Lights, virtual camera, action!

• Main Author: Hodgkinson, Gray
• Other Authors: School of Art, Design and Media
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::General; Virtual Reality; Animation
• Online Access: https://www.techart.cau.ac.kr/archive/2017; https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148206
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The recent commercialisation and affordability of virtual reality technology has enabled widespread exploration of some rather advanced methods of developing new visual experiences. In December of 2016 Kert Gartner (Techrunch 2016) tweeted his success with a virtual camera assembled together using an HTC Vive VR Headset, an iPhone, and three Vive hand controllers. This performs the same essential function as the virtual cameras developed by large studios, where the camera operator or director films the artificial world and its animations through a hand-held screen, referred as a virtual camera. Gartner’s prototype represents a democratisation of this technology that enables smaller studios and individuals to adopt a similar approach – to film their animations in real time, using the same actions and behaviours of a real film camera. When this creative approach to technology is then combined with the new recent cinematic tools in game building engines, the possibilities for animation production is game-changing. Post-production demands such as rendering and compositing will move into the creation space, merging animation, lighting, editing and rendering all into one real-time creative experience.