Beeble has launched a free iOS app that turns your iPhone into a mini virtual production studio. Beeble Camera captures real-time tracking data with your video, then uploads it to the Beeble Web Platform for VFX processing.
What is Beeble?
Beeble AI is a web-based tool and set of AI technologies that transform your 2D videos into 3D-ready assets. By analyzing your footage, Beeble AI automatically removes backgrounds and generates physically based rendering (PBR) passes like normal and depth maps. This means that you can relight your subjects in a browser-based editor. You can also export the passes to 3D software like Blender and Unreal Engine.
Beeble Camera
The free iOS Beeble Camera app brings camera tracking to Beeble. It uses Apple’s LiDAR and ARKit to track your device’s movement while filming. Your footage is anchored to real-world space and sent directly to the Beeble platform for AI-powered VFX processing.
Once uploaded, your videos can be instantly processed into camera-tracked, rotoscoped, and relightable VFX passes.
Using Beeble Camera
The first step in using Beeble Camera is to move your device to scan your space. ARKit will automatically detect surfaces and spatial features. When it identifies the floor, a square-shaped focus indicator will appear. Next, you tap the floor grid to set your origin. This anchors the tracked scene to your space and ensures consistent camera tracking. Once setup is complete, you simply switch to Shoot mode and tap Record. While recording, your iPhone’s position and orientation, and depth data are tracked in real time using LiDAR and ARKit. You can also place a 3D model into your scene as a visual reference.
Uploading for processing
After you finish recording, simply tap Upload in the Beeble Camera app to send your footage to the Beeble Web. On the Beeble web platform, you can process your video into a camera-tracked, rotoscoped, relightable VFX pass with the Beeble AI. After processing, you can open your processed footage in Beeble Studio or export it to tools like Blender for further post-production.
“Making AI technology accessible is one of our biggest goals,” said Hoon Kim, CEO at Beeble. “Enabling anyone to capture footage with their phone and generate VFX passes is a breakthrough for indie creators and teams working on previs. At the same time, we’re scaling for studios, our next major update will deliver a local version of Beeble.”
What we think
If you shoot on an iPhone, the Beeble Camera app puts powerful VFX tools in your pocket. By utilizing Apple’s LiDAR and ARKit, it captures tracking data so that Beeble’s online AI tools can process your videos quickly and accurately. Beeble’s VFX tools are already impressive and will only improve with future iterations. It’s also great that you can try out the Beeble Camera app and online processing for free. That way, you can see if the technology meets your needs before committing to a monthly payment. The Beeble camera app could see more indie filmmakers turning to their iPhone cameras for VFX work.
Pricing and availability
The Beeble Camera app is available to download for free from the Apple App Store now. The Beeble web platform has a range of pricing options from free to $23.99 per month.
