VIRTUAL PRODUCTION 2.0


PRODUCTION/POST


Production Centre (DMPC) at Pinewood Studios, showcasing dedicated VP hardware such as the B-Series Crystal LED (C-LED) display. This sports anti-reflection coating to avoid unwanted glare from lights or props, internal processing to reduce on-camera banding, and finer pixel pitch to reduce Moiré pattern visibility, as well as other features to tackle black level performance, and off-axis colour shift. Sony also offers the Virtual Production Tool Set, a free set of utilities designed to tackle many current problems with virtual production. “When you open Unreal


Engine there is a segment called actors, small tools that you can activate. The Toolset itself is a virtual actor,” says Daniel Listh, Cinema Business Development Manager at Sony. “Virtual Venice, part of the Camera and Display Plugin, is an actor you can activate


and use to plan your previs inside Unreal Engine. You can change your camera parameters and have an expectancy of what you’re going to achieve when you’re in the studio.” This plug-in also displays


a custom moiré alert, so that camera position and camera movement can be adjusted to avoid it. Listh says lots of other cameras could be actors within the Toolset, including PTZ cameras if you need a more automated workflow. “Unreal needs a lot of camera


parameters and it needs a fast readout time from the camera specs, the lens specs, and the position of the camera,” says Listh. “Currently we’re working with one camera, but we are developing tools so you can have multiple cameras inside a volume. You’ll switch between the cameras and the volume will


When it comes to LED displays, we’ve definitely reached virtual production 2.0


Ian Jones ANNA VALLEY


very quickly switch between the different camera angles, so you’ll be capturing that scene faster.” Another component is the


Color Calibrator, which compares calibration charts from within Unreal Engine and the image that the Venice captures from LED panels to allow operators to create and output a LUT correction. Lux MC provided systems


integration and tech support for


Sony’s Virtual Production Space, as well as the Arca media server that runs the 3D and 2D playback scenes from Unreal Engine. “We see the colour calibration tool as a real democratisation of technology,” says Gray. “While we have a full-time colour scientist on staff, it’s probably going to take half a day for us to gather the data sets we need, send it off, and get a LUT back.


Summer 2023 televisual.com 69


Anna Val ley


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