Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles are 3D models in South America

IN CASE any of you decide to head down under, to the land of Tango, asado, and increasingly also IT offshoring and development, you might spot something odd while switching channels on TV on a Saturday Night.

How about a computer-generated TV show sporting 3D animated models of the likes of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, George W. Bush, Silvio Berlusconi, Donald Rumsfeld - I suspect this one in particular won't be shown very much going forward - and Hugo Chavez, among of others?. If you spot that, you are watching a new episode -or maybe a re-run- of "El Club de los Famosos" - which could be translated as "The Celebrities' Pub". The show's starring characters are predictably local in nature, including Argentina politicians and TV figures, but with the regular addition of the international characters previously mentioned.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles as 3D animated models

On the technical side, the show's producers make use of the "motion capture" technique to effortlessly animate the 3D models that the local firm "El Mocap" created itself, including facial motions. The shows counts with the help of AMD, Adobe and nVidia, among other sponsors.

The episode showing Charles and Queen Elizabeth
is available on the firm's web site, among a handful of others

Good scripts, funny 3D models of World Leaders
Not only is it well done, it's also well scripted and a good clean laugh, with no low punches or cheap shots. Of course, people offended by any TV show which portrays a certain president dressed as a cowboy playing "World Police" would be better avoiding it. Even in the episode where the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles characters were introduced, it was all quite innocent, with the Argentine pub's bartender - a central character present in all episodes- portrayed as getting a free-ride along the Argentine government's delegation and then getting drunk and ruining a minister's official visit, annoying the Queen and Charles in the process, with predictable results.

Alejandro Perelman, co-founder of El Mocap

Surprisingly, the story plot not only makes Argentina politicians seem funny and/or laughable -some are in reality- but also includes World Leaders for an added kick. Ironically, the G.W. Bush character appeared more than once for the rejoice of viewers like this scribbler. It speaks well about the show's independence, because it airs on Saturday night, at prime time, and in a private TV station with a rather conservative political slant, to boot. The TV station's owner almost did cartwheels after getting a handshake with president GW Bush earlier this year at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, as if its Fox Newsesque reporting style was not blatant enough.

Rummy and George

I wonder if the people at the US embassy ever watched it, or perhaps the Bush Twins spotted the 3D animated version of their father on TV?. No, not likely.

Coalition of the Willing... to amuse

The people behind the 3D models
I had a chance to speak with Alejandro Perelman, one of the El Mocap's founders, at the 2006 edition of the " Caper" show, which is organized down here by and for the broadcast industry. Here is my brief interview with him:

FC: when did your company start venturing into the 3D animation field?
AP: EL MOCAP is a spin-off from Audio Video Sistemas (AVS), our company dedicated to selling and integrating solutions and equipment for TV production and animation. I started researching the available Motion Capture systems back in 1992 in my first visit to SIGGRAPH, but the costs were very much out of reach for the average budget in our local marketplace.

In 1998, with the consolidation of Kaydara (later acquired by Alias and recently by Autodesk) and its Filmbox product which until that point only ran on expensive SGI workstations- the solution was first presented for Windows NT, and it opened up a whole new horizon for building complete MoCap solutions with prizes below the $200,000 mark. So we decided to bring the first Motion Capture system to Argentina with the idea of introducing the technology and sell services to the 3D production companies.

With the financial crisis and years-long economic recession we decided back in yr 2000, having the equipment in our possession, to start offering services and we participated for the first time in broadcast TV programmes. In 2001 we developed a face tracker - to capture facial motions - which we have sold to customers in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. By 2005 we decided to start creating our own contents, and the new era began.

FC: Can you tell me a little bit about the people involved in El Mocap?
AP: The founding partners are Mariano Mena, a 3D animation specialist, Adrián Perelman, who handles the administration, and myself, an almost-electronics engineer and a specialist in automation technologies, IT and TV.

FC: Who had the idea of this TV show's storyline and format?
AP: It was an idea by Mariano Mena, and finally it was my brother Adrian who shaped the final format of the series.

FC: Does the company do its own story scripts?
AP: It's all our own work, our main writer is a talented fellow named Javier Morelos.

FC: I'm intrigued by the origin of the 3D models of international characters, say, Donald Rumsfeld, George W... do you use 3D models created by other companies, or did you create all characters internally?
AP: All models were created by us

FC: How long does it take for your company to create each episode?
AP: Every episode takes about 10 days of work.

FC: ... and to create each 3D model from scratch?
AP: Usually between 2 and 4 weeks.

FC: Are you selling your works and services abroad?
AP: We're working on that, but there are no examples that I can name right now.

FC: Have you heard from people outside Argentina watching or commenting about your show?
AP: When we show our TV programme abroad we have had a very good impact, and when we comment that we are producing close to 80 minutes of animation per month, it raises eyebrows even among the connoisseurs, because very few animation production companies have that level of production ability. This is bringing us newer business.

FC: Does the TV station, given its political philosophy, influence in any way or restrict your scripts?
AP: Besides some comment about suggesting we don't portray some character, the TV station has given us full freedom to create our scripts.

FC: On what hardware/software platform do you do your Mocap and 3D rendering?
AP: We use a mix of Maya, 3DS Max, Motionbuilder, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, ProTools, Final Cut Pro, etc.

FC: I was surprised to see so many logos from IT firms - AMD, Adobe, nVidia, for starters, sponsoring your animation TV show. What is the relation with them?
AP: Those firms allowed us to trade advertising space with licences to use their tools. I know it's not the usual approach, but our contacts on the marketplace coupled with the unique nature of our product has allowed us to obtain these commercial trades or "exchanges".

FC: So you really use AMD, Adobe software, etc...
AP: Yes, but our choice for instance of AMD and Nvidia was made before we found them as sponsors, and was done based on our technical analysis of the performance of each product. In the case of software, on key processes we use the best software available, in other cases, we have alternatives available so each artist can choose which tool he prefers to use.

FC: thanks for your time, and good luck with ElMocap. I just hope your TV programme does not cause any international problems with the Royal Family. µ

L'INQS
El Mocap: Gallery of 3D characters
History of Motion Capture
Can Digital Actors Act? A New Facial Motion-Capture Paradigm
Official web site of the British Monarchy
The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages
Elizabeth II on the Wikipedia
Electricity Goes Out At Queen Elizabeth's Special Ceremony
Queen Elizabeth II calls soccer players 'prima donnas'
INQ's Expocomm 2006 .AR coverage
India faces challenge from South America
BusinessWeek: can Latin America challenge India?