Co-funded by the EU
Main header picture for Business from a Virtual Production Project

Business from a Virtual Studio

In this project, an operating model for innovation cooperation between R&D and industry regarding virtual productions is planned and produced.

The future of movie making, advertising and story telling

Business from a Virtual Studio Project

In this project, internationally interesting virtual studios productions, the latest camera technology, and service design products utilizing VR/AR/XR/5G technologies are being designed, and an operating model for innovation cooperation in research, R&D and business life is being developed, with which companies, universities and Cooperation Areas affected by smart specialization in the region can still respond faster and better to the needs and changes of the international market.

The service design workshop products and the innovation cooperation operating model to be developed take into account and utilize the region’s smart specialization strategy and strengths, developing them even stronger internationally.

What is virtual production?

Virtual production is a technology that is disrupting the film and audiovisual industry. It combines the game engine used in making video games (e.g. Unreal Engine) and the camera connected to it, for example, which follows the movement of the actor, and the LED wall into a whole, which can be used to create impressive and realistic scenes and sets.

Utilizing a virtual studio as a production environment requires a completely new way of thinking from the creators. Traditionally, the stages of (fiction) production have been: script, pre-production, filming and post-production. In virtual production, the structure is significantly more nonlinear. The focus that typically belongs to the post-production phase shifts to the pre-production and filming phase.

The key measures of the project

In the project, experts in the media industry and potential customers will be brought together to learn about new technology and new ways of working.

•Xamk’s Game Design study program produces game engine expertise and the ability to work smoothly with game engine technologies. The virtual production studio is located in the home building of the Game Design study program.

•Meduusa studio has motion capture equipment in the same space, which is used as part of virtual productions.

•The operation is international and all networks rely on international contacts and expertise.

•The goal is to create a virtual production competence hub that generates new business regionally.

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HE VIRTUAL CIVIL PROTECTION SIMULATOR VIDEO 11.3.2024

he virtual civil protection simulator project video launched the project with a bang on March 11, 2024. Since the civil defense simulator uses the same Unreal game engine as the virtual studio, project manager Jani Kiviranta came up with the idea of ​​simultaneously filming the demonstration material related to the simulator so that the representatives of the rescue service are “inside” the simulator environment.

VR expert Eero Tiainen prepared a suitable version of the simulator environment for a virtual studio, and Dan Brierley helped make it ready for shooting in the virtual production environment at Xamk Meduusa studio.

Photo: Teemu Veneskari, development manager of the Kymenlaakso rescue service, in the virtual studio filmed by Jani Kiviranta with a Black Magic camera.

PALIMPSESTI – OHITA INTRO MOVIE WRITER-DIRECTOR HANNA VÄSTINSALO AND PRODUCER CYRIL ABRAHAM VISIT

On April 6, 2024, Hanna Västinsalo, the writer-director of the film Palimpsesti – Ohita Intro, and Cyril Abraham, the producer who arrived from New York for the premiere, visited the virtual production space of the Meduusa studio to get to know the LED wall and equipment. The purpose was to investigate how the wall can be used with a slightly more unconvential camera equipment and lens selection, and well, it does work.

This helps us to understand how, for example, a production company in the media sector needs to prepare for light virtual production when making presentation and advertising videos.

Facts

Project name:

Business from a Virtual Studio

Project duration: 1.3.2024–31.8.2025

Info

Lead partner: South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences

Budget

Financier and main source of funding: Uudenmaan Liitto / Kymenlaakson Liitto; Rahoitusohjelma: Uudistuva ja osaava Suomi 2021– 2027 EU:n alue- ja rakennepolitiikan ohjelma, EAKR
Total budget: 131106 euro
EU part of the total budget: 91774 euro
Xamk part of the total budget: 39332 euro