Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1144162
60 cgw s u m m e r 2 0 1 9 for a virtual camera interface using mobile devices, including iPads and mobile phones. The system has lighting and lens tools that reflect real-world equipment. "We don't see it as a box product," says Potter, "every single film is different." For instance, while working on Ready Play- er One, Potter was able to build a pipeline while sitting right next to Spielberg, enabling him to do a shot in a different way than pre- viously planned. The power of game engines, adds Zargarpour, is that "you'll be able to get finished-quality visual effects in real time." Zargarpour and Potter contend that the people working on the film loved the tools because it made creating visual effects more like playing a video game. New Player Up Glassbox is a start-up founded by people from Foundry and Norman Wang, who founded Opaque Media. They're trying to make virtual production as easy as cap- turing movies on an iPad, but powerful enough for professional production. To do so, they teamed with The Third Floor, a virtual production company that has worked on almost every major movie using virtual production technology. Founded in 2004 by a team at Lucasfilm who had worked on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Third Floor is known for its work on James Cameron's Avatar, which established perfor- mance capture as a medium distinct from animation with vocal performances. Glassbox is debuting its first product, DragonFly, which works with Autodesk's Maya, Unity, and Unreal. It's a low-cost sys- tem that will sell for $750, including support and updates for a year. They do see their product as one that comes out of the box and enables small teams to use virtual cam- eras for filmmaking and VR development. The company is also developing Bee- Hive – soware that will enable virtual scene syncing, editing, and review – with delivery expected soon aer DragonFly. The systems will support multiple users and multiple platforms. DragonFly is being used by VR Playhouse and partner company Strange Charm, which has been working on several projects including a digital human piece for Unreal at SIGGRAPH 2019. The system is also in use by the Cameron Pace Group for a Chinese production of Ghengis Khan. Virtual camera systems like Cine Tracer, and tools from Digital Monarch and Glass- box, are designed to take quick snapshots to provide instant storyboards. They can block out a scene with camera movements, and increasingly they're moving into actual pro- duction, as we're seeing in the work Favreau is doing with MPC. Out the Other End The most significant effect of game en- gines in filmmaking is that they are helping to bring disparate groups together. In a recent podcast, Unreal CTO Kim Libreri talks about how VFX has become separat- ed from the rest of the production team, and "a little bit of the fun has gone out of production." Libreri, who famously worked on The Matrix, Catwoman, and Super 8, played a role in that evolution but now he says he misses the spontaneity and sense of discovery that has gone out of the process. The ability to work with game engines on set is bringing it back, and as the rendering capabilities of game engines have become more sophisticated, people can see exactly how the work is going to look in the final render. Like Unity, Unreal has been adapting its engine to filmmaking paradigms. The new Sequencer Editor feature is a multitrack cin- ematic editing tool that works within Unreal. It allows content creators to add different ED FILMS IS USING GAME ENGINES TO BUILD SCENES. FOR GIANT BEAR, UNITY WAS USED FOR VISUALIZATION. ON THE SET DURING PRODUCTION OF WELCOME TO MARWEN.