Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469382
but it also needs to be intuitive and easy to operate. "The user interface has to be pretty seamless," Nicholson explains. "Then an operator can learn that and become very fluid in controlling the hardware and making it seem really easy. It's like throwing away the sheet music for a pianist. The last thing you want to see is an artist on set taking out a manual, trying to figure something out. That is not an option." The future of virtual production According to Nicholson, the future of virtual production will require greater control to manage even greater demands. The ability to make adjustments seamlessly in real-time is key to the success of future virtual productions. "It's going to get more complex; things aren't getting simpler," Nicholson notes. "A director will come back and say, 'I really like that sequence, but can you make it shorter?' or 'Can you make it faster?' or 'Can you change the clouds?' Now we're talking about visual mixing in real-time." He envisions a real-time visual mixing console, analogous to an audio console, to control the visual effects for virtual production. "The Unreal Engine is all about that. It's rendering things in real-time," he continues. "It's all a matter of data and processing. That's why our relationships with Nvidia, Unreal and Epic, and Blackmagic are so important to us, because it's the intersection of all these technologies where the magic is really happening." Virtual production allows Nicholson and his team to keep looking forward and going beyond what they originally thought was possi- ble. "We are now designing impossible projects," he shares. "But if you really understand the technology and you have good commu- nication with the hardware manufacturers and the soware, you know where they're going to be in six months. So, we're designing with tools that don't even exist yet. It comes back to the depend- ability of futureproofing your idea. If you're going beyond what everybody else is doing, you need to be somehow getting access to tools that they may not have." Virtual production takes the technical and artistic elements of visual effects work and adds the element of real-time performance into the equation. "If you say, 'What is virtual production?' It's what you can achieve in real-time," Nicholson explains. "It doesn't matter how you get there. It doesn't matter whether it's laser projection, OLED, LED, big camera, little camera, a television set that you buy at Best Buy, or 5,000 panels…It's what you can achieve in real-time for your show." Nicholson is optimistic about the direction virtual production is headed in the future and the possibilities of blending photographic and rendered worlds. "It's a very bright future," he notes. "Virtual production is not just what you can render, it's what you can see. It doesn't matter whether it's 2D, 3D, or 2.5D; it doesn't matter whether it's 3DoF [three degrees of freedom] or 6DoF [six degrees of freedom] or how you're tracking, or anything. It's different for each production and you can start very small and scale it up to something massive." Nicholson's advice for those interested in the field of virtual production is to go beyond what they think is possible and to never stop educating themselves. "If you're pushing the limits and you bring fresh ideas to a company like Blackmagic or many of these companies, they need the creative input. They need users who are doing unique things with their products. So first of all, learn about their products, learn them inside and out," he adds. "It's an exciting future, and it's just getting better." ¢ Kendra Ruczak is the managing editor of CGW. The LED wall was split into six 8K sections.