Genie (2022)
When someone is trapped in Australia, the only person he meets is ..a genie? Wait, where is him now?
Role:
Unreal Engine setup, Vicon callibration and virtual camera setup. Recording and rendering.
A short film that experiments with virtual production.
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Vicon system.
Environment: Unreal marketplace
Challenges
When comes to virtual production, some prior knowledge from Unreal-related coursed become very useful. We still encounter problems such as camera calibration and unsuccessful Livelink. The “input” of getting virtual camera recordings and media plane into the same environment and the ‘output: of exporting a well-combined rendering were always the greatest trouble to deal with. Making the actor in green screen to fit inside the virtual environment was another issue. As we decided to use Composure to combine different media sources, sometimes the FPS or LOD setting were also messed up somehow, which required another round of testing.
Solutions
Being the first batch of students who are doing virtual production, my teammates and I have invested tons of time to watch tutorials and experimenting with the devices we have. Communication and negotiating became extremely important as we also invited actors and staff outside our class for the project. As the one who is handling UE most of the times, making sure everyone is working simultaneously is really challenging at the start, especially after a long day in the studio at the end of the semester. Besides investigating in VP production technology, the soft skills such as teamwork and communication are equally important.