(Challenge)

Build 8 scenes based on real-world locations that will run on a 32' LED volume

Banner approached us with an Unreal Engine project that involved building out eight locations based on well known areas in Chicago with a twist. All the city locations needed to be blended with the forest.

The challenge comes in with the deadline. We had about 4 weeks for creative direction, world building, lighting, optimizations, and delivery.

We also needed to configure the ICVFX stage and calibrate the in-engine camera to match Banner's physical camera.

In addition to the live scenes that would be shot on the LED volume, exports of looping video of each scene were needed for the B set.

Razmus Media was responsible for: Everything Unreal Engine, scene building, lighting, optimizing, etc. ICVFX stage configuration (in-engine), in-engine camera calibration. On-set, we oversaw all aspects of virtual production and worked alongside the LED wall technical team to ensure quick resolutions of any technical or Unreal Engine related issues.

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(Goal)

Craft a Chicago that fits the vision of the director

The goal was simple. Faithfully translate Director JoVaughn's creative vision into a real-time environment built within Unreal Engine. However, the vision called for a lot of foliage. This presented a specific challenge: maintaining a smooth frame rate during the shoot. We needed to be very strategic about optimizing the scene to ensure it would run buttery smooth during the shoot.

To reach our goals, we setup Perforce to track changes in the project files and keep all artist's and developer's files in sync. This was crucial to help keep on track with a short timeline and ensure we had no productivity loss.

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(Result)

A great experience that pleased and delighted everyone involved

Preproduction: When we build scenes in Unreal Engine, optimization is embedded at every step. Once we had a scene near completion, we added the ICVFX stage and shared the project with the Vū team to review and test on their LED volume. This process was key to ensuring a smooth shoot day.

As scenes are built, we capture screen shots and videos of the progress. A Figma project is set up with a visual timeline that takes you from the creative vision and block outs to final details and lighting. This process makes client demos and feedback sessions quite delightful.

Once all the scenes were in their final state and approved by the creative directors and the Bears team, we packaged the project and prepped to be on location.

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Production: Razmus Media was responsible for supervising on-set virtual production and ensuring the Banner team was informed and in control of all creative direction.

Once we arrived at The Bears HQ, we met with the teams and set up our BTS equipment. This was a 5 day shoot with 50+ individuals to be filmed on the LED volume across the 3D locations and a suite of motion graphics (Produced by the Bears media team).

There were two sets: the primary 32' LED volume for ICVFX and a smaller B stage with a flat LED screen for motion graphics and looping scene videos.

Once the LED volume was built and connected, Razmus Media worked alongside Vū's technical team to operate the Unreal Engine ICVFX project, dial in the color grade, lighting, and scene switching.

All production shoots have little issues that come up, especially with a large number of people and the short amount of time we had with each of them. The important thing is how we react to issues. We were so very impressed with Banner's team and how they calmy listened to any issues and the trust they showed in us.

Virtual Production: Razmus Media developed a plugin and web remote preset to control and sync settings across the editor machine and the render nodes. This plugin allowed the editor to click a single button to open a new scene without needing to bring down the wall. Using OSC and nDisplay cluster messaging, it synchronizes all render nodes to open a new level while simultaneously opening in the editor. This may sound like a small thing, but when we have 15 minutes per person, reducing the level switching process from 5+ minutes to 10 seconds is a huge win!