Virtual Production is NOT What You Think.... HTC Mars VIVE & Unreal Engine Product Videos

I filmed this footage in my living room what I love about virtual production is that what you see is what you get whatever the camera sees is pretty much the final look and virtual production allows you to do that because then you're not worried about what is good the background gonna be because it's a blue or green screen no instead the virtual production actually lets your subject sit in the environment now there are some distinct advantages to having your subjects live in a space that is reminiscent of actually being there what I use this for is my first client project with VP this is the critical role accessories line by Ultra Pro if you're into tabletop RPGs like me you'll know things related to Rolling dice playing with Miniatures exploring and going on adventures it's a really fun experience and I felt virtual production was a very valuable way for us to demonstrate these accessories in an environment that fits the vibe everything you see in this video was shot in camera less some color grade and some Motion Graphics were overlaying this video was very simple in execution but challenging in preparation the First Advantage when it comes to using virtual production is lighting whatever your subject is living in wherever they are in that space of the volume or using a TV that lighting is going to hit that subject so it's going to help reinforce the overall look and hopefully trick the viewer into thinking that the character or the subject is actually there because we don't have to do any compositing in post this allows us on set to really art direct the light so that the background and foreground lighting makes the subject really stand out the second advantage to shooting in a virtual production environment is Reflections I would put a lot of money on the reason why Disney and lucasfilm put so much emphasis on Virtual production for the Mandalorian is because his armor is highly reflective and the same principle applies to highly reflective products so for Ultra Pro's critical role accessories you'll see that there are parts of the accessories that are highly reflective such as the pages or the covers and because we're using a backdrop that reinforces this lighting it makes it a little bit more believable now the biggest thing when it comes to creating a virtual production environment is having some method of translating wherever your camera is what you're holding in your hand and sending wherever that position of that camera is in that space into a virtual world fortunately HTC Mars 5 is a device that allows you to do just that I'm not sponsored by them I ended up spending a lot of money on the thing so then I could get this virtual production pipeline to work now all of it lives in a central Hub I'm going to say it's the brain of the HTC Vive which you connect your camera using the tractor that's on the camera and plug it into the HTC Mars Hub and then that is connected to your router which connects to your computer it's actually really simple to use now for my setup we used a TV obviously I wish I had a much bigger setup with an LED volume and more lights and more crew but for this project we didn't have that but you're still able to do some really cool things as long as you have the right tools for the right job now it is worth mentioning that when you're shooting in a small Studio environment such as on a TV you don't have as much foreground background separation like you would see on a big volume owned by Disney and lucasfilm so there is a problem of Reflections that you might experience if you do embark on the same Journey that I did but once the TV and camera is set up it's super simple when you are in the Unreal Engine software you can go to your virtual production tools and there's a system called Livelink which will allow you to find the Vive tracker and it will automatically connect to Unreal once everything is turned on and then you will get your camera position data in unreal so let's say you finally set up your lighting you know what your subject is awesome now we need to talk about the set design a whole separate part of the production process involves woodworking painting model making building things things I'm not opposed to learning but that's a whole separate industry that you might have to learn if you want to participate in Virtual production now fortunately for this critical role accessories video the table top RPG experience is often best played on this big Hefty wooden fantasy table that you might see in a Tavern but no we actually didn't use that instead we used a wood shipping pellet that I treated with wood stain from Home Depot so it kind of fits the vibe but my point here is you have to have good foreground Assets in the same way that you have to have good background assets so set design is another huge thing that a lot of people fail to think about when it comes to wherever your subject is living now that's not just exclusive to your foreground objects your rocks your trees in the foreground whatever is around your subject we also need to talk about the digital assets now it's worth mentioning that the unreal Marketplace does have a ton of virtual assets that you can use for your virtual backgrounds for the critical role accessories video we used a pack called this medieval interior house and basically it had everything we needed to create the vibe we were looking for a warm cozy Tavern cabin sort of thing where people are playing tabletop RPGs now let's say hypothetically you have to make something custom because there was more requirements for your project so my point behind sharing this fallacy about virtual production is that it really can be just as expensive if not more expensive because to have the option to put the subject in any environment you want you have to have the assets to facilitate that live on shooting day if you don't then you could also risk wasting everyone's time so virtual production is not just this magic tool there's just some things that we should know when it comes to diving into it without just assuming that it's going to fix all of the problems when we're shooting now I hope it doesn't sound like I'm a naysayer towards virtual production because I'm saying some of the things that we have to consider when diving into that but in reality production is still production you still have to make an effort to create the art whether it's on the front or the back and have all these inputs to create a beautiful image whether that's a green screen or a virtual background it doesn't matter you still need to think about the assets that are in your scene does this accentuate the story does it make it easier for the talent to operate on set there's lots of things to consider in Virtual production is just a tool in that overall end product goal of making a beautiful image you're making a beautiful story or commercial depending on what you shoot for the critical role accessories video that we did with Ultra Pro it was a really valuable way for us to have a handful of shots in the commercial that really emphasized the overall vibe that we were going for with the lighting we wanted warm we wanted cozy we wanted to to feel fantasy and the video game assets that we used allowed us to achieve that and any shot where the camera is a little bit more parallel with the table it helped us have a full shot rather than having to spend a bunch of money and time on set extensions now what do you the viewer need to take away from this rant about virtual production first off I want you to not be like me and go and blow a bunch of money on tools that you're really excited about I love the things that I have and I look forward to integrating them into my pipeline as myself being a small Creator and Studio I'm excited to have it but be cautious of what your end product is because at the end of the day when it comes to Virtual production there's so many roles that you can do to participate in this overall workflow set design lighting cinematography the unreal stuff developing assets little things that you can do to participate in Virtual production not just buying everything and trying to do everything by yourself now I do look forward to doing things with more people and when I was doing research for this video there was one gentleman who I highly respected Mr John Favreau and he said that it also has forced us into having a more efficient workflow that draws pre-production post-production of production all into one continuous Pipeline and overall I agree with that sentiment at the end of the day the theme around virtual production is not to use Virtual production it's to reduce the technical barriers and limitations when we're on set so we can just be artists when you're working with highly technical things like green screen and compositing there's a lot of guesswork and virtual production eliminates that and I was excited to use it on this critical role project and I look forward to making more things related to it for myself and my small business as a small Creator in small Studio so I hope you enjoyed this video outlining my first experience using the HTC Mars Vive tracker and Unreal Engine and a TV in my living room if you learned something let me know in the comment section down below or if you have questions comments concerns comment section is down there for that as well I will leave you with the final tip and that is to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight and you'll make some goodbye my friends bye foreign

Channel: Jon Jags Nee

Views: 9,615

Keywords: Sony, Sony a9, Video, Cinematography, videography, after effects, premiere, tutorial, jags, unreal engine, virtual reality, behind the scenes, virtual studio, visual effects, star wars, unreal engine 5, unreal engine 5 tutorial, unreal engine 5.1, unreal engine 5 demo, unreal engine 5 train station, unreal engine tutorial, htc vive xr elite

Id: h4jFjtPWf68

Length: 10min 40sec (640 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 02 2023