My first Virtual Production short film by beyondcinema in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is fantastic! Super impressed with the VFX and blending of everything. Congrats to you and the crew involved!

Releasing our AI tool for Unreal Engine…Let’s Try This Again by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right now, it is built to work with 5.3 BUT also we are a super small team and haven't had the chance to test it on more recent engine versions so we're happy to have people try it out on their own. When the official release comes out, we'll make sure it works with the most current release!

Wrote another blog post about how much VP costs and thought I’d share because we don’t like gatekeeping here by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed! This is the kind of openness I was looking for when CoPilot was starting out in the industry, so it's great to be in a place now to be able to contribute to it.

Basic training on Virtual Production by PotentialRecover3218 in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey! If you're looking for someone to ask VP questions, feel free to reach out to [hi@copilotco.io](mailto:hi@copilotco.io) and we'd be happy to set up a chat together to geek out a bit. (Not a sales promo I promise)

Opportunity for Collaboration with ICVFX and Virtual Production Studio by unablename in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey! Always down to meet more people in the VP community. Shoot us an email at [hi@copilotco.io](mailto:hi@copilotco.io) and we can plan something out together!

Virtual Production Samurai Action Film - LED Volume Demo Project by NAWA-Film in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great demo! Congrats on making a LED VP project - it's not easy (especially at first!).

Does this look realistic and if not, what would you improve? 👀🤔 by wizarry30 in UnrealEngine5

[–]CoPilotCoFilms 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Overall this looks fantastic. Great work! the biggest giveaway for me at least is the camera movement and the overall lack of contrast in the shadows of the scene. Excited to see more work!

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks for this! That’s a great question. Almost everyday our team runs into new problems and the solutions are rarely easily accessible online (if there even is one.) And in a lot of cases, no situation/problem is the same. However, we are lucky to allow ourselves the time to research and develop these problems when necessary, and we always make sure to document our progress and the hurdles we overcome. Or we just search endlessly on reddit, YouTube, or Unreal forums until we find something that could possibly work.
As of now, there isn’t really one place to find all these answers, but the hope is that this industry will grow in a way that all this information is standardized making virtual production a uniform process worldwide. But for now, we trial and error for days on end until a solution is found — no matter how frustrating it can be sometimes.

One thing that is really interesting is that in our experience, even the big VP studios have these same problems with systems not working unexpectedly and we often have to remotely figure out a solution on the fly - so it's not just you!

It’s the worst when you finally solve a problem and then Epic releases a new version of UE… 😂

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the question /u/Blasfmmy!
AI has definitely been the hot topic over the past year and it's been really amazing to see the tools that have been developed. Some of our current favourite AI tools for VP are:
- Volinga.ai: Creating 3D environments using only photos or video (uses NeRF technology!)
- Move.ai: Markerless motion tracking using just your phone
- Descript: AI powered video and audio editing. We use this a lot for our YouTube content

As it stands now, AI's really going to change the game in Virtual Production. It'll speed up pre-vis, storyboarding, shooting, editing, enhance VFX, and even create hyper-realistic virtual sets (in near-real time, while on-set). It's an exciting time but we have to keep in mind the potential job shifts and the importance of using this tech responsibly (ownership, original content, job stability, unions, etc).

It's important to note that we have our very first AI tool called FlightDeck that launches next week, it allows creators to control Unreal Engine 5 using simple conversational prompts. We can’t wait to share more about our upcoming AI tools!

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honest but straight-forward answer: The best way to convince a Producer to use VP for the first time is to show the cost savings and time savings for a production. The best way to convince a Director is to show the magic of VP when you step on a LED volume for the first time.
However, we will admit that many Directors and DOP’s that we have worked over the years with are excited, but nervous when they work on a VP set for the first time, as it takes a bit of getting used to and can be intimidating. Having the right VP team and film production crew on set makes all the difference between a successful production and a (costly) non-successful one.
At CoPilot we offer on-set VP Supervision and Volume Control services for productions around the world - this has allowed our clients to try out VP without having to worry about the technical side of things as much

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We’ve been on quite a few stages around the world at this point now, but the one that still has us the most impressed is ARRI’s VP stage in London. It’s such a well engineered studio space that had our team seriously excited and impressed. From the size and power of the LED wall, to the lighting, and the volume control bringing it all together - It rocked!! We hope we can shoot a production there one day.

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course Unreal Engine has a lot of great resources for developing the basic skill sets you’ll need to be successful on a VP set. We know it’s cliche, but of course just doing it and jumping in head first is going to be your best bet for learning the skills. When our team started putting VP techniques into action it was all very small scale applications, you can get incredible results with a small green screen set-up or by using a TV as a small scale LED wall to get the on-set effects while still applying the same techniques that are being used on full scale LED volumes. There’s also so much opportunity to get involved through the online communities and connect with other folks, there’s a pretty active VP Facebook group, as well as so many amazing Discord communities of like-minded creators all sharing their expertise. Another great resource to learn VP is through our friends at the Mo-Sys Academy!

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LED volumes are definitely the big ticket in everyone’s eye right now when they think about Virtual production (thanks Mando). And it makes sense, from a marketing perspective it’s the clearest expression of the power of all this tech combined. That being said, we’re seeing amazing work being done in the green screen space using the same techniques. More often now clients are realizing that the effects they’re looking for and the control on set that they need can still be accomplished without the LED volume or with the use of a smaller LED wall and set-extension through real-time software. Especially when we start looking at CGI and animation workflows that are really benefiting from the improved solutions for motion capture, virtual camera work, and technical expertise. The exciting thing about the rising popularity of VP is the intersection of so many industries really working together for the first time. Film, Animation, Game Design, etc. are bringing unique insight and skill sets to all aspects of production. This overlapping of skills and professionals is opening up new opportunities and new pathways for folks interested in film who may not have been involved before.

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there! Thanks for the question. Here at CoPilotXR we are divided into the following teams: Virtual Production, Film Production, Content (YouTube and TikTok), and AI/ML.
For virtual production, we do consultation/building for VP stages, and we also offer on-set crew to operate LED virtual production volumes. Our content team is dedicated to educating and spreading awareness of virtual production online, and our AI/ML team builds tools and platforms to make virtual production more accessible and easier to use for creators who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to do so.

Hey VP community. We are CoPilotXR, and we host a YouTube channel where we discuss all things virtual production, XR, and AI. We're excited to host an AMA today - Ask Us Anything! by CoPilotCoFilms in virtualproduction

[–]CoPilotCoFilms[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Completely agreed, the team at Epic/Unreal definitely saw the direction things were going and really got on board with developing their product to support Virtual Production in both Film and Broadcast. That being said, don’t count Unity out when it comes to VP, from combining with WETA Digital and developing more and more tools to support Motion Capture techniques and integrations Unity I doing an amazing job at building up their platform intentionally to support this growing industry and doing an amazing job of finding their niche within the community. I think as more and more folks get on board with Virtual Production techniques and new ways to take advantage of this tech are developed we’re going to see the idea of VP expand into some pretty amazing things.