weeks, with the shooting component taking only three hours.
“We created the landscape and the car,” says Marian, “and we managed to get it done in about a third of the time that we’d normally take. That was only possible because we could do it all in real time. If we had done it traditionally, we would have seen it go into rendering and then post production.”
The process for performance capture happens in four stages. Firstly, once pre-visualization is completed, a date is set for the shoot. A one-or-two-rehearsal follows, during which the team will ascertain which props are needed and, if necessary, build them. On production day, the performers are put into the mocap suits and the shot list is gone through again. The team take a back seat during production while making sure that all systems are working optimally. The final step is the cleaning and fixing of the data, adding animation, and the fixing of tricky elements such as hands and other body parts.
The feedback from A Current State, says Niklas, was good and led to OnPoint’s work for ‘Alane’, animating that video’s furry and plant-like creatures.
At the time of writing, that video is going similarly viral, becoming a big hit on TikTok. In the meantime, though, the team have got plenty of work to do. After a brief sword fight, and just missing the torrential rain, I head back out into Berlin, in my head humming ‘Alane’ to myself.
