From the TAS Faculty

Year 10 Multimedia - Virtual Sets

This semester we have been looking at how visual effects (VFX) are made for film using Adobe After Effects.  We have also looked at new technologies and how they are changing the way VFX are made.

In Disney's "The Mandalorian" Jon Favreau started using virtual sets instead of traditional green screens.  Using Epic Games' Unreal game engine (the same one used to make Fortnite) Jon and his crew have been able to transform the way video entertainment is made.  Here's how it works...

"Imagine the scene at the cantina on Tatooine. The bounty hunter is there, there’s a general hive of scum and villainy vibe. But only a chunk of it is real. The booth is there, and some of the actors, but the rest is just being rendered on a 20-foot-tall, 270-degree semicircular LED video wall. It’s like a traditional Hollywood backdrop, except this one uses Fortnite’s game engine to place 28 million pixels' worth of characters and objects exactly where they need to be for the camera to capture them. All told, more than half of The Mandalorian was shot on virtual sets; the rest were done using practical effects on another part of the LA lot." 

Watercutter, A. (2020) ILM Used 'Fortnite' Tech to Make Virtual Sets for 'The Mandalorian', Wired.  https://www.wired.com/story/fortnite-mandalorian-filmmaking-tech/ (Accessed: 16 September 2020).

While we don't have a 20ft tall LED video wall we do have the Unity game engine (very similar to the Unreal game engine) and some very creative students.  The images below show some of their early virtual set designs created in Unity. 

Over the coming weeks they are going to develop these even further and put themselves into the scene using our (small) 7 foot high green screen wall as they create a short film based on the theme of "Travel".  We'll put some of these on our social pages later in the year when they are finished.

Mr Dean Robinson
Multimedia Teacher