Visual Effects and Virtual Production
Shooting for visual effects and virtual production: VFX planning and budgets, previs, plates and elements, blue and green screen, tracking markers, on-set data capture, motion control, set extensions, LED volumes and in-camera VFX, volume lighting and color, and turnover to the VFX team.
CINE-302 Year 3 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 4 min
Offered by HSM University · Cinematography
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain how visual effects fit into the production pipeline and distinguish practical, special and visual effects
- Break down scripts for VFX, understand bids and budgets, and recognize how photography choices drive VFX cost
- Use previs, techvis, stuntvis and postvis to plan effects shots with real lenses, distances and camera moves
- Shoot clean plates, background plates, tiled plates and elements that VFX artists can integrate
- Light and photograph blue and green screens for clean keys while lighting subjects for the final environment
- Plan tracking markers, parallax and lens grids so matchmovers can solve camera motion accurately
- Capture on-set VFX data including lens metadata, HDRIs, reference spheres, LiDAR and photogrammetry
- Plan motion control and repeatable moves for multi-pass shots, crowds and miniatures
- Shoot for set extensions, digital environments, atmosphere and digital doubles with appropriate consent
- Explain LED volume systems, including frustums, tracking, latency, pixel pitch, moiré, genlock and wall brightness
- Light and manage color in LED volumes with image-based fixtures, full-spectrum sources and calibration
- Collaborate with the VFX team through reviews, turnover, color pipelines and finishing, and write a VFX shooting plan
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 4 min total · final exam
- 1 Visual effects in the production pipeline 25 min · quiz
- 2 VFX breakdowns, budgets and bidding 25 min · quiz
- 3 Previs, techvis, stuntvis and postvis 25 min · quiz
- 4 Shooting plates and elements 25 min · quiz
- 5 Green and blue screen technique 25 min · quiz
- 6 Matchmoving and tracking markers 25 min · quiz
- 7 On-set data capture: lens data, HDRIs, LiDAR and references 25 min · quiz
- 8 Motion control and repeatable moves for VFX 25 min · quiz
- 9 Set extensions, digital environments and digital doubles 25 min · quiz
- 10 LED volumes and in-camera VFX 29 min · quiz
- 11 Lighting and color in LED volumes 25 min · quiz
- 12 Working with the VFX team: reviews, turnover and the final image 25 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
- CINE-202 Exposure, Dynamic Range and Image Pipelines
- CINE-221 Lighting II: Motivated and Naturalistic Lighting
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Shooting for visual effects and virtual production: VFX planning and budgets, previs, plates and elements, blue and green screen, tracking markers, on-set data capture, motion control, set extensions, LED volumes and in-camera VFX, volume lighting and color, and turnover to the VFX team.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 3.