The Photometric 3D Head Scanning Systems for Lifelike Digital Humans
The ESPER LightCage is the industry's most advanced head and facial 3D capture system, engineered to conquer the uncanny valley by capturing the fundamental data of the human head. Create emotionally resonant, photorealistic digital humans with unparalleled speed and scientific accuracy.
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The Industry Standard for 3D Head Scanning
Pore-Level Details
True-to-Life Reflectance
Instant, Flawless Capture
Beyond Believable. Capture Reality.
Creating truly believable digital characters is more than an artistic challenge—it’s a technological one. Traditional 3D face scanner methods that only capture geometry leave artists to spend countless hours manually “de-lighting” textures and recreating skin properties through approximation.
This inefficient, guesswork-based workflow is the source of the plastic-like appearance that fails to connect with audiences, breaking the illusion of reality.
Photometric Solution: Capture the Ground Truth of Skin
The ESPER LightCage moves beyond the limitations of traditional 3D facial capture. It employs a sophisticated, science-driven methodology to capture not only high-resolution geometry but also the precise, intrinsic material properties of skin.
The result is a set of mathematically perfect, production-ready texture maps that provide the ultimate foundation for photorealism, empowering your artists to focus on creativity and performance, not manual clean-up.
How It Works: From Capture to Character
During an instantaneous capture, programmable, polarised lights illuminate the subject from every conceivable angle. By analysing the subtle variations in light and shadow across the skin, our software calculates the surface normal for every single pixel. This unlocks a level of detail and material accuracy that geometry-only approaches can never achieve.
Instantaneous Capture, Pipeline-Ready Assets
The entire 360-degree head capture is completed in a fraction of a second, minimising time in the rig. Cameras and lights captures a full range of expressions in a fraction of a second. This instantaneous 3D head scan freezes micro-expressions, providing the ultimate level of realism for your digital humans.
Trusted by Industry Leaders
The resulting neural assets allow for photorealistic re-lighting and novel view synthesis, making them ideal for virtual production, AI training, and advanced simulation. Move beyond simple textured meshes and start creating assets that respond to light as they would in the real world.
Experience Uncompromised Data
Get hands-on with our raw scan data and see what’s possible for your next project. Our sample pack includes:
- High-resolution 3d head scan with 16k de-lit texture maps.
- Full-body scan with clean, production-ready topology for digital human creation.
- Photometric stereo data for unparalleled surface information.
A Complete Ecosystem for Flawless Data
Geodesic Dome: 360° Structural Perfection
The geodesic sphere provides the perfect structure for mounting cameras and lights, ensuring complete, even coverage of the subject for a perfect 3D head scan.
High-Resolution Cameras: Unrivaled Image Quality
We intergrate high-resolution cameras, leveraging their large sensors for superb texture detail for deeep, programmatic control over every setting.
Integrated power distribution
ESPER MultiFlash lights, ESPER ControllerBox, LightCageController software a multi region power supply unit and all connection cabling.
LightCageController software
Comes bundled with the LightCage – allowing the programming and control of each lighting unit and the accurate synchronisation with capture system.
Technical Specification:
Purpose-Built for Your Needs
If your project requires a non-standard solution, we can help. We specialise in designing and building fully custom and modular systems for any application. Let's discuss your specific requirements.
Solutions for Demanding Industries
From blockbuster films to cutting-edge AI, discover the groundbreaking work owith ESPER systems.