Camera
We used a Blackmagic design Ursa mini pro. The biggest reason for this is the ports it provides with four SDI ports. Two being 12G-SDI of in and out. It also has reference in or timecode in. It finally has 3G-SDI out. For the lens, we had a 35mm lens. We believe a prime lens is best for this kind of setup. This is due to the zoom lens being more complex for focusing. A zoom lens moves so it goes in and out vs. a prime lens which will always be in one position, making focusing easier.
Input / Outputs
For the input and output of the camera, we had two cables connected to the camera, those cables being a 12G-SDI in and 12G-SDI out. The 12G-SDI in cable we believe was not needed, but to make sure we competed for the circuit of data, we added it to ensure we had a closed circuit of data.
Camera Movement
The possibility of movement is very dependent on the amount of space you have for your studio as well as how much of the space is green (please note it does not have to be green but recommended to use colors of green and blue) due to those being the limiting factors for movement. The amount of space you possess limits how much moment you can do because some dolls and jibs take a lot of space. The second factor of green space is key for compositing with the amount of space that is not colored green interfering with a shot making the background look odd in some places due to a clash of reality and green. Once you have found a space you like and have space for a solid color, you can plan what kind of tilts, pans, and trucks you want. We used a tripod with small pans and a shoulder mount for full movement around the scene. We would have liked to use a jib and a gimbal for more steady shots vs. the shoulder mount, where someone would have to carry around a camera making the steadiness dependent on the person who has the shoulder mount on.
Ability to focus
The camera hardware used to achieve focus was the addition of a focus puller to turn the camera's focus. We then added a 3D custom part to add to the focus puller to attach a vive tracker. We then connected the tracker to the computer. Finally, we inputted the different settings of the focus lens into the tracker, so if we turned the puller, it would also turn the tracker to allow the computer to match the same focus settings in the virtual world.
iKan
We also connected an iKan monitor to the camera. This was helpful because we could see the computer monitor side by side with the camera monitor. Allowing us to see the differences as well as have a better understanding of our space. We connected the Ikan monitor to the camera with an arm attachment and then connected the monitor with an HDMI cable to the computer.
Cords
We only connected three cables from the computer to the camera. Two cables being 12G-SDI cables going to SDI in and out ports in the camera. The third cable was an HDMI cable going to an iKan monitor to see the computer monitor next to the camera monitor.
