CRAFT VIRTUAL PRODUCTION: CINEMATOGRAPHY
PRODUCTION
UDO KRAMER
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
CREDITS TV Projects include: 1899 (Netflix), Dark (Netflix) Film Projects include: Point Break, The Physician, The Voices, Measuring the World, Into the White
I start my designs using grayscale models in Rhino 3D. You can use the same data for the VR pre-viz with goggles, you can plug it into the real- time engine (Unreal) and then start to shape and texture it. If you use modern construction software, you can use the same data for milling the set pieces.
To explore the possibilities of the volume I place some rough geometric shapes into it, see how it feels, get the proportions right, and from there work into the detail.
I still build cardboard models of sets as well as use VR headsets. You can let people see how it works as a solution with the model. VR headsets help you to define camera angles and help you to get sizes right. But you can’t really check alignment issues between the physical build and the background projection - the VR world is too perfect.
VP design requires looking at spaces in a different way. In one aspect, the LED wall is a physical projection surface. You also need to
realise that the wall is like a window into another part of the room, and imagine that the wall doesn’t represent a projected image, but a projected space. The wall represents a space you need to think through and design through.
Use old classic theatre techniques for virtual production set design. The set can be built in sections to create depth and shadow, hiding things to create the sensation of a deep background.
Imagine the points where actors will interact. Make sure that these are safe in terms of the distance from the screen. Depending on the resolution of the LED screen and the set of lenses used, you should not go closer than four or five metres.
To glue the real world and virtual sets together it’s important to have the people working in the physical set and the virtual very closely aligned. For example we created a chandelier in a workshop, milling it and painting it to look real. The VFX team then replicated it in 3D using the same Rhino files as a basis and repeated the
design in the virtual background. The result is very convincing because it’s literally the same object.
The [virtual] surface will always stay out of focus, the LED wall can’t be in focus otherwise you would see the pixels Light is still the most important part of showing a set. You need to be aware where you can illustrate the light in the digital space and where you’re better off with shadow. That is connected with the ability to show colour and surfaces in the virtual space .
Trick the brain. A real wooden surface has a glossiness on top and grain behind that and your eye and your brain can read that it’s high-end wood panelling. If you transform that into virtual space, and it can only show a mix of three colours, you lose a lot of shades in between. Instead you can use an optical illusion to create a ‘bridge’. If you place some pieces of real wood in the physical setting, [and disguise the join with shading], the viewer’s eye will latch onto it, recognise it as wood and the brain will duplicate it onto the virtual wood out of focus in the background.
Winter 2021
televisual.com 59
Copyright: Alex Forge/NETFLIX
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
