XR For Everyone: Your Beginners Guide to XR Virtual Production

At Reveal XR, we know that XR and virtual production can often feel futuristic and difficult to understand. So we’re here to help, and clear up some of the terms you may hear thrown around when speaking to someone about virtual production or when considering an XR studio for your own content creation needs. This is XR for Everyone, your beginners guide to XR and virtual production.

XR: XR which is an acronym for “Extended Reality” which combines the use of LED technology blended with practical elements to produce “In-Camera VFX” content. XR production has multiple levels of complexity and depending on the creative, our team at Reveal XR can guide and direct the right execution of this content. 

Motion Control: Programming repeatable camera movements quickly for efficient shooting and precise control. With motion control, you can make the camera move exactly how you want, getting more shots in less time.

Camera Tracking: Using a system to track the camera’s position in real-time and feed that data into the rendering engine. Camera tracking helps create dynamic shots by knowing exactly where the camera is at all times keeping both the digital backgrounds and physical elements in perspective. 

Star Tracker: A system that tracks the position and orientation of the camera by using small reflective stickers called ‘stars’ placed on the studio ceiling. This helps create accurate movements by the camera and results in the most realistic virtual environments.

Digital Environments: Specifically designed virtual environments, often called “volumes”, are assets created for the LED wall to capture real time content. They can be customized to mimic any setting, offering directors precise control over every detail. The best part? These environments can be edited on-set, in real time, with a few clicks of a button, saving hours of time during the production process. 

Unreal Engine: One of the original tools for creating photorealistic visuals and immersive experiences in 3D. Unreal allows for real time rendering, customizations, and editing, allowing producers and directors to see the final result immediately and make adjustments on the fly, reducing post-production time.

Repeatability of Shots: The ability to replicate shots accurately from different angles, maintaining consistency throughout the scene. You can shoot the same scene from multiple angles without losing any details thanks to precise motion control and target tracking.  

At Reveal XR, precise repeatability is achieved through the use of a robotic motion control system from our strategic studio partner, SISU Cinema Robotics.SISU offers a variety of robots to meet specific production needs. Everything from small tabletop to large-scale production solutions, SISU is the fastest and easiest programmable production robot on the market featuring target tracking, #VFX integration and track control.

Front Plate Elements: Digital content overlaid on footage of the talent during filming. Front plate elements add digital effects directly onto the scene as it’s being shot, enhancing the visuals in real-time and ensuring a shot is as lifelike as possible.

Back Plate Elements: Digital content rendered behind the talent during filming. Back plate elements create virtual backgrounds that match the scene, making it look like the actors are in any environment you choose.

ICVFX: In Camera Visual Effects; Special effects created and capture in-camera, reducing the need for post-production editing. ICVFX uses the LED screen and real-time rendering to add effects directly to the scene, making the final result more realistic.

Reflection: Production teams are able to embrace in-camera reflections that have traditionally been too difficult to capture or too time consuming to fix in post production. Reflections in XR adjust in real-time to mimic how objects would reflect in the real world, making the experience more immersive and lifelike.

With these simplified explanations, you’re ready to dive into the world of XR and virtual production with confidence! And any questions…our team of experts is always available to answer those questions and get you ready for your next big project!