{"id":787,"date":"2020-06-11T11:19:49","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T08:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/?p=787"},"modified":"2022-07-19T12:00:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T09:00:46","slug":"virtualnaja-semochnaja-ploshhadka-i-budushhee-kinematografa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/virtual-set-and-the-future-of-cinematography\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual set and the future of cinematography"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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American SFX company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has always been at the forefront of computer graphics. Founded in 1975 by George Lucas to work on the first part of the movie “Star Wars”, the company immediately announced itself to the world by creating the world’s first computer-controlled camera, called VistaVision<\/strong>. <\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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It was this camera that helped bring Lucas’ vision to life and gave us unforgettable space battles that were previously thought impossible.
The first fully computer-generated sequence in film. The first 3D character. Photorealistic computer generated hair and fur. Development of the iMocap motion capture system. The first fully computer generated water surface. And that’s just a small part of ILM’s achievements. Almost every project from this studio is a new breakthrough in the field of computer graphics, and we are lucky enough to witness the creation of a new technology called StageCraft<\/strong>, which may change the world of cinema forever.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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What is StageCraft<\/strong>? To fully understand this technology, you need to go back almost 100 years. In 1927, a technique called Rear Projection was used for the first time on the set of the film “Metropolis”. With the help of a projector and a screen, it became possible to combine images in one frame, the combination of which in real life is impossible or inconvenient for ordinary shooting. Schematically it is so.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The use of rear projection has opened up new opportunities for the realization of creative ideas in cinema. In simplified terms, StageCraft technology is a digital version of rear projection. Instead of a projector and a screen, huge LED screens are used. But not everything is so simple.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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In 2013, on the set of the movie Oblivion, a very early version of StageCraft was used to create the main characters’ house in the clouds. Footage of real clouds was displayed on the screens, giving realistic reflections, which are very important for the illusion of realism.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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However, in 2013, this technology had many limitations. The main problem was inability to move the camera. Any movement of the camera immediately gave the impression that the clouds are not actually three-dimensional, and this would destroy the viewer’s perception of the picture. Also, despite the size of the screens, they were not bright enough, so filmmakers had to use light-sensitive digital cameras, sacrificing image quality. But this was only the first step of Industrial Light & Magic. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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In the following years, the StageCraft technology was used quite successfully in many film projects. And although the screens have become brighter, the problem of a static camera has remained. And it’s likely that StageCraft would forever be a narrow-minded and very specific technology if it wasn’t for a breakthrough in another entertainment industry. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Shooting of the film The First Man <\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n
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In 2015, Epic Games released the Unreal Engine 4 game engine, capable of generating photorealistic images in real time. But the most important thing it has created was the voluminous scenes. Industrial Light & Magic quickly realized the potential of this technology. With the help of a small module that connects to the camera, the computer tracks its movements and moves the background generated by the Unreal Engine. Thus, a complete illusion of three-dimensional space is created, while at the same time the camera can move freely as the cameramen want. Finally, filmmakers got the ability to use virtual backgrounds with any camera movements. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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In 2016, the “full-fledged” version of the StageCraft technology was used with great success on the set of the film “The Jungle Book”, which made it possible to significantly facilitate the filming process and reduce post-production costs. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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This success was exceeded many times over in 2019 during the filming of the series “The Mandalorian”. Almost all footage from the fantastic planets of the Star Wars universe was shot with StageCraft technology. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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More and more filmmakers are becoming interested in this technology. Unreal Engine is also not standing still, every year creating increasingly realistic images with less consumption of resources. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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But StageCraft is not just an advanced version of technology that was available 100 years ago. This is a new unique opportunity to create entire virtual worlds right on the set and, perhaps more importantly, StageCraft is much cheaper and easier than the long-accepted chromakeys. So, maybe in 10 years we will stop seeing the familiar green background on film sets. <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American SFX company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has always been at the forefront of computer graphics. Founded in 1975 by George Lucas to work on the first part of the movie “Star Wars”, the company immediately announced itself to the world by creating the world’s first computer-controlled camera, called VistaVision. It was this camera […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2331,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/2331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finegoldproduction.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}