
Clear Angle Studios is leading a quiet revolution in the art of 4D scanning. CEO, Dominic Ridley, tells TVBEurope about the tech behind their remarkable progress
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: February 18, 2025 Updated: February 19, 2025
Clear Angle Studios is leading a quiet revolution in the art of 4D scanning. CEO, Dominic Ridley, tells TVBEurope about the tech behind their remarkable progress
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Last August, Clear Angle Studios announced it had achieved a breakthrough in 4D performance capture. Working in collaboration with performance-driven facial animators DI4D and texture enhancement specialists, TexturingXYZ, the company showcased a video featuring a photo-realistic digital representation of an actor's performance that was virtually indistinguishable from actual footage of the human, marking a technological innovation that has far-reaching implications for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry.
Discussing both the technology behind the development and its significance to the M&E industry, Dominic Ridley, co-founder and CEO of Clear Angle Studios, begins with a brief background. The company is a global operation. Headquartered in London, Clear Angle Studios has offices in Atlanta and Vancouver, along with Budapest and other locations worldwide. This autumn, a full service studio was opened in Culver City, Los Angeles, offering a permanent scanning facility to meet burgeoning demand. We cover the film industry in terms of scanning, says Ridley. We'll scan props, vehicles, sets, environments and characters. We'll get in a helicopter and capture entire mountain ranges, but at the same time, we'll scan this pen for you, he explains, holding up the item in question.
Then, alluding to the growing convergence that has been noted in the industry, in which shifting audience trends and technological innovation has seen media companies widening their IPs, Ridley says, We're in the scanning and digitising business, traditionally we cover film production more than anything else, but we're looking to get more into gaming, as the divide narrows between photo realism in games and film.
Turning to the subject of 4D scanning, he clarifies a common misconception. It's often called 4D mocap but it isn't motion capture. It's scanning, he says, gently correcting the misnomer. Clear Angle Studios, first and foremost, is in the business of data capture. Explaining further, he adds, 4D scanning is essentially motion scanning. When you take a video and turn it into per-frame 3D scans, so you're getting animation at the same time from all angles, that's essentially what 4D scanning is: taking a static scan and making it an animated scan.
In simple terms, the fourth D might refer to the movement aspect of the data, the animation itself.
It's the movement, yeah, but as soon as you get into movement you end up with 24 times or 30 times, or 48 times as much data as you would from a 3D scan, says Ridley, identifying what has until now been a significant barrier to the process the immense requirement for computing power. Traditionally, 4D scans were relatively low res, to try and make up for the fact that there was so much more data. It's very processor heavy, because you've got to process 24 3D frames per second over a period of however many seconds or minutes that you've got. Usually, you'd have gone lower res. Instead of doing one high res scan, you'd do lots of smaller low res scans and that would drive your animation. Essentially, you'd drive the high res texture from the neutral pose across all the other poses.
Referring to the August presentation, Ridley continues, [The video that] we presented in collaboration with DI4D and TexturingXYZ does contain a certain portion of it. It's how we enable the high res to happen for every single frame. That's how it's unique, quite different. It was a lot of work a lot but it gave us a stepping stone into the next possible, the next high res way of capturing and displaying data.
Division of labour Work on the project was divided between the three specialists, with each company providing its own expertise. Firstly, the subject, Clear Angle Studios' finance director, Michael Pedersen, was scanned into the system. We recorded him performing FACS shapes with our synchronised video camera system so that we could capture all the facial expression transitions from neutral to each of the FACS shapes at 24 frames per second, says Ridley. We processed that data to produce a per-frame sequence of OBJ files, which we delivered to DI4D. At this stage the OBJ data has a different random mesh topology per frame. DI4D wrapped the mesh topology from the base mesh accurately onto one frame of the OBJ sequence data. They then used their state-of-the-art mesh tracking solution to track this mesh topology accurately onto every other frame in the sequence. The result is a 4D sequence comprising a highly consistent mesh topology, which deforms as the face transitions from neutral to each of the FACS shapes. The reason that's key is because at the end of the process, every frame of data has an identical UV layout.
The data was then returned to Clear Angle Studios, where it was textured and sent on to TexturingXYZ, the third project partner. This final stage entailed analysis of the texture, normal maps and displacement maps, using TexturingXYZ's bespoke solutions, Hyperskin 2.0 and HyperlookX, which enabled the data to be enhanced. They have a really cool platform, says Ridley. It's incredible tech and gives the data that little bit of extra cherry on top.
Capturing the data requires the use of Dorothy, Clear Angle Studios' proprietary system, which has developed through seve
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
16/06/2026
Thomson's highly regarded expert-led online learning courses are now easier to access on the go via our new App.
Available now on Google Play Store, the J...
16/06/2026
Neumann.Berlin has released firmware version 2.0 for the MT 48 audio interface, adding plugin compatibility, expanded Dante networking options, broadcast encode...
16/06/2026
TVNewsCheck has announced that nominations are now open for its 2027 Women in Technology Awards, to be presented at NAB Show 2027 on Tuesday, April 6 in the Med...
16/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced Avalon, a 1RU IP intercom platform for broadcast, live events, and production environments. Designed for IP-only workflows, Avalon suppo...
16/06/2026
SNS has published a guide to remote video editing workflows using its EVO shared storage platform and companion tools, covering use cases ranging from home edit...
16/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced that the Richmond Flying Squirrels, a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, have deployed five Grass Valley LD...
16/06/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced the launch of the Official IPMX Training Series, a free online program covering the design, configurati...
16/06/2026
Swerve TV has announced distribution agreements with Fubo, Plex, Amazon Fire TV,...
16/06/2026
ATP and TikTok have announced an expansion of their global content partnership, extending the ATP's TikTok hub powered by TikTok GamePlan to cover all nine ...
16/06/2026
Network's LA facility serves as the heart of a sprawling operation built to ...
16/06/2026
At Pico, the network's media-management team is supporting a flood of HBS fe...
16/06/2026
The NHL will no longer air on CBC after the pulic broadcasters and national rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet were unable to come to agreement.
After a successfu...
16/06/2026
As live sports broadcasters continue to seek new ways to make complex action mor...
16/06/2026
Built with the 2026 FIFA World Cup in mind, these small but mighty IP-based tran...
16/06/2026
Boasts individual synths for each band
UVI's latest synth takes an interesting approach to synthesis, offering a trio of synth engines that each operate...
16/06/2026
New intelligent auto-fader plug-in unveiled
PSPaudioware's latest release offers automatic level adjustment and provides more detailed control than many...
16/06/2026
New performance-focused library announced
Crystal Pads is the latest addition to The Crow Hill Company's ever-growing product range, and according to th...
16/06/2026
Developed in partnership with Sequential
In recent years, GForce Software have branched into official emulations of classic hardware synths, delivering a ha...
16/06/2026
Designed specifically for live performance monitoring
beyerdynamic's latest announcement sees the company introduce an affordable in-ear monitoring syst...
16/06/2026
Official emulation celebrates iconic synth's 40th anniversary
Cherry Audio have just introduced Ensoniq ESQ-1, an official recreation of the 1986 polyph...
16/06/2026
Australians place growing trust in SBS News
16 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has been recognised as one of Australia's most trusted news providers, ran...
16/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz achieves highest number of GCF validated 3GPP NR NTN test cases ...
16/06/2026
Bydgoszcz to Become a Local Centre of Excellence for Advanced Rail Technologies....
16/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/06/2026
87 Percent of Creators Who Use Creative AI Say It Is Growing Their Business and ...
16/06/2026
Historic Zhuque-3 Reusable Rocket Test Mission Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton June 16, 2026
0 Comments
Apple Immersive Video puts view...
16/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/06/2026
Rise WIB, the award-winning advocacy group championing gender diversity and career progression across the broadcast and media technology industry, today announc...
16/06/2026
Limecraft today announced the availability of Limecraft 2026.4, the fourth of eight planned platform releases this year. The update introduces Team-Based Access...
16/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/06/2026
Free Program Supports IPMX Education from Foundational Concepts Through System and Network Design
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced t...
16/06/2026
Share your views on Screen Australia and the future of the industry 15 June 2026
Your feedback matters.
Following the instrumental insights provided in 2025,...
16/06/2026
Techtel Supports T-Motion RCCP-2A Controller Upgrade for Major Australian Broadc...
16/06/2026
Tuesday 16 June 2026
Record audiences tune in for opening weekend of ICC Women&...
16/06/2026
Every breakthrough AI model starts the same way: with a training run. The infrastructure running those training jobs shapes everything: how fast teams can itera...
15/06/2026
One of the more exciting internal video production divisions within a college at...
15/06/2026
The deal valued at $22 Billion is expected to close in the first half of 2027...
15/06/2026
Golf Channel and the Arnold Palmer Cup have announced a partnership to livestream the 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup on Golf Channel Mobile and GolfChannel.com. The tou...
15/06/2026
TikTok and Panini have announced a partnership to bring a digital collectible ca...
15/06/2026
Cosm and Monster Energy have announced the debut of the first full-dome immersiv...
15/06/2026
Real American Freestyle (RAF) and Fox Nation have announced an exclusive streaming agreement for three RAF international events, beginning with RAF Georgia on J...
15/06/2026
FanConnect has announced a partnership with Extreme Networks integrating FanConn...
15/06/2026
Ten Emerging Filmmakers Ages 18 to 25 Will Start Fellowship Year at Ignite Lab from June 14-19
LOS ANGELES, CA, June 15, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institut...
15/06/2026
Innovative three-band soft synth introduced
UVI's latest synth takes an interesting approach to synthesis, offering a trio of synth engines that each op...
15/06/2026
Applications now open for 2026
The Oram Awards have returned for 2026 to celebrate the unusual, unique and unfiltered creative worlds of women and gender-di...