Last Tuesday we held the third APCP masterclass on Virtual Backgrounds. We had the pleasure of having Dani Hinojosa, Executive VFX Supervisor at NOH STUDIOS.
If you couldn’t attend don’t worry, clicking on this link you can watch it.
It was an honour to have a professional like Dani Hinojosa and our dear sponsors and collaborators: El Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya, Makkers School, Mimetik, Isolé, Nurse on Set and Camera&Lights; and of course thanks to all the attendees.
Dani began the training by putting us in context of how the world of virtual backgrounds began, he told us about the techniques used by Hitchcock in the 30’s, using LED panels or previews in studios with green backgrounds to integrate into the composition.
The current techniques, what we have been doing for many years are chroma key, that is, shooting on green or blue backgrounds and compositing in post-production, rear projections have also been used for a long time, but now we have recently started to use LED screens, which are illuminating all the time and you can illuminate the scene directly with them.
Although all this may seem like magic, it is not, there are different types of virtual production,
- Directly on the plate, Previs technology in real time.
- Real time compositing with Unreal, here begins the crossbreeding with the world of video games. Here we can use the camera and the optics by connecting them to the system, so it will move the same and by connecting it to unreal we can make it move exactly the same as the camera. It is a very powerful and complex tool that has to be fine-tuned.
- LED Studio, these are screens that project, that illuminate… It’s a very powerful tool, especially for recording with reflective objects, for example a car. You capture something real, not on a green background.
These plates are shot beforehand. And the direction of photography is very important in the use of these screens.
- Led Studio + Unreal, we project on the led screens and use them as a monitor to visualise a 3D render in real time.
- Unreal RT / Plate, is the moment in which the natural relay arises, the shooting passes the relay to the 3D.
Like all the use of this technique, depending on the project, it has numerous advantages and disadvantages. And what is clear is that this technology has a lot of future to offer us.
Don’t miss any details and listen to the whole session here.
We are done with a conference and we are already thinking about the next one. The fourth session will be held on April 19th and this time we will have Perig Guinamant, film and advertising editor, who will talk to us about the world of editing.
Register now at socialmedia@apcp.es sending your name, email and company.
