Produced by the School of Animation and Digital Arts of Communication University of China, "Silicon-based Era" was shot with a virtual production system at the Sony School of Imaging Technology, and with this 5-minute sci-fi work, it passed all the way and was shortlisted for the national finals of the 48-hour International Virtual Production Competition and the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Directed by Chen Yueyang
The audience can appreciate the presentation of cool sci-fi and the "cyberpunk" texture of "Silicon Age", but they can't imagine that it took only 48 hours from shooting to post-production. Such a short time would be almost impossible in the traditional production process, and the film was produced virtually to meet the deadline. So how did the main creative team achieve it and what are their experiences? We interviewed Song Leiyu, the instructor of "Silicon-based Era" and an associate professor at the School of Animation and Digital Arts at Communication University of China, director Chen Yueyang, and CG director Geng Hao to review the creative process and see how they did a great job in this "impossible task".
Preparation: Make digital assets in advance
Due to the difference from traditional green screen keying and the change of production process, virtual production has deterred many creative teams. How to solve the problem of digital assets? What do I need to prepare?
Director Chen Yueyang revealed that although "Silicon-based Era" was filmed for the 48-hour international virtual production competition, and the shooting had to be completed in a virtual production studio, even if it did not participate in the competition, virtual production was the best plan to create "Silicon-based Era".
Before filming, the main creative team must complete the script creation, determine the image style, and prepare the digital assets in advance. "Silicon-based Era" puts the time background of the story 1000 years later, and due to the time limit of the work, the script abandons presenting a complex worldview, but focuses on the core of the story of the android's betrayal of humanity and provoking a war, in the words of the director, "in a way that feels more routine and easy for the audience to understand". Judging from the final film, this decision is undoubtedly correct, the 5-minute duration is difficult to explain in detail the background of the times and the complex relationship between the characters, the extremely informative call, the tense temptation and the final tense and exciting fight, bringing the audience the thrill of fast pace and "direct giving" of all information elements.
The script must be implemented and the concept must be executed. Art and digital asset design are particularly important before the start of shooting. Director Chen Yueyang said that the overall style of "Silicon-based Era" refers to games, and he has seen a large number of sci-fi and bionic movies, such as "Alita: Battle Angel", and Ridley Scott's 1982 "Blade Runner" had the greatest impact on her, so "Silicon-based Era" refers to the overall world view of this movie.
In terms of the use of color and lighting, the work mainly uses two tones to distinguish different atmospheres, the dialogue at the beginning, the warm colors in the carriage to create a warm atmosphere, the sun sets, and the protagonist embarks on the way home; However, the second half is transformed into green, which sets off the tense and dangerous atmosphere of the play in the tunnel.
CG Director Geng Hao
CG director Geng Hao completed the production and preparation of digital assets, and he revealed that "Silicon-based Era" not only used existing digital assets, but also made some of them himself, which took a total of two weeks. In Geng Hao's view, the difficulty in making digital assets lies in matching the work, meeting the requirements of the plot, and ensuring that the effect seen in UE Unreal Engine is restored to 1:1 after the effect is put on the screen. "Sony has its own plug-in, which is a bit like the LUT file used in traditional shooting, through which you can quickly adjust saturation, color rendering and other information, which is convenient for debugging on the LED screen." Geng Hao said.
"It's the tools in Sony's own suite of virtual production tools." Yin Xuhui, senior manager of the virtual production business marketing department of Sony (China) Electronic Systems Division, added.
Sony's new Virtual Production Tool Set includes a virtual production plug-in for cameras and displays and a color calibration tool for virtual production, helping photographers improve pre-production efficiency and on-set workflows, solve production pain points, and maintain color consistency.
Geng Hao should be referring to the camera and display virtual production plug-in, and the CineAltaV camera options in the UE Unreal Engine menu fully correspond to the CineAltaV camera in actual shooting, which can effectively ensure color consistency. Without plug-ins, you're stuck with UE Unreal Engine's generic virtual camera, which doesn't ensure color consistency, takes a lot of time to adjust, and the moiré warning feature is also very useful.
The "Color Calibrator" is an easy-to-use Windows 10-based application that ensures accurate color reproduction when shooting displays with CineAltaV. This calibration tool dramatically reduces the need for testing, reshooting, or complex LUTs during filming or production. Instead, it is more intuitive to calibrate the effects of LED displays, including HDR-enabled LEDs, through the interface to improve on-site workflows and achieve the desired color results in CineAltaV.
Shooting: Sony provides solid technical support
"Silicon-based Era" was able to complete the production with quality and quantity, highlighting the two outstanding advantages of virtual production in saving time and money.
Let's start with time-saving, 48 hours to complete shooting + post-production, the traditional production process is almost an impossible task, even if the scenery and props are completed in advance, it will spend a lot of time on transitions and on-site adjustments. "Traditional shooting wastes time on all kinds of small details during the shooting process, which takes up time for lens polishing, and it may take many nights to shoot." Chen Yueyang said.
Speaking of saving money, "Silicon-based Era" has two important scenes: the train carriage and the bionic base, to highlight the sense of science and technology in the scene, if the scenery is set will be quite difficult, Chen Yueyang admitted frankly, with their existing capabilities, it cannot be completed, it will consume a lot of money and manpower. According to reports, application scenarios such as urban elevated, Gobi Desert, and securities trading can be obtained on the display platform, and creators have similar scene needs can directly meet the shooting needs with a small amount of modification on the existing digital assets, thereby greatly reducing the production cost of virtual shooting digital assets and improving the reuse rate of existing assets. "Silicon-based Era" uses a lot of online digital assets, which greatly saves the production cost of digital assets.
Moreover, the quality of digital assets has also improved visibly. The footage of the bionic base in "Trajectory Era" has a very realistic sense of perspective and depth, which makes people believe that this is the picture obtained by the camera by shooting the LED screen. "I think it's mainly due to the fact that Unreal Engine is now able to achieve more realistic results, and we can get a more satisfying result by aligning all the parameters in Unreal Engine with the parameters of the CineAltaV camera in the real world. Then through the human eye's fine-tuning of the perspective, a satisfactory effect can be obtained. Chen Yueyang said.
Of course, there will be all kinds of difficulties and troubles with any shooting. The lighting design of "Silicon-based Times" is time-consuming, and it takes care to design the lighting to integrate the digital assets of the LED screen with the actors who are filmed in real life, otherwise it will look very much like a virtual background for a video conference.
Although virtual shooting has high lighting requirements, and it is necessary to try to avoid direct light on the LED screen at close range when lighting, in Chen Yueyang's opinion, lighting is still easier than traditional shooting. The difference between virtual shooting and traditional shooting is that the gaffer should cooperate with the LED screen to complete the lighting design in accordance with the logical light source, and basically the light can be more beautiful after half a day. Therefore, it will be easier, more direct, and logically clearer than traditional shooting.
The two core hardware of the CineAltaV camera and the black color crystal LED screen in Sony's virtual production system also ensure the smooth shooting of the work.
Chen Yueyang revealed that the dark scene of "Silicon-based Era" was actually filmed with the screen brightness turned up, as much as possible to achieve normal exposure, and then retained more details through post-compression, Sony's black color crystal LED screen 1,700cd/m2 high brightness and ultra-high contrast ensured that the director realized her creative intentions.
In addition, the LED screen can also be used as a field fill light. The flickering light and shadow in the work is realized by the pulse light effect of the black color crystal LED screen, which is not complicated to operate, and the flickering frequency can be set to intelligently achieve the desired effect. Chen Yueyang is also full of praise for the Sony CineAltaV camera, another core hardware: "The Sony camera has a strong dynamic range support, and we have a lot of room for adjustment in post. ”。
Creative Tips: Sony's Virtual Production System Exceeds Expectations
With the guarantee of Sony's virtual production system, the overall creation of "Silicon-based Era" went smoothly, and minor problems such as the loss of props and the rush for time in post-rendering were relatively easy to solve.
Talking about the shooting experience, director Chen Yueyang said that the equipment and technical support provided by Sony Imaging Technology Academy are very perfect, which can fully meet the shooting needs, and even exceed the original expectations. She admitted that she had used all kinds of LED screens such as tri-fold screens, ground screens, and curved screens before, but Sony's black color crystal LED was the most satisfying to her, the screen was very delicate, the digital assets were played smoothly and stably, and the camera would not be grainy when focusing on the screen.
Geng Hao also shared his creative experience. In the production process of digital assets, the best effect could not be achieved because the lens performance of the shooting link was not taken into account. There are also cases where the finished carriage scene is found to be in the wrong proportion after being put on the screen, and it seems too large, etc., it is still necessary to be familiar with the entire production process and make sufficient preparations in the early stage to ensure the smooth shooting of the work.
Instructor: Song Leiyu
Song Leiyu, the instructor of this shooting, has a lot of experience in virtual production, and has also completed a textbook for virtual production. For the first time shooting at the Sony Imaging Academy, Song Leiyu felt great convenience, in addition to greatly improving efficiency and avoiding the problems encountered in green screen keying, the picture integration is better, and the production process is more convenient. Moreover, because the scene is completed in the form of digital assets in advance, some problems can be found in advance, which reduces the post-production workload and greatly saves production costs.
At the end of the interview, director Chen Yueyang revealed that they will once again enrich and extend the story of "Silicon Era", and thank Sony Imaging Academy for continuing to provide hardware and technical support, giving them the opportunity to present more exciting and grander world view works to the audience.