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We describe a process for compositing a live performance of an actor into a virtual set wherein the actor is consistently illuminated by the virtual environment. The Light Stage used in this work is a two-meter sphere of inward-pointing RGB light emitting diodes focused on the actor, where each light can be set to an arbitrary color and intensity to replicate a real-world or virtual lighting environment. We implement a digital two-camera infrared matting system to composite the actor into the background plate of the environment without affecting the visible-spectrum illumination on the actor. The color reponse of the system is calibrated to produce correct color renditions of the actor as illuminated by the environment. We demonstrate moving-camera composites of actors into real-world environments and virtual sets such that the actor is properly illuminated by the environment into which they are composited.
Debevec et al. (2002) studied this question.