‘Yearn to Vanish’ Process

The project 'Yearn to Vanish’ was first start with a concept to create a virtual image to use in Zoom meeting. To achieve it, a real-time video that uses motion capture needs to be created, and the video needs to be mapping onto Zoom meeting and replace the general camera used by the software.

The process start with Adobe Character Animator, a motion capture animation software. The animation, however, is a little bit different from general animating, which uses layer by layer image from Adobe Photoshop or Illustration to create a functional images group called 'puppet’. The parts of 'puppet’ can be operate separately in the Adobe Character Animator using motion tracking or pre-set key.

The image assets used in this project were generated by AI image generating software called Stable Diffusion. Although prompt is used in AI image generation, the process actually takes the most time of this project; It takes plenty tries to find prompts and seeds that can create images you are looking for. Also because the images output by Stable Diffusion usually lack of precision, they need to be edited in the photoshop in the late stage.

After the 'puppet’ has complete and it’s motion has been adjusted in Adobe CC, NDI Studio Monitor has been used to receive signals from the stream. In addition, OBS Studio, which provides a virtual camera as an camera input, reads signal from NDI and can be used as a Camera input in the Zoom meeting.