Welcome to another issue of VP Land

Who’s made their way over to the Meta’s new Thread-o-verse? I’m C47Joe if you want to connect.

Special thanks to our sponsor MASV for making our coverage possible. Easily transfer large files super fast.

Linus from Linus Tech Tips breaks down their new virtual setup

Linus from Linus Tech Tips posted a video breaking down their studio setup for their new channel, GameLinked.

The opening of the video teases motion tracking in the virtual set but (spoiler)…this is a bit of a lie 🫠

Linus already has about half a dozen channels - each with their own set and distinct look. Launching this new channel, they faced two challenges:

1. How to create a dedicated set and look for GameLinked in the limited space they have.

2. Save time from having to reset camera and lights between different shoots for different channels.

They settled on building a green screen studio, which they’d use for two different channels. No need to reset a stage or lights.

But they wanted to capture everything in camera as much as possible, to save time from having to key in post.

The solution: the Blackmagic Ultimatte 12 4K. Around the 4 minute mark, there’s a good demo of how easy and good the keying is with the Ultimatte with hair and transparent plastic bottles.

With this setup, they’re able to capture everything in camera with the virtual set they built in Unreal, so when it’s ready for post it’s already final frame.

Then they teased tracking the camera in their virtual set with two different solutions.

• VIVE Mars CamTrack, which we’ve demoed before. Weirdly, they balked at the $5K price tag, which is a bit head scratching since they just dropped $2500 for the Ultimatte (and called it a steal). And for a channel with over 15 million subscribers a one-time price of $5K for a virtual studio shouldn’t be an issue. 🤷‍♂️

• Using the iPhone’s ARKit to track camera movement, then resync it in Unreal and export the plate. Very time consuming.

But in the end he revealed that the new channel would have a locked off camera, so they wouldn’t be tracking the camera position in a virtual set after all. Again…🤷‍♂️

Big Picture: With VP tech coming down in cost, expect smaller media operations to tap into the time-saving advantages of virtual production and recording final pixel in camera.

Sponsor Message

MASV is a faster, easier way to transfer large files to anyone, anywhere in the world—with just an internet connection.

Trusted by media and entertainment organizations across the globe, MASV plays an essential role in thousands of video workflows, giving production professionals absolute confidence in media delivery.

Unlike other file transfer services, MASV has no size limits and always delivers blazing-fast transfer speeds.

Try MASV for free

Tutorial: Realistic face animations with MetaHuman

Around the Virtual Web

• Unreal Engine’s 5.3 roadmap

• Wonder Dynamics, AI tool to automatically animate, light, and compose CG characters, is open to the public

• Schedule posts and track your social media with Metricool*

• Interview on SMPTE’s 2 year anniversary since launching their virtual production initiative 

• Panel recap on the reality of virtual production

• New virtual production stage at Cinepack, designed by ARwall

* Sponsored Link