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The Third Floor Launches Cyclops 5.2

09.26.2023 — Categories:

Cyclops 5.2 is the newest release of The Third Floor’s iOS AR Simulcam App for visualizing VFX components from a handheld tablet or phone. More than a tool just for VFX teams, Cyclops continues to offer multipurpose AR and VCam capabilities that directors, cinematographers, art directors, actors, stunt departments and other personnel can easily access to see digital storytelling elements in context while on set, when scouting, or in the office.
Cyclops gives creatives and crew in-context views of digital characters and virtual sets during live-action and camera blocking.  Here, Cyclops is used to view Vhagar during rehearsals for Season 1 of HBO’s House of the Dragon.

A significant update for Cyclops, Version 5.2 delivers a sleek interface that streamlines the user experience and makes it faster and easier to access all of Cyclops’ features. In addition, there are numerous new capabilities, including Chromakey, Color Correction, Outliner, Improved Rendering and Performance, iOS Sharing, and more.

UI/UX Redesign

Cyclops has a professional new UI with improved UX to provide quick and easy access to features. The Home screen has been removed, and Cyclops now starts up directly in Asset Mode. Directly from the new Main Menu, you can switch modes and access Preferences, DLCs, Help, and more. All tool drawers have been moved to the left-hand side, and all tools have a consistent look and workflow.

Chromakey

Cyclops now has a flexible real-time Chromakey tool that can be used in two ways. You can have a “live” plate 3D-plane in the world and set it at a distance from the camera. And/or you can apply the chromakey effect to the Holdout geometry in the scene. These two methods allow you to do sophisticated 3D composites, including shots where you want to garbage mask off an unwanted part of the shot not covered by greenscreen.

You can combine the Chromakey tool with the People Depth Compositing in Cyclops to allow real actors to walk behind and in front of CG objects. And of course, there’s a Despill tool included to help with spill cleanup.

Advanced Rendering

Cyclops now uses Unreal’s advanced Mobile Deferred Renderer for best-in-class graphics. Cyclops supports real-time moveable shadows, an increased number of lights, improved reflections, normal maps, and more.  Everything in Cyclops now looks better and you can better visualize how on-set lighting will affect CG objects in the scene.

Updated to Unreal 5.2

Cyclops 5.2 is now built upon the latest version of Unreal Engine. Going forward, Cyclops version numbers will sync with UE version numbers to denote which version of UE Cyclops is compatible with.

Want to find out more? Check out our Cyclops Website!
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