Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530856
By Jennifer Walden I n the Q2 2024 issue of CineMontage, this column talked about using Unre- al Engine 5 for filmmaking. That story covered the basics of on-set virtual pro- duction using an LED Volume stage and explores Unreal Engine 5 for designing and displaying realistic virtual backgrounds. Now we go back to the origins of The Volume LED stage — a technology devel- oped and owned by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) that was first used on Lucasfilm's hit Disney+ series "The Mandalorian." Sonia Contreras, Virtual Production Supervisor for ILM StageCraft (an on-set virtual pro- duction visual effects technology), shared i n s i g h t s o n h o w t h e y c o n s t r u c t e d a "Volume" — a specialized soundstage sur- rounded by high-resolution LED panels — to fit the virtual production needs of the Disney+ series "Percy Jackson and the WE'LL DO IT LIVE USING ILM'S STAGECRAFT TO MAKE 'PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS' Olympians"; how ILM's proprietary ren- dering engine Helios stands out from UE5; and what changes she'd like to see in on-set virtual production in the next five years. Contreras has been with ILM for 15 years. Before joining ILM's StageCraft team for Season 2 of "The Mandalorian," she worked as a visual artist in the layout department and then became a location artist — or "data wrangler," as she puts it — who went to locations and captured photography and digital media the visual effects team required to build/recreate worlds. "StageCraft is a merging of location work and the work we typically do in post. We're bringing the visual effects to the stage, essentially," she said. For "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," Contreras oversaw all the virtual produc- tion work on the StageCraft LED Volume c o n s t r u c t e d a t M a m m o t h S t u d i o s i n Vancouver. ILM can scale the size of the StageCraft Volume to fit the needs of the production, and "Percy Jackson" required a lot of room inside the LED Volume for prac- tical set pieces. The StageCraft Volume in Vancouver is 20,000 square feet, features a 95-foot LED wall, and has free-moving wall panels called "doors" that can be added or removed to adapt the Volume to whatever the production requires. There are even built-in sprinklers for rainy scenes. "The Volume that we designed and built for the 'Percy Jackson' series was more of a semi-permanent installation, but we do have flexibility with panels we can fly in," Contreras said. "We can pop out panels for lighting or to accommodate the stunt department, allowing them to go through the walls or ceiling so they can have the ac- tion inside the stage. On other productions, we've built bespoke Volumes, tailoring the VIRTUAL REALITY: ILM's StageCraft technology was used to help keep environments seamless in "Percy Jackson." P H OT O : I L M 44 C I N E M O N T A G E T E C H