Role: ‘VR Consultant’ - (notionally Unreal Scouting Lead)
Pat was brought onto Thor: Love and Thunder to support the Virtual Production pipeline in pre-production with VR Location Scouting in Unreal Engine. Supporting ILM and Marvel’s use of the Stagecraft LED volume, the job demanded technical knowledge of Unreal and its VR scouting subsystem to visualise Art Department’s Virtual (and later also Physical) set builds/extensions.
Process began with taking Art Dept.’s exported 3D concept art models, set builds and LiDAR scans and optimising them for VR and then setting up levels - ready to be scouted.
Scouting would involve the Director, VFX Supervisor and DoP scouting in VR together with Unreal’s Multi-User sessions. Scouting tools include taking snapshots with the film's lenses on a handheld viewfinder, grabbing and moving objects, measuring distances in virtual space and deciding where to place a volume within or over virtual sets in order to determine what needed to be built physically. Pat would drive the scouts on Desktop, making edits to the scene and manipulating lighting in order to produce a satisfactory outcome. There was also a need to develop our own set of custom tools to refine the scouting process, such as a Director cam, a small HUD that would show the VFX Sup. and DOP what the Director would see.
By the end of production the VAD was also hosting scouts for physical sets in order to drive reviews of complex scenes and inform Construction, Stunts and even Greens in planning.
After scouts, VAD would deliver the modified versions and notes of the original scenes back to the Art Department as well as any relevant Unreal content to ILM as a part of approval, ready for presentation on the Volume or to be built.
