The adoption of Game-tech like Unreal is being increasingly reported in 2020 owing to its Covid-friendly perks like socially distant crew and less travel, allowing a large number of production departments to work remotely throughout the production process.
This explosion of interest for in-camera visual effects from production companies around the world is largely attributable to the pandemic-led lockdowns.
Here are the noted players in the industry who are utilising this technology in a variety of ways :-
Pixomondo
Having lent their VFX services to the likes of The Mandalorian and Game Of Thrones, Visual effects company is all set to open a new studio by the end of the year.
As it happens, virtual production has become the new bellwether of the industry, ushering a paradigm shift in content production. Pixomondo’s new virtual production studio’s offering ranges from equipment rental to on-set staff, as well as services that allow for the creation of 3D environments.
“It is fantastic to finally announce these new facilities, which represent an important milestone for PXO and a significant additional investment in our Toronto base,” shared PXO CEO Jonny Slow in a statement given to Green Screen.
Centroid India
A similar offering is what we witnessed by Centroid India who joined forces with Cineom, Green Rain, Liminal & Famous Studios, launching their virtual production pop-up R&D lab for the future of content creation.
Speaking to AnimationXpress, they informed, “The intention is to set up an LED wall studio with up to 4K resolution display and set the workflow pipelines right for the media & entertainment industry. We will be setting LED walls of the highest quality (this is the most premium model of LED walls and would be the first setup in India of such high quality). We will be using these LED walls to produce the final pixel content so the need for post-production and outdoor shoots reduce.”
Double Negative
Recently VFX giant DNEG also teamed up with Dimension to tinker with this game-tech and explore the limits they can push this technology in their services.
DNEG co-founder and creative director Paul Franklin shared, “It’s something that film-makers, programme makers, have just been longing for. The ability to control all the aspects of reality within a set that in every other respect can look completely convincing and photo-realistic. I think this is going to be a bit of a revolution in film-making.”
Industrial Light & Magic
Industrial Light & Magic had also announced the next phase of its global expansion plan for the company’s virtual production and StageCraft LED volume services.
The company’s existing StageCraft volume set at Manhattan Beach Studios (MBS) was used for the series The Mandalorian. A second permanent StageCraft volume set is slated for the studio to serve a variety of clients in the greater Los Angeles area. A third permanent StageCraft volume is being built at Pinewood Studios in London; a fourth large-scale custom volume at Fox Studios, Australia is to be used for Marvel’s upcoming feature Thor: Love and Thunder directed by Taika Waititi.
Stage Unreal
VFX veteran Srinivas Mohan who has to his credit groundbreaking projects like Bahubali and 2.0 shared a short clip created using in-camera visual effects.
Speaking at CII Summit FX about virtual production he shared, “VP is where physical and digital worlds meet. It lets directors, cinematographers and VFX teams to work on a physical set, but view and interact with virtual environments.” He also gave a glimpse of India’s first-ever virtual production-infused clip that he had created.
Virtual production essentially refers to visual effects that are done on set in real-time. Proving to be a panacea for the pandemic woes, this technology has enabled productions with safety and efficiency without travelling to foreign locations.
With VFX giants lapping up this technology, the gateways of nuanced ways of content production are opening up. This indeed is the dawn of a new era where technology will play the biggest role in the M&E space.
