TOOLS OF THE TRADE

RYAN GARRY TALKS 3D WORLD THROUGH THE ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR VIRTUAL PRODUCTION ON A BUDGET

UNREAL ENGINE

There are a couple of real-time engines that can be used, Unreal and Unity. I use Unreal, the latest release of which (Unreal Engine 5) is coming this year, and is looking to offer a big leap in visual quality for real-time projects. The engine is like the operating system for your virtual production project – into which all your tools and plugins… well, plug in to.

STEAM BASE STATIONS

These are used as tracking stations for your cameras and props. You'll need at least two to get good coverage for your filming area – with four you can cover an area of up to 10 x 10 metres. Their only limitation is outdoor shooting: their performance is affected in direct sunlight, but on an overcast day or in shadow they work brilliantly.

VIVE TRACKER

These trackers are tracked by the Base Stations via infrared beams giving you the absolute position of physical objects in the virtual world you’re creating. You can attach them to anything you like in the real world, then in your game engine attach them to a virtual object.

XSENS MOTION CAPTURE

This is only required if you need a motion capture character in your shot (as I do for my film), as everything listed above will get you virtual production ready. However, if you do need mocap, this is the suit I'd recommend. You can livestream the performance data to a virtual character in Unreal Engine while also tracking your camera in-engine.

REALITY CAPTURE PPI

This is my software of choice for 3D scans, both face scans and environments. While there's other processing that you need to do to get the scans production-ready, with a DSLR camera and this piece of software you can digitally recreate your shooting environment for tracking a camera inside of. It also charges you per scan, rather than a lump cost, making it much more affordable for smaller projects.