Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1234746
12 cgw e d i t i o n i , 2 0 2 0 mately 270 degrees of a continuous circle," Porter says. "At the open end, we had large LED flyaway panels on chain rigs that we could pull out of the way to get actors, sets, and equipment in and out. So we had close to a 360 environment." The 270-degree video wall was 20 feet high and extended into the ceiling. The environments created by ILM that played on these LED walls could be edited in real time during the shoot, and lit and rendered from the camera perspective. Thus, the images in-camera had accurate interactive lighting on the actors and practical sets from the 3D graphics on the video wall. "We have been developing these con- cepts of virtual environments for some time, and Jon Favreau wanted to push forward with technology developed for his Lion King and other shows," Porter says. "On previous shows, we had used LED panels for lighting but not for final pixels. We didn't have the whole package. On The Mandalorian, we baked the cake from all the ingredients. This was the first time we have made a cohesive system that is more than just an exper- iment. We have final-quality imagery on the LED wall, real-time camera tracking for perspective correct view, and the availability to view and make changes on the fly." To make the cohesive system and achieve his vision for the series, Favreau brought ILM, Epic Games, Golem Creations, and tech- nology partners Fuse, Lux Machina, Profile Studios, and ARRI together. "We thought it might give us a few shots – we estimated 15 to 20 percent of the workflow," Porter says. "But it grew and grew, and became so successful we used it for probably 50 percent of the photogra- phy on the whole show. A lot of shots went straight to camera. And again, our hit rate there was greater than we expected. Ap- proximately 60 percent of our environment work went from shooting in the volume to finals, without the need for additional post work. For other shots, of course, we had minor rig removal for the motion-tracking cameras, and I'm not counting shots in which we put a droid or spaceship or some- thing. But, it ended up more successful than we imagined. From our first tests, we saw very quickly that bringing in photogra- phy mapped onto 3D geometry could be very successful." In one of the early tests, Mando creeps outside The Client's (Werner Herzog's) safe house in an alleyway. The alleyway is a par- tial set, but the sky and the distant buildings are virtual. "You watch him walk around and the light and reflections on him are perfect," Porter points out. "We saw the system sing, and people started to get excited." Before the Shoot Lucasfilm design director Doug Chiang and his team created concept art and initial designs that went to a virtual art depart- ment managed by the show's production designer, Andrew Jones. That department constructed real-time graphics for VR loca- tion scouting. "A big step in our process came from Jon [Favreau]'s desire to have a virtual art department and virtual scouting in the prep work," Porter says. "He brought that over from The Lion King and previous shows. He wanted a rough environment brought into a shared virtual environment in VR headsets so the entire creative team could be in the same virtual space doing location scouting and blocking. It wasn't the same as on The Lion King, where they were actually creating shots. For us, it was more like a real scout. Walk around. We want the sun over there. I think the camera should be here, what do you think?" The VR location scout took place at the Mandalorian production office, a space in Playa del Rey shared with The Lion King. Notes from the scout traveled from the virtual art department to The Third Floor for previs, and to ILM for final resolution imagery that would go on the wall. In addition, knowing they would create all the digital environments in the vol- The droid IG-11 was digital in most shots; however, a full-sized torso could be puppeteered on set. Note the reflections on Mando's suit and the droid.