vETC

SIGGRAPH 2022

August 8, 2022Vancouver, BC, Canada

Presented during SIGGRAPH 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada

The program's focus included On-Set Virtual Production (OSVP), In-Camera VFX (ICVFX), virtual production, adaptive production, immersive media, and virtual beings. Speakers presented concepts, workflows, business models, and case studies showcasing these disruptive and enabling technologies.

Some highlights include the Planar and Orbital Virtual Studios presentation “How to Push the Capabilities of Filming on an LED Wall,” Sony Pictures’ Daniel De La Rosa breaking down the making of “Killian’s Game,” Foundry’s “Comandante” Near Real-Time Workflows for Virtual Production, and several talks focusing on aspects of ICVFX from various industry experts.

This marked the sixth in our series designed to fulfill the desire to populate an independent conference for the emerging tech topics while implementing the virtual capabilities by expanding beyond traditional physical conference attendees. One fortuitous outcome of the pioneering virtual series is that it helped set the stage for an industry-wide model necessary during the pandemic. vETC has advanced to cover a wide breadth of mainstream topics, providing great insight into early-stage technologies in a TED-talk-style platform.

Watch the complete program

Presentations

Reducing Complexity on Set (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

Powering a virtual production stage with Disguise simplifies technical challenges and puts control back into the hands of storytellers. The presentation is an overview of the Disguise ecosystem and real world use cases.

Addy Ghani

VP, Virtual Production

Disguise

How to Push the Capabilities of Filming on an LED Wall (Day 1 - Tuesday, Aug 9th)

In choosing a virtual production solution for filming, there are key factors for success. We discussed the advantages & challenges to shooting with a LED wall. At Orbital Virtual Studios, we're expanding what's possible on a soundstage: from controlling the positioning of the sun and time of day, to bringing any location, real or otherwise-into the studio. Learn more about this powerful production tool from the team advancing it into the future.

Carl Cummings

Technical Director, Virtual Production

Planar

Chris Cope

Co-Founder

Orbital Virtual Studios

Leonidas Jaramillo

Visual Consultant / DP

Orbital Virtual Studios

Leah Robson

Virtual Production Producer

Orbital Virtual Studios

LED Volume Design Panel (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

Panel Discussion: Lux Machina, NEP Virtual Studios, Prism Stages

Wyatt Bartel

VP, Production

Lux Machina Consulting

Barbara Ford Grant

President

Prism Stages

Philip Galler

CTO

NEP Virtual Studios

Kris Murray

CTO

Lux Machina Consulting

Worlds Collide - Virtual Production in Film, Advertising, Animation & Games (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

MPC is well known for big productions such as The Jungle Book and The Lion King, however, is not common knowledge that Technicolor Creative Studios is a powerhouse of brands, including companies such as The Mill, Technicolor Games and Mikros animation. This means we are involved in a myriad of different types of projects, for advertising, animation and games using real-time technologies for visualization, virtual location scouting, performance capture, AR set extensions, virtual sets, and more. Virtual Production has played a vital role in reinforcing Technicolor’s leading position in the industry as the preferred creative partner for storytellers globally.

Mariana Acuna

SVP, Global Virtual Production and On-Set Services

Technicolor

Unity Professional Artistry Tools (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

During this session, Ron Martin from Unity Technologies presented an overview of the Professional Artistry Tools including Virtual Production, Speedtree, Ziva Dynamics, and UDAM. Ron outlined the educational program for Universities and Colleges called The Unity Academic Alliance, with a focus on EdLab, the online portal for Educators.

Ron Martin

Community and Education Manager

Unity

Jointly Optimizing Color Rendition & In-Camera Backgrounds in an RGB Virtual Production Stage (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

While the LED panels used in virtual production systems can display vibrant imagery with a wide color gamut, they produce problematic color shifts when used as lighting due to their peaky spectral output from narrow-band red, green, and blue LEDs. In this work, we present an improved color calibration process for virtual production stages which ameliorates this color rendition problem while also passing through accurate in-camera background colors. We do this by optimizing linear color correction transformations for 1) the LED panel pixels visible in the field of view of the camera, 2) the pixels outside the field of view of the camera illuminating the subjects, and, as a post-process, 3) the pixel values recorded by the camera. The result is that footage shot in an RGB LED panel virtual production stage can exhibit more accurate skin tones and costume colors while still reproducing the desired colors of the in-camera background.

Chloe LeGendre

Sr Research Scientist

Netflix

Connecting Virtual Production to the Cloud (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

Virtual Production is advancing, and new methods for collaborative workflows and data mobility are shifting in support. The infrastructure for production stages and VFX companies is adapting to allow for secure, high bandwidth and “invisible” means of bringing optimized tools to sets and creative teams. Learn how cloud services are reflecting the needs of content creators, and how on-demand connectivity is bridging the gap.

Lisa Gerber

Director, M&E

PacketFabric

Matt Herson

WW Sr Solution Architect Leader

AWS

Tom Thudiyanplackal

Producer & Technologist

ETC@USC

Challenges of Volume Control (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

Virtual Production is currently deployed on major film, event and television productions around the world. Learn from the creators and operators themselves on real-life challenges, advantages and workflow recommendations for ongoing virtual production sets.

Cassidy Pearsall

Applications Engineer

Arri

JT Rooney

President

XR Studios

Sam Slade

Engine Supervisor

Voluminous

Jay Spriggs

Co-Founder & CTO

Voluminous

Sarah Thomas Moffat

DP / Founder / CEO

Balanced Media Enterprises

Cinecode: PreVis for TV’s Tightest Schedules (Day 1 - Tuesday, August 9th)

Cinecode, the virtual production division of DigitalFilm Tree (DFT), has served story tellers on Ted Lasso, Dave on FX, The Umbrella Academy, NCIS: Los Angeles and many more. In this presentation Andrea Aniceto-Chavez, Cinecode’s Lead Producer, will unpack the differences and varied needs across PreVis, TechVis and beyond. From Cinematography to Stunts, Costume to Set Design, Cinecode by DFT re-imagines the power of PreVis for Television schedules and budgets, opening a new world of possibilities to all.

Andrea Aniceto-Chavez

Lead Producer

Cinecode

Achieving Final Pixel (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

Final Pixel CEO and co-founder Michael McKenna shares how they successfully realize 'Final Pixel' on-set by delivering a global real-time Virtual Art Department for clients - including the new partnership with Hogarth, the WPP global creative content production company. Learn about the consolidated end-to-end pipeline and workflow in pre-production that combines a new, unique, creative process with a deep understanding of virtual production stage technology & possibility - all supported by remote workflows underpinned by AWS. Gain insight into how the Final Pixel Academy is inspiring the next generation of talent to support this, including teaching 500 students aged 11-18 how to build their first metahuman.

Michael McKenna

CEO / Co-Founder

Final Pixel

Mapping Resources for Camera & Lens Metadata (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

About a year ago SMPTE started an industry collaboration around On-Set Virtual Production. Jim gives a brief overview of its progress to date with a focus on the group he chairs on improving the interoperability of camera and lens metadata. Then Sam gives an update on closely related work a group in the VES has been doing on a survey and his work on an OpenEXR mapping for camera and lens metadata.

Jim Helman

CTO

MovieLabs

Sam Richards

VFX Design Manager

Disney

Comandante: Near Real Time Workflows for Virtual Production (Day 2, Wednesday, August 10th)

This talk presents Foundry's Near Real-Time (NRT) workflow to immediately improve the quality of an In-Camera VFX (ICVFX) shots, bridging on-set and post-production, allowing VFX to start on-set as soon as the director says ‘cut’. The NRT workflow brings together key advancements in lens calibration, machine learning and real-time rendering to deliver higher quality composites of what was just shot to the filmmakers, in a matter of minutes.

Dan Caffrey

VP Specialist

Foundry

Mairéad Grogan

ML Research Engineer

Foundry

Niall Redmond

Lead Research Engineer

Foundry

Dan Ring

Head of Research

Foundry

Fathead: End-to-End Workflow (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

An overview of novel virtual production pipeline innovations and technology interoperability tests for the short film Fathead conducted by the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California (USC) and a deep dive into the virtual humans' pipeline.

Tom Thudiyanplackal

Producer & Technologist

ETC@USC

Transforming Version Management & Collaboration for Film & Television (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

The rise of virtual production has suddenly introduced the world of VFX to the importance of version control and the most innovative studios are learning to fully leverage it's potential. By combining over 25 years of refinement in the gaming industry with the creativity and innovation of VFX and virtual production teams, version control and asset management is revolutionizing the way we create and collaborate in the film industry. This session looks at real-life workflows that leverage Perforce to version and organize their digital assets, speed up iteration, and enable cooperation across teams and studios.

Jase Lingren

Solutions Engineer

Perforce

Delivering Markerless Motion Capture at Scale (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

How to capture performances - from a sports game, a concert, or a stage performance - in high fidelity, and what does it mean for the media & entertainment industry?

Jamie Allan

M,E&B Industry Lead

Nvidia

Chris Battson

Sr Development Director

Addy Ghani

VP, Virtual Production

Diguise

Niall Hendry

Head of Partnerships & Delivery

Move.ai

Vincent Hung

Animation Director

XR Studios (Day 2 - Wednesday, August 10th)

Join XR Studios President J.T. Rooney for a discussion on executing interactive productions using immersive technologies. XR Studios is a leading-edge digital production company specializing in immersive technology for entertainment. Known for producing Extended Reality (XR) and Augmented Reality (AR) workflow solutions, XR Studios executes innovative experiences for some of the most renowned artists and brands across the globe. From concept to completion, XR Studios is a premier, full service solutions provider led by a network of creatives and industry leaders at the core of mixed reality technology for broadcast, live, and virtual productions. Find out more at xrstudios.live.

JT Rooney

President

XR Studios

From ICVFX to Games - Bridging Two Worlds (Day 3 - Thursday, August 11th)

Felix Jorge, CEO and Co-Founder, Happy Mushroom, breaks down assets of FatHead and how assets can transaction between VAD and game engines.

Felix Jorge

CEO and Co-Founder

Happy Mushroom

Virtual Production - Technology and Creative Supervising (Day 3 - Thursday, August 11th)

A discussion on virtual production. How real-time technology and art are changing rapidly and how Lux Machina is approaching the use of tools and techniques to make VP projects more successful.

Jason Bayever

Director, Virtual Productions

Lux Machina

Philip Galler

CTO

NEP Virtual Studios

Kristin Turnipseed

Virtual Production Supervisor

Lux Machina

Killians Game - Sony Virtual Production Strategy (Day 3 - Thursday, August 11th)

Sony will break down the making of Killans game, tools, tech and strategy around virtual production for on set Virtual Production.

Daniel De La Rosa

VP, Post Production

Sony Pictures Entertainment