New Ground Breaking
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BREAKING NEW GROUND IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY VICON.COM/VPROD At the heart of every Following the Emmy Award-winning project that ILM has utilized season one, the latest season of The TURNING VISION performance capture for over Mandalorian pushes the thrilling ride INTO REALITY the last 25+ years lies a core for fans to new heights — all thanks technology that helps push the to ILM’s ground-breaking StageCraft THROUGH TECHNOLOGY boundaries of visual effects: technology that achieves a giant leap Vicon motion capture systems. forward in filming techniques. It is no exaggeration to say that the Working with Vicon, ILM has evolved Virtual production also offers several Everything from VR scouting, collaboration between ILM and Vicon With The Mandalorian, well beyond traditional VFX motion filmmakers Jon Favreau and logistical benefits as it allows for previsualization, performance capture has helped redefine the extent of our capture to become a world leader in Dave Filoni have been explicit in more iterations of scenes or shots and in-camera VFX using giant LED imagination. virtual production. their desire to “bring Star Wars to be created with fewer personnel walls can make use of Vicon technology The latest example of this work is to the screen in a new way.” in a shorter space of time, therefore in some way. one of ILM’s most challenging and With the scope and ambition of the significantly reducing production costs. One of the biggest leaps forward has ambitious projects ever – The Mandalorian. series only increasing on the second Allowing the creative team and the been real-time capture in the volume season it was crucial that the actors actors themselves to better visualize itself, which requires high-resolution and viewers not only experience a the environments on shoot day cameras and large frustums. The latest huge range of new worlds — but truly is paramount. Production teams Vicon hardware has enabled ILM to believe in the reality of the worlds previously had to imagine the final accurately track cameras on set while being created and are able to build scene while using green screens to moving about no matter if the camera emotional connections with the shoot, with visuals applied in post- is handheld, on a crane, a Steadicam, characters. production after the fact. or some other support equipment. This This ambition has required new filming ILM has invested heavily in leading has helped to create a 360 degrees techniques to be rapidly developed the way with these techniques – and virtual production environment at large and deployed — chief among them projects such as The Mandalorian scale such as ILM’s pioneering virtual production techniques including and George Clooney’s feature, The StageCraft LED volumes, enabling camera tracking for in-camera VFX Midnight Sky has been a tour de force them to capture a whole new category (ICVFX). of just what is possible with virtual of shots while successfully blending photoreal visual effects with live action, Virtual production in its simplest form production. which previously wasn’t possible. is the merger of physical and digital Motion capture technology in a worlds. Through a combination of virtual production pipeline is a crucial immersive technologies like virtual component in making these endeavors reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), a reality. Vicon’s technology has as well as ILM StageCraft and real-time allowed ILM to recreate the universe of render engines, virtual production Star Wars in compressed time with 60 allows filmmakers to view their projects different live environments, which they live on set to quickly react and make can use over and over again. changes as needed, rather than having to wait until post-production. SETS EXTENDING OUT OF THE CAPTURE VOLUME Back of the Normal LED Volume Additional Camera LED Panels tracking towers outside the Volume Audio Camera on a crane arm Focus Puller Video Village Active set outside Stage rise the normal Volume for the crew MAKING THE UNLEASHING IMPOSSIBLE, A NEW POSSIBLE FOR WAVE OF 25 YEARS CREATIVITY For Rachel Rose, ILM R&D If a solution doesn’t exist, we’ll solve it With ILM’s StageCraft virtual production Supervisor who oversees the studio’s on our own, but we’re not looking to technology, ILM and Vicon have developments for virtual production, reinvent a solution that’s already there. realized many filmmakers’ vision for the success of The Mandalorian and all We are incredibly lucky that we have creating fully digital worlds that are as ILM projects requiring motion capture a long-standing relationship with such close to reality as possible. owes much to the collaboration: an innovative company like Vicon. The Mandalorian is just the start of The absolute best thing I can say a new wave of creativity that will be “Since day one Vicon has enabled us is that with Vicon I have a powerful unleashed as film directors explore new to do things that were never possible performance capture system that just ways to take advantage of the virtual before — and that’s as true today as it works.” production techniques pioneered by was in the 90s. Vicon’s technology and ILM and Vicon. hardware have constantly advanced As we have seen in recent projects, throughout our relationship, and the the possibilities within highly accurate processing power available to us virtual production pipelines are endless. with their technology is like no other. Rose concludes, We can deploy and always count on Vicon’s tech as it’s such reliable, robust hardware requiring only a quick “As excited as I am calibration.” about what’s been accomplished by our “ILM always looks to collaborate StageCraft team and the with those who are making best-in- visionary filmmakers we class software/hardware solutions for have been fortunate to problems we’re solving. collaborate with, we’ve only just scratched the surface of what we believe the system is capable of. What’s really exciting is where filmmakers will lead us next.” While the landscape of film and TV is constantly evolving, it is certain that whatever happens next, motion capture and virtual production will play a key role in innovation. High-quality tracking technology, offering ultimate precision, is central to enabling the advances that will allow creatives to make leaps and bounds forward and to continue to revolutionize the entertainment industry. VICON.COM/VPROD For more information visit our website or contact us. www.vicon.com/vprod VICON DENVER VICON LA VICON OXFORD 7388 S. Revere Parkway 3750 S. Robertson Boulevard, 6, Oxford Industrial Park Suite 901 Suite 100 Yarnton Centennial Culver City Oxford CO 80112 , USA CA 90232, USA OX5 1QU T:+1.303.799.8686 T:+1.310.437.4499 T:+44.1865.261800 F:+1.303.799.8690 F:+1.310.388.3200 .