Virtually on track
Inspired by the successes of the use of LED backscreens used for some of the shots in the Planet Insect television series, we have invested in the latest camera tracking hardware and software to take this a step further and allow us to produce our own virtual productions at our studio in Clifton.
This is a technical demo that we set up in collaboration with camera operator Kevin Flay and television producer Steve Nicholls, in which we are looking at the possibilities of the technology when utilising the set-up for macro shots.
We're capturing in-camera visual effects on an LED screen not only to get final shots on set in camera from the creative perspective, but also to get dynamic lighting reflections and interaction onto the subject matter themselves - be it animals or acting talent.
There's many additional benefits over shooting on green: first off all shots are final in-camera, and the talent can react naturally to the environment as they cannot against a greenscreen. Second you don't have green spill, instead you get dynamic interactive lighting on the talent. And lastly the creative decisions are being made on location instead of months down the road in post production.
In order to effectively track the position of a camera in the virtual environment, we have several virtual tracking sensors around the studio space and on the camera sending geographic coordinates to the pc. An unreal engine background environment is generated to drop seamlessly into the background on the LED screens.