🎞️Depthkit
Last updated
Last updated
Depthkit is the next-generation creative toolset for Volumetric Filmmaking. It is software that uses 3D capture hardware to capture real world scenes as digital 3D imagery. This 3D imagery can be played back in the Looking Glass.
Depthkit is developed and maintained by our friends at Scatter.
Download Depthkit to export content to Unity or Depth Media Player. In the evaluation version, recording and exporting are limited by clip duration until you subscribe. More information on Depthkit's website.
Depthkit works with the following 3D capture sensors:
Kinect for Windows V2
Azure Kinect (requires Depthkit Pro)
Intel RealSense (limited experimental support)
It's worth noting that Depthkit also requires a computer with specs similar to what is required to drive the Looking Glass.
Once you've downloaded and installed Depthkit, connect your 3D capture sensor and open Depthkit.
The default settings are usually fine, but if you'd like to better understand these settings, you can review the Depthkit docs for each specific sensor:
When ready, press the "RECORD" in the bottom right to start recording
Once you've finished recording, you can review it by selecting the "Edit" tab on the top right of the screen or by double clicking the recording in the "Library" panel.
In the Edit window, use the Isolate window to select the depth range of your subject. Footage will have depth resolution loss when the range of depth (max - min) is beyond 1.5 meters, so keep your footage under this whenever possible.
Depthkit has some advanced tools for refining the imagery to clean up the edges of the depth data. While this requires some additional work (a green screen and video editing software), the resulting imagery is much cleaner and worth the effort.
To refine, use the "Refine" section just below "Isolate", and review Depthkit's documentation on the Refinement Workflow.
Once you've isolated your footage, open the "Export" panel at the bottom. Keep the default "Combined Per Pixel video" setting selected.
This will export 3 files:
*.mp4 - the video data
*.png - a 2D poster image of the video file
*.txt - a metadata file that describes the video file.
The exported footage can now be viewed in HoloPlay Studio or integrated into Unity using the Depthkit Unity Plugin.
