INDUS TRY. PART 2 : V IRTUA L PRODUCT I ON ROUND TABL E
MARK PILBOROUGH-SKINNER VP supervisor, Garden Studios
JONNY HUNT Technical director, VSS
CHRISTIAN KAESTNER VFX supervisor, Framestore
After graduating with a computer programming degree from SAE Institute London, Pilborough- Skinner was lead Unreal developer at Satore Tech for three years, before joining Garden Studios, which boasts a 4800 sq ft virtual production stage.
Hunt studied computer science, before applying his practical mind to the video market. He is now responsible for the management and delivery of every technical aspect of VSS’s project work in the UK, Europe and Middle East.
Kaestner is currently working as overall VFX supervisor on 1899 for Netflix – the newest project from the creators of Dark – which is the first show to make use of Dark Bay, the largest LED volume facility in Europe.
JEREMY HOCHMAN CEO, Megapixel VR
DAVID LEVY Director of business development, global solutions, Arri
MARINA PRAK Marketing manager, Roe Visual
DAN HAMILL Co-founder and commercial director, 80six
Hochman is an entrepreneur and designer, who made tech history in 2002 when co-founding Element Labs, the company that gave birth to the creative LED industry.
With over 30 years in the entertainment industry, 20 of which were in marketing, Prak is currently responsible for growing Roe Visual’s brand in Europe and the Middle East.
Levy comes from a creative background, and was lead camera and lighting specialist at Al Jazeera for 11 years, before joining Arri Rental in 2017.
Hamill co-founded 80six, with a passion for providing spectacular visual events, utilising over 15 years of professional experience in production.
the next couple of years, continuing to enhance visuals for virtual production. JEREMY HOCHMAN: We’re a bit outside of this realm, but I see a ton of work happening with motion capture and person/object replacement in scenes. The fact that this can happen in near real time is absolutely incredible. DAVID LEVY: As with all technological growth in this area, it allows for faster, higher-quality worldbuilding. It’s amazing to see Moore’s law happening in front of us. Each day, we see incremental – sometimes huge – advances to computer power that drives these systems. DAN HAMILL: AI machine learning gives more control to filmmakers. They can capture in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) by allowing post-production to begin
JONNY HUNT: Taking techniques from other industries – such as machine learning and photogrammetry – and applying these to virtual production has moved us closer to achieving fully ‘live’, final VFX shots. It’s already happening, but the possibilities for the future are incredible, albeit with a massive change to workflow/pipeline. CHRISTIAN KAESTNER: Machine learning is rapidly making its way into the visual effects world. This means it will inevitably find its place in virtual production. At the moment, the most applicable areas of machine learning are in the noise reduction of real-time ray tracing, allowing for better quality renders at higher refresh rates – with more visual and photorealistic complexity. There are many more areas of game engine technology that will surface within
How are machine learning and AI techniques evolving virtual production technology? MARK PILBOROUGH-SKINNER: We are seeing AI used more and more in real- time rendering pipelines. Nvidia DLSS uses machine learning to render frames at a lower resolution, then upscales them with minimal difference to the visual quality. This has already been leveraged in the games industry, for more realistic lighting and atmospheric effects, while still maintaining a high frame rate. 3D content creation and scene design are also being pushed forward using this technology – from AI-assisted scene development, to procedural asset creation and authoring. As the techniques continue to develop, I believe we’re going to see an overlap between real-time rendering and classic, offline VFX in the next five to ten years.
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