A werewolf behind the glass

Jetblack Film Co brought Backbeat onto a permanent installation at Netflix House built around the series Wednesday. The brief: put a character in a window and make it feel like something is actually standing there.

The build

The pipeline started with actors. Green screen performances were captured and converted into motion capture data, preserving the timing and physicality of the real movement. That data was then retargeted onto a custom werewolf character rig, so the creature’s animation was driven by a human performance rather than keyframed from scratch.

The rig had to carry the transition too. The system supports continuous shifts between human and werewolf forms while holding performance continuity through the change, which is where retargeted mocap earns its keep.

All content was engineered for rear projection onto glass. Viewed from the guest side, the characters appear to exist just beyond the window, a lifelike depth effect that turns a pane of glass into a scene from the show.

What happened

This is not an event piece that struck after one night. It is a permanent install inside Netflix House, running every day, which changes the engineering standard: content, playback, and effect all have to hold up on repeat, unattended, indefinitely.