American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 12

The Virtual World
This environment on planet Vulcan, the homeworld of Spock
(Ethan Peck), was created with the aid of an LED wall.
image that we're all very proud
of. "
Referencing an interesting use
of the LED wall that allows an
actor to essentially serve as their
own double within a scene, Tamburrino
recalls " a sequence where
a character has to jump out of the
cargo hold. We shot the actor's
jump on a bluescreen, and then
keyed and placed the imagery
on a card - a 2.5D technique -
within the Unreal environment.
Later, in the LED volume, the
actor performed the scene up
until the moment of the jump.
Then, a custom control allowed
us to trigger the playback of the
element in line with the actor's
performance/cue, " so the actor's
live performance was able to lead
directly into the VFX shot of the
actor, now appearing on the LED
wall, leaping from the cargo hold.
Tamburrino adds that the team
is " looking for ways to integrate
more digital doubles into future
environments. "
AOTO Virtual Production
LED Solutions
Mini LED Applied, Moiré Reduction
Nano-Coating, Isolate Chemical Damage
Grooved-Antioptical-Crosstalk, Lower Reflective
1/6 Scan and 7680Hz Refresh Rate, Eliminate Scan Lines
Preproduction: Lighting and
Virtual Design
In addition to various extraterrestrial
planetary environments for
the Enterprise crew to explore,
the LED volume was incorporated
into several standing ship sets.
These included the engineering
room, mess hall and cargo bay -
familiar locales that have mainly
been depicted in previous Trek
shows via physical set builds or
bluescreen shoots.
Because so much of the
success of LED in-camera VFX
depends on camera-ready
environments, the Strange New
Worlds team spent much longer
in preproduction refining virtual
sets - with close collaboration
between Pixomondo's virtual-production
team and the art
department, which led to the creation
of the company's dedicated
virtual art department (VAD) for
Season 2. For Górka (who worked
exclusively on Season 1), this
meant new ways to interact with
production design. " We could
view and walk through [virtual
versions of sets, before they were
physically constructed], in VR
using Unreal Engine, " she says.
" We were able to see every corner
of the set in 3D and think about
how to light it before our lighting
sessions. Then during our lighting
sessions on iPads with Pixo, we
would add specific sources and
colors, which would be part of
the design, into the sets. We
would discuss in detail what kind
of lighting I wanted to see in the
virtual environment, and where it
needed to be placed. We usually
avoided direct sunlight, as it was
still challenging to emulate the
effect in the volume.
" It's terrific for a DP to have
access to tools like these, " Górka
continues. " It was a long journey
from my film school in Poland,
RM Series
MXH Series
AE Series
" We're constantly trying to infuse more dynamic
lighting and moving, interactive elements into
our environments. "
12 / JULY 2022
PHOTO BY JOHN MEDLAND.
http://www.aoto.com
American Cinematographer - July 2022

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