PART 2: VIRTUAL PRODUCTION ROUND TABLE INDUS TRY.
as the director says cut, immediately enhancing the shot with image correction, through to full background replacements. Foundry has just launched an innovation in this area, which it demoed at our studios – as seen at the RealTime Conference in December. How is colourimetry between camera and display being mastered as the technology develops? In other words, how can metamerism be avoided? PILBOROUGH-SKINNER: Metering LED fixtures using the standard colour rendering index (CRI) is not a poor metric for overall colour reproduction when viewed through a camera. New standards such as the television lighting consistency index (TLCI) provide a better representation of the quality of light relative to the sensor’s perspective. Additionally, new advancements such as HDR and RGBA are allowing for a greater range of colours, helping to fill in the orange-red area of the spectrum, which is typically lacking in LED fixtures. HUNT: We’re still mostly working in a world where the LED screens we’re using weren’t designed specifically for virtual production. The next real leap in terms
“New advancements such as HDR and RGBA are allowing for a greater range of colours, helping to fill in the orange-red area of the spectrum”
aspects are lit by the LED wall, and which are lit by practical lights. HOCHMAN: Metamerism is quite a large issue to work through using today’s equipment. LED displays come from a perspective of high efficiency and being visible by human eyes – this means narrow band emitters at saturated wavelengths. Cameras are generally tuned for good skin tones and natural accuracy with sunlight, as examples. Many VFX companies have come up with specialised workflows, calibrating the display and camera systems to create accurate and reproducible colours. However, a processing system such as ours helps bridge the gap between display and capture systems, by working in known colour gamuts and giving users feedback about the actual chromaticity the tiles are achieving. It’s a much better starting basis.
of LED panel technology is to address colourimetry issues, adding processing tools to help with that. With the right scientific approach, it is absolutely possible to use the current generation of panels to reproduce accurate colour in camera. Brompton Technology has put a lot of work into maintaining good colour accuracy – and this is our favoured processing platform. KAESTNER: Understanding the colour science and spectral light response of a virtual production project is key to successful visuals. In the end, every project is unique in its methodology and visual requirements. If we are talking about a scene inside a car, the set-up may be completely different to that of an outside landscape. Ultimately, the collaboration between DOP, DIT and the virtual production/visual effects team will define the parameters for which
27. FEBRUARY 2022
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