Month: November 2021

Mo-Sys™ Engineering and APG Media, a leading LED volume rental provider and distributor, have partnered to provide customers with access to complete end-to-end LED virtual production set-ups, combining Mo-Sys’ StarTracker and VP Pro XR with APG Media’s HyperPixel, customised LED wall solutions. 

The Mo-Sys StarTracker camera/lens tracking system has become the technology of choice for leading-edge virtual productions. The advanced tools in VP Pro XR content server include the unique ability to pull focus seamlessly between real and virtual objects. By partnering with APG Media, Mo-Sys can now offer custom engineered LED tiles and a comprehensive package for tailored LED volume, multi-camera production systems. 
 
“The appetite for high production values means virtual production is no longer exclusive to big budget movies,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “In cinematography, the quality of LED walls has to be as high as possible to deliver the best results and HyperPixel meets this requirement. Through this collaboration with APG Media we are removing the technical complexity from the equation and freeing up production teams to express their full creativity with an immaculate end result.”

David Weatherhead, CEO at APG Media added “Virtual production is taking off as cinematographers and content producers recognise the impact this model can have on their final output – if they use the right technology. In a segment that is already at the cutting edge, Mo-Sys is a pioneer and a market leader, and this partnership brings huge value to both our customers. By combining our offerings, we can now open the doors to the best technology and help cinematographers to create the stunning content that audiences demand.” 
 
The new Mo-Sys Refinery in Los Angeles will feature a HyperPixel high resolution LED wall, featuring ultra-tight seams for the ultimate in immersive visual experiences. APG Media will add a Mo-Sys VP Pro XR and StarTracker to the offering within its rapidly growing specialist virtual production division. The two companies will cooperate on marketing and exhibition, as well as providing support for sales channels. 

Mo-Sys Engineering reveals new solutions for LED virtual production with a high frame rate (HFR) StarTracker camera tracking system and the award-winning NearTime® workflow extended to LED volumes.

NearTime for LED is a smart solution to solve multiple challenges when shooting in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) in an LED volume. At its most basic level it is an automated background re-rendering service for improving the quality and/or resolution of Unreal based virtual production scenes, and is used simultaneously alongside a real-time ICVFX shoot.  

NearTime solves one of the key challenges of LED ICVFX shoots, which is balancing Unreal image quality whilst maintaining real-time frame rates. Currently every Unreal scene created for ICVFX has to be reduced in quality in order to guarantee real-time playback.

Using NearTime with an LED ‘green frustum’, the same Unreal scene can be automatically re-rendered with higher quality or resolution, and this version can replace the original background Unreal scene. Whilst it takes longer to do this, no traditional post-production costs or time have been used, plus moiré issues can be avoided completely!

Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler said, “We patented NearTime almost 8 years ago knowing that real-time graphics quality versus playback frame rate was always going to be an issue with ICVFX shoots. At that time we were focussing on green/blue screen use, but today LED volumes have exactly the same challenge.”

Mo-Sys is also announcing a special StarTracker for LED that provides camera and lens tracking up to 240fps for slo-mo shots, as would be typically used for fight scenes in high impact action films. In this scenario, rather than drive the LED wall at high frame rates to match the camera, which requires significant hardware processing and comes with an Unreal image quality impact, NearTime for LED is used to post-render the Unreal scene at HFR following the HFR ‘green frustum’ shoot of the talent performing. During the slo-mo shot review, the re-rendered Unreal background and the talent foreground are re-combined, delivering a significantly higher quality composited shot.

“Proxies were used as a smart solution to solving computer processing limits in the early days of digital compositing and colour grading,” Geissler commented. “Similarly, HFR StarTracker and NearTime for LED is a smart solution to shooting slo-mo shots in an LED volume.”

The HFR StarTracker for LED has been designed in anticipation of future GPU processing improvements enabling higher frame rate Unreal scene playback. In conjunction with Mo-Sys’ VP Pro XR content server, the HFR StarTracker’s programmable phase shift feature can utilise Brompton Technology’s Frame Remapping or Megapixel VR’s GhostFrame capability for simultaneous multi-camera shoots in an LED volume.

NearTime for LED will be available in Q4 to Mo-Sys customers with VP Pro and VP Pro XR. The HFR StarTracker for LED will be available early Q1 2022.

Mo-Sys Engineering has solved a major creative limitation when using an LED volume for virtual production. Cinematographers who needed to pull focus between real foreground objects – such as actors – and virtual objects displayed on an LED wall – such as a deer, far away in the virtual world as in the example in the video below – have been unable to do this as the lens focal plane stops at the LED wall, meaning the deer always remains out of focus.

The new Cinematic XR Focus has been recognised in the Cine Gear 2021 Technical Awards for its innovative technology.

For the first time, an LED wall can be used as more than just a backdrop and can instead integrate with the real stage. Cinematographers can now seamlessly rack focus deep into the virtual world and create layered images to enhance their visual storytelling, saving time and money by combining shots in a way that they will be familiar with.

James Uren, technical Director at Mo-Sys and inventor of Cinematic XR explains, “Traditionally, the LED wall has been a passive part of the wider set, but we are now empowering cinematographers to turn this feature into an asset that enhances and strengthens the overall story.”

This is achieved intuitively using the same wireless lens control system commonly used in film-making and is compatible with Preston wireless lens controllers (Hand Unit 3 and MDR-3). The lens controller is synchronized with the output of the Unreal Engine graphics, working with Mo-Sys’ StarTracker camera tracking technology to constantly track the distance between the camera and the LED wall.

Cinematic XR Focus is just one of many key capabilities that Mo-Sys is adding to its VP Pro XR, a purpose-built scalable XR server, that enables the use of traditional shooting techniques within virtual productions.

See Cinematic XR Focus in action in the video below:

On Friday 5 November, AV Awards announced the 2021 winners. Mo-Sys is delighted to receive recognition in the Broadcast and Media Project of the Year category. Mo-Sys, Potion Pictures, BBC Studioworks and Lighting Designer, David Bishop were Highly Commended for Augmented Reality in the Strictly Ballroom.

Click here to read more from the AV Awards announcement.

Strictly Augmented Reality

In the UK, Strictly is the most popular entertainment program on television. For the 2020 season, the producers wanted to add even more glitz and glamour, and were considering upping the graphics game even before the full extent of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the production plan had to be completely rethought.

From steam trains to elephants, the 2020 series of Strictly Come Dancing went all out to provide the visual wow factor and make up for the lack of a live audience. Potion Pictures delivered a series of exciting and extravagant graphics using Mo-Sys StarTracker and VP Pro.

We found that Mo-Sys’s StarTracker technology and VP-Pro Plug-In was the perfect combination of hardware and software to bring AR to life on Strictly Come Dancing.  Mo-Sys also provided onsite support for every live show, and helped push the boundaries of what was achievable.  The results visibly improved on a weekly basis as the BBC production team grew increasingly ambitious with their ideas.  The Mo-Sys team of engineers and technicians were invaluable for providing expertise and enthusiasm for the show.

David Newton, Managing Director of Potion Pictures

Read more about the Strictly Case Study here.

Head behind the scenes of The Faraway Nearby and find out how state-of-the-art virtual technology enables filmmakers to tell the story of Joseph Weber – the first scientist to explore the detection of gravitational waves. The Faraway Nearby team illustrate the power of virtual production, in its ability to bring the narrative to life in such a way that it becomes difficult to tell what is real and what is not.

The Mo-Sys StarTracker is the glue that pulls virtual production together. Accurate, reliable camera tracking is essential to virtual production. We set the Mo-Sys [StarTracker] up and it runs all day long with no problems. That’s what I want from a film shoot.

Todd Freese, Resolution Productions Group SVP/CTO

The Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking technology is relied upon to bring this production together, facilitating a level of creative and convincing storytelling that simply could not be conveyed through traditional documentary-making means.

Watch the full video below: