Platform: A 270-degree Curved Screen/LED
Genre: Virtual Production Pipeline
Tools and Tech: In Camera VFX/Motion Capture/Virtual Production
Role: Producer/Pipelin Technical Artist/Technical Director/Creative Director
Links: WEBSITE/DOCUMENTATION

Burrata Virtual Production is a 14-week discovery project aimed at exploring and evaluating various virtual production technologies to establish a practical pipeline for CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). Our goal is to experiment with these tools, create proof-of-concept demos, and document the entire process to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on virtual production.

For our In-Camera VFX setup, we used a 270-degree projection wall powered by Unreal Engine's nDisplay configuration and a Vive tracker. This setup seamlessly merges the real and virtual worlds.The projection wall displays our scene, serving as both the background and lighting source. The nDisplay system ensures the virtual and physical spaces are perfectly aligned. The Vive tracker syncs the virtual camera with its physical counterpart, creating a cohesive illusion of space. We also used physical lighting to match the virtual environment, enhancing the realism of our scene.

 

As part of our virtual production pipeline, we began researching motion capture (Mocap) at the start of the semester, recognizing its importance in bringing our virtual characters to life within their scenes. We did a lot of research and decided to do real-time Mocap for our Metahuman character, as it aligned more effectively with our project's goals.