WELCOME TO A NEW AGE OF FILMMAKING

WELCOME TO A NEW AGE OF FILMMAKING

Virtual production is revolutionising filmmaking. Physical and digital worlds unite as live-action footage uses LED video wall real-time backgrounds. Hollywood productions such as the Mandalorian are entirely shot using this method and since the pandemic, the need for remote production and accessing unreachable locations can now be achieved through this method.

No longer do you have to shoot with a vast green background, imagining what the VFX might look like later in post. Instead, you can see the duality of unreal and real environments come together for a better understanding of the final image whilst on set. You can tweak in real-time, have endless golden hour, and with motion control enjoy complete repeatability of advanced camera moves with millimeter precision.

Virtual production is a fascinating way to make films; it creates a greater intimacy between subject, crew and environment, bridging the gap between real and unreal, naturally making the film more authentic and genuine.

OVERVIEW

Motion Control & Virtual Production

With everything that virtual production has to offer, the addition of high-speed motion control to the equation takes you to another dimension. This enables more advanced camera moves that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Anything you can do with motion control can be added to virtual production!

Motion control offers the advantages of completely repeatable moves, millimetre precision, and pre-programming. We also do pre-visualisation to show how the robot works with both the physical and digital worlds.

With regards to rendering delay, there’s normally a 7-12 frame delay with this technology when the camera moves within the Unreal Engine environment on the video wall. We have reversed the delay in our motion control programming path so we now have a 0-frame delay. This is a game changer as we can move the robot at any speed without waiting for the frustum to reach the camera field of view. Secondly, a smaller frustum means the rest of the LED wall provides the light source as intended. All of this allows for more creative control and possibilities on set.

Case Study

Click here to read the full behind-the-scenes process of making a motion control virtual production video for Carringtons Coffee Co.

Virtual Production Services

Our Virtual Production offer covers the full range of services, including:

  • Concept development - work with the Director on the vision and provide creative input on how we can support with our specialist tools

  • Pre-Visualisation - map out as a proof of concept how the shot(s) would look with accurate measurements to aid set builds

  • Virtual location scouting – capture, create and explore virtual locations for use in the Virtual Production process

  • Virtual camera – blocking and framing decisions can be explored in virtual locations using VR headsets and virtual cameras

  • Real-time mixed reality VFX – allowing in-camera set extensions and live compositing of animated and motion capture controlled characters into virtual locations

  • Unreal Engine build - choose between various environments and add, build and amend assets within the games engine

  • Physical set design - we can support with set builds and custom fabricate props, pneumatics and other visual engineering bespoke solutions

  • Motion Control - all our motion control services work with virtual production. Super high-speed, repeatable and advanced multi-axis moves with or without tracks

  • Edit/DIT - we offer full post production and VFX services