1.1M views · Aug 1, 2019 · 2:15 · 0 HN recommenders · 5 mentions · discussed 2022
Epic Games shows how LED walls can provide both virtual backgrounds and real lighting, letting scenes be captured in camera in a single pass with Unreal Engine.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited as an example of LED volume virtual production, as used for Star Wars shows, in threads about VFX.
Example of Unreal expanding into film production
Although you mean well, this sounds a lot like "why does<X poor country> launch satellites or do science when their population is starving". Doing one doesn't contradict the other. Can't afford to just keep narrowing down on existing customer base. They need to keep expanding and competing, for e.g. with Unreal this video
Disney's innovative filming approach for Disney+
Now it seems like Disney is doing the innovating with the way they film stuff for Disney+. link this video Though how much of that is Disney and how much is the companies they worked with is unknown to me.
“The backgrounds are”
In-camera LED backgrounds as solution to compositing problems
This is a “solved problem” now with technologies like this: this video The backgrounds are “real” and can be captured in-camera, so there is no need for special effects to blend hair. Similarly, reflective surfaces aren’t a problem either. This was used to good effect for the Mandalorian series where the protagonist wears shiny metal armour.
Shows the circular LED volume setup used for Star Wars shows
For Netflix, I know what he means, but the article has a hard time describing it. It's kinda like you know what a tiktok video looks like, even when the logo is absent. But here is a better phenomenon. Star wars tv series are all shot in a circular room. Everything is arranged in a virtual circle even when they are outdoors. When you see it, you can't unsee it. Ps: having a hard time finding images from the shows. But here is the set. [1] link [2] this video
“when seeing that initial shot I could immediately tell the background was fake”
> This is a “solved problem” now with technologies like this: this video The backgrounds are “real” and can be captured in-camera, so there is no need for special effects to blend hair. Similarly, reflective surfaces aren’t a problem either. While at the same time, when seeing that initial shot I could immediately tell the background was fake. Like in any fake-ass marvel-movie. And I’m not into VFX tech, I’m not into the industry as whole. I’m just a casual movie-watcher (going from being a hard-core movie-watcher), and my involvement in these movies is getting lower and lower as the movies increasingly gets less and less real. The last truly great movie I saw was Mad Max Fury Road. It has you engaged all the way through, because everything which matters there actually is real, something your mind can tell. I recently saw Bullet Train. It was OKish because it was mostly about characters, and it had a semi-decent story to tie it all together. All the excessive VFX bits at the end was pretty “meh“ though. It would have been a better movie without it.
