“Light control, colour matching, and close inter-departmental collaboration are the keys to lighting for virtual production.
Be ready to integrate with a lot more departments than you were expecting,” advises Jeff Webster. He is probably the world’s most experienced gaffer when it comes to virtual production, having served on The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and now Ahsoka, the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise.
Webster’s job begins on the recce, conducted in VR. By this point, the virtual sets have already been built and lit. “We can superimpose the actual volume walls and ceiling into the virtual environment, so I can see where we can put in actual studio lighting through the top of the wall or the ceiling.”
For season two of The Mandalorian, ILM rolled out version 2.0 of their StageCraft virtual production platform (Credit: Lucas Films Ltd)
As a virtual production supervisor at Lux Machina, Julia Lou collaborates closely with DPs and gaffers. “We’ve been working with [gaffers] to set up systems where they can control things from the lighting console,” she says. “We can send signals from the engine into the console so that they’re interacting with physical lights, or cueing things in the content, or driving light cards around.” Continue reading
SOURCE:
British Cinematographer: https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/supplement_posts/light-fantastic/
