VFX TRENDS
enhanced by its chief gifts of interactive practical lighting and directly representative motion picture backgrounds the screens display in-camera for shooting purposes. For sci-fi and fantasy projects these advances are major and practical additions. Now for the first time and as a matter of course, designers will be directly participating in the final digital completion of their own work on a project. This alone is a significant and long overdue change. “Virtual production tech isn’t appropriate or practical for every genre. If a project is set in the present day and requires direct interaction with a story’s environment as a Mission: Impossible or Bond movie would, the tech offers little benefit. Medium to small-budget projects will also have difficulty accessing the tech as it comes with a healthy price tag, both for the stage setup itself and the lead time required to create digital assets for playback. Neither is the tech a magic bullet that will remedy layers of problems we face going back into production in the age of COVID. Nevertheless, The Mandalorian-style virtual production is a visual qualityenhancing gift to top tier-budgeted projects that traditionally require a load of bluescreen/greenscreen stage environments. I don’t imagine many on a production team would be sad to lose those grating and problematic chromakey drops once and for all.” Scott Meadows, Head of Visualization and Virtual Production, Digital Domain “We recently had a client in the middle of reshoots when COVID hit, forcing us to rethink how best to proceed. We previously completed the previs for this sequence, so we already had a virtual environment that could easily be integrated into Unreal Engine. We had several props and CG characters, and our team put together some blocking animation that we added to Unreal Engine. Within a day, we had everything we needed for the filmmakers to
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION TAKES A BIG STEP FORWARD By TREVOR HOGG
TOP: The Mandalorian is viewed as a major breakthrough for virtual production with many other projects trying to emulate the success of the series. (Image courtesy of Disney) OPPOSITE BOTTOM: LED walls were used for subtle environmental effects in Westworld. (Image courtesy of HBO)
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do whatever they wanted within the scene. For the actual shoot there were only seven people present, with the director, editor, VFX Supervisor and Animation Supervisor all calling in remotely. We broadcast the camera operator feeds to them, so they saw the virtual camera shots in real-time. Afterwards, we scheduled follow-up shoots with someone in a mocap suit to provide a more nuanced performance. “Filmmakers love to iterate though, so we’ve modified our pipeline to allow them to do that throughout, and even after virtual production. We are going to spend more time in the game engines long-term. Right now, Digital Domain is one of only a few other studios that have both the pipeline and the staff to manage everything correctly [and efficiently], plus we also have the advantage of a full motion library created over time on our mocap stage. The goal with all of this is to design sequences that flow well and are visually compelling. Real-time is great for this, and it gives you the feeling of being on set and/or finding a shot on the day. As virtual production becomes more accessible and in-demand, it won’t be treated as a separate part of the filmmaking process, but another creative tool we use to produce great work.” Sam Nicholson, CEO and Founder, Stargate Studios “Virtual production is the new Wild West of the film business where the world of game developers and film producers are merging. From photoreal avatars to flawless virtual sets and extensive Unreal worlds, the global production community has embraced the amazing potential of virtual production as a solution to many of the production challenges facing us during the current global pandemic. “The convergence of volumetric imaging, spatial tracking, scalable LED displays and extensive real-time visualization tools,
Traditionally, movies and television shows have been divided into three stages consisting of pre-production, production and post-production; however, the lines are blurring with the advancements in virtual production. A great deal of interest was generated with what Jon Favreau was able to achieve utilizing the technology to produce The Mandalorian. Interest turned into necessity when the coronavirus pandemic restricted the ability to shoot global locations. If you cannot go out into the world then the next best thing is to create a photorealistic, computer-generated environment that can be adjusted in real-time. Will virtual production be a game-changer that will have lasting impact? Industry leaders weigh in. Scott Chambliss, Production Designer, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 “One of the best qualities of our medium is its essential plasticity. By replacing traditional bluescreen/greenscreen tech with LED display walls, a stage working environment is dramatically
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