VP Day One
- Lesson1 of 6
- Time30 min
What a volume is
Outcome
Explain what an LED volume and in-camera VFX are, and say when green screen is still the better choice.
Mapped to 1 ScreenSkills checklist line
- ScreenSkills virtual production competencies: camera roles · Supplying and maintaining camera and related equipment for virtual production: "ensure compatibility between camera and screen"
ScreenSkills checklists are guides, not accreditation. This course is not endorsed by ScreenSkills.
Watch
3 films · about 17 minutes
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The idea in one breath
- An LED volume is a stage wrapped in LED panels, often with an LED ceiling. The panels show a 3D world from a games engine such as Unreal Engine.
- A tracking system follows the camera. The engine redraws the part of the wall the lens sees from the camera's point of view, so the background moves with the right perspective. That's in-camera VFX (ICVFX): the effect is finished in the shot.
- The rest of the wall lights the actors and the set with the world's own colour and reflections. That is the biggest thing a volume gives you that green screen doesn't.
Two kinds of content
- 2D plates: video filmed for the wall, such as a road behind a car. Cheaper, and often the best choice for driving and train scenes.
- 3D environments: worlds built in the engine. Needed when the camera moves through the space and the perspective must change.
When green screen is still better
- Very wide shots, where the camera would see the edge of the wall.
- Fast action and big moves the wall's world can't keep up with.
- Shots that will be changed heavily in post anyway, or when the world isn't ready before the shoot.
- Green screen also costs less to book. The choice is made in prep, shot by shot.
Check
3 questions drawn from 8 · pass mark 80% · safety-critical questions must be right · 3 attempts in 24 hours · new questions each time
Watch the films to open the check.
Do
Wall or green screen? · 10 minutes
Read the four shots. For each, say 'wall (2D)', 'wall (3D)' or 'green screen', and give one reason.
1. Close-up of a driver at night, city lights passing. 2. A slow push-in on an actor at a window, with a mountain view. 3. A wide shot from high above a battlefield. 4. A walk-and-talk through a forest, camera following.
How it's marked
- 1: wall (2D plate), with a reason about driving plates
- 2: wall (3D, or a 2D plate if the move is small), with a reason about the light or the view
- 3: green screen, with a reason about width or scale
- 4: wall (3D) or a real location, with a reason about camera movement
Met or Not yet, with a comment from a trained reviewer. Until accounts open, open the model answer after you submit and mark your own work against it.
Model answer (open after you submit)
1 Wall, 2D plate: a driving plate gives real light on the face. 2 Wall, 3D (or 2D if the push is short): the mountain light falls on the actor. 3 Green screen: too wide, the wall's edge would show. 4 Wall, 3D world, because the camera moves through the space; or shoot a real forest.
Reflect
Record
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Moving on doesn't complete a lesson. A lesson is complete when the films are watched, the check is passed and the task is marked Met.