a man on a stage with a microphone and a crowd of people

this is \virtual production/

Virtual production offers many advantages; learn about what it means to utilize this new technology on your projects.

Virtual Production combines photorealistic visuals, massive LED video walls, and millimeter-precice camera tracking all to create an infinitely flexible photorealistic background that responds to the camera (and to you!) in realtime.
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Virtual Production provides the creative freedom of bluescreen, the ease of studio shooting, and the excitement of location work.

total creative freedom – with absolutely no limits.

With virtual production, the laws of nature aren’t a limitation. Want to film a sunrise scene for twelve hours? No problem. Rather shoot that outdoor winter night scene during the day in a warm studio? Done. Always wish you could shoot in three continents in a day? Wish granted.

Virtual production removes the struggles of traditional filming. No travel, no bad weather, no harsh conditions, no permits, and no changing natural light.

You can fine-tune lighting, color grading, object placement, and other details during filming – which means changes can happen at your command.

+ on-demand weather

+ film Multiple locations

+ a happy crew

+ Efficient budget

Total Creative freedom on set | Virtual Production

pixel-perfect scenes, editable in real time.

With photo-realistic 3D environments, physically accurate lighting, post-processing effects, and a physics engine, you can go straight from shot to screen. If something doesn't look quite right, you can manipulate the environment in a matter of seconds.

Our team can assist you with creating custom 3D environments or collecting high resolution video plates.

Custom 3D ENVIRONMENTS

Edit in Real-time

REalistic Physics

Editable scenes in real time | SMASH Virtual Production

welcome to light
done right.

Virtual production removes the problem of light spill ^(yuck) associated with green screens. The curved LED display provides side and top lighting accurate to the environment.

You can also add, remove and adjust lighting, and add post-processing effects and color grading directly onto the screen, making lighting that's ready for production.

+ Adjustable lighting

+ post-processing

+ Color-grading

+ edit in real-time

Light Done Right | Smash Virtual Production Studios

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crew benefits

Not having to worry about reproducing rare lighting conditions, travel fees, or unexpected setbacks means that your crew doesn't have to be stretched thin, work long hours, or stand out in the heat (or cold!)

 Better hours
 Great working conditions
 Less travel

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production benefits

Scouting or blocking locations is now as easy as roaming around the digital environments and scheduling pre-visualization time in our studio to block out your next shoot. You won't have to worry about permits, or booking several locations.

 Convenient location scouting
 No permits or red tape
 Efficient budget

the \process/

01.

virtual environment creation

3D worlds are constructed in Unreal Engine or (2D video plates are captured) in collaboration with your art department and other creatives. SMASH's talented in-house VAD (Virtual Art Department) team can construct these locations from scratch, or SMASH can work with any external VAD team or VFX house offering virtual production services.

02.

previz

During the construction of the virtual environments, we're sending camera tests and communicating with your crew to ensure the look and feel of the scene is correct. Before the shoot, we do a process called Techblocking with your director, DP, and other department heads in which every scene is walked through with our team. This gives your crew a chance to become comfortable with this technology and make last second changes.

03.

the shoot

Our world-class studio operations team works with your crew to ensure the production utilizes our studio to its fullest potential. We can manipulate Unreal Engine environments in real-time to respond to changes, and we can record camera data to help speed up the VFX process. Color, light and texture changes are all possible within minutes, offering unprecedented creative control.

04.

pickups, VFX and beyond!

We're taking snapshots of the state of the environment as we shoot, allowing us to go back and revisit the set at any point for pickups or reshoots. And because these digital assets are the same kind that VFX would create anyway, we same time and money even into post!