THE TERM, THE PROCESS, THE DELIVERY
Cyberscanning
Cyberscanning is the full-body scan of a performer for visual effects — the capture that becomes a digital double. SCANable has been doing it for feature film and episodic for two decades, in our own CyberSCAN™ studios, and we bring the studio to your stage.
[ 150+ CAM / SINGLE-INSTANT FIRE / ~60s WITH TALENT ]
SRC / CYBERSCAN / SUBJECT IN THE ARRAY
DEFINITION
What a cyberscan actually is.
A cyberscan is a photogrammetric capture of a whole human being — body, wardrobe, face, and hair — recorded from every angle at once and rebuilt as measurable 3D geometry with photographic surface detail. Productions order one so a performer’s likeness can be doubled, replaced, aged, cloned into a crowd, or put somewhere the human couldn’t safely go.
Cyberscanning is that process as a service, and at SCANable it happens in our CyberSCAN™ Studios: getting the array to the production, getting the performer through it fast, and getting a clean asset back to VFX. It sits alongside the two other things a show typically needs scanned — sets and locations for tracking and extension, and props and vehicles for hero coverage.
THE PROCESS
One instant. No holding still.
The core problem with scanning a person is that people move. Any process that sweeps a sensor across a subject, or asks them to hold a pose for even a few seconds, is fighting breathing, blinking, and micro-drift — and it shows up later as a soft mesh and a smeared texture.
Our array solves it by removing the time axis entirely. 150+ synchronized cameras fire in a single instant, so every one of them sees the identical moment. There is no hold, no sweep, and no drift. In practice a performer walks in from set, gets scanned twice — the second held as a backup — and walks back out in about a minute.
On the same sitting we can capture the passes VFX asks for downstream: cross-polarized for clean albedo with the specular removed, specular for the surface response, and a three-point beauty pass. When a shot needs a double that survives any lighting environment, we add OLAT capture (one light at a time) so the asset can be relit, not baked.
CAPTURE → SOLVE → DELIVERY
WHERE IT HAPPENS
The studio travels. The talent doesn’t.
Conventionally, cyberscanning meant sending the cast to a fixed facility — which means travel days, per diem, scheduling against a shooting day, and a real chance the scan never happens at all. Our Mobile CyberSCAN™ Studios invert that. The array lives in a self-contained trailer that parks at your location, is capture-ready in as little as 15 minutes once on set, and mobilizes nationwide from crews in six cities.
That changes what is practical to scan. When the studio is at basecamp, day players and background get scanned, not just the leads, and wardrobe gets captured while the hero costume still exists instead of months later from photographs.
[ 6 CITIES / NATIONWIDE MOBILIZATION / ~15 MIN TO CAPTURE-READY ]
FIG.01 / THE STUDIO ARRIVES ON LOCATION
WHAT VFX RECEIVES
An asset, not a folder of frames.
- Scan geometryDense mesh at true scale, oriented and named to your convention.
- Texture setCross-polarized albedo plus specular and beauty passes.
- Backup scanEvery sitting is captured twice; the second is held in reserve.
- Retopo on requestProduction-ready topology and UVs via our in-house modeling team.
Raw scan data is a starting point, not a deliverable. In house we take a cyberscan through retopology, UVs, and render-ready asset builds, and into 4D volumetric capture when a shot needs performance, not pose.
WHEN A SHOW NEEDS IT
The usual reasons a cyberscan gets ordered.
- Digital doublesStunts, wire work, and anything unsafe or impossible for the performer.
- Face replacementPutting the actor’s likeness onto a stunt or body double.
- De-aging referenceA measured record of the face as it is today.
- Crowd systemsScanned background performers instead of generic library agents.
- Wardrobe & costumeCaptured while the hero build still exists.
- Continuity insuranceA permanent record of the cast as they appeared during production.
FIG.02 / OLAT — RELIGHTABLE, NOT BAKED
PROOF
Two decades of credits.
SCANable has scanned cast, sets, and vehicles for feature film, episodic, commercials, and games across more than two hundred productions. The portfolio is the short version; the full service list covers everything that happens before and after the scan.
CyberSCAN™ and Mobile CyberSCAN™ Studios are trademarks of SCANable.
RELATED SERVICES
SCAN DAY
Get the array to your stage.
Tell us the location, the scan window, and how many performers. We mobilize from six cities.