Good Afternoon! In this weeks virtual production round-up, we have:
Cover Story: A quick look back, but also into 2025
What's Hot: The Gorge, Turn-key solutions and more!...
Starting Pixel News: Trains, Automobiles and more!...
Events & Training: VP Gathering, HDR & more...
Let's do this!
Be Seen: Join the Starting Pixel VP Crew Directory!
We're upgrading the Starting Pixel website with a new VP talent directory—featuring crew, supervisors, DPs, producers, and directors with VP experience. Want to be included? Click below to add your details. Add Your Details to the Directory Now
Was 2024 Any Good for Virtual Production? And Will 2025 Be Better?
If Starting Pixel’s growth is anything to go by, 2024 wasn’t half bad. Our WhatsApp group doubled in size, we hosted more meetups than ever before, launched a weekly round-up, and tripled attendance at October's Starting Pixel Live. In short, it's been a year of community momentum and growing interest.
On the tech front, we've seen some exciting shifts. Pixel pitches are shrinking, colour spaces are expanding, and purpose-built tech for virtual production—like cameras, lenses, and lighting—continues to emerge. Is it perfect? Hardly. But let’s not forget: in just a few years, virtual production has gone from getting reflections on a Mandalorian’s helmet to spawning LED studios at breakneck speed. And let’s give a nod to the underappreciated chromakey side of VP—if green screen tech were invented today, we’d be losing our minds (we still love it).
Then there’s the software scene. Chaos, with its deep roots in 3D visualisation, is flexing its muscles with tools that might just challenge Unreal Engine as the go-to for ICVFX. The competition is heating up, and that’s never a bad thing.
But did it live up to the hype? Let’s be honest—what ever does? Hype is a double-edged sword: it stirs excitement but inevitably falls short of reality. Then comes the calm, the settling in. Cloud tech went through it. AI will, too. Virtual production is no different.
Looking ahead to 2025, the outlook is bright. Growth isn’t just confined to film studios; corporations are exploring the tech, influencers and streamers are dreaming up new formats, and we’re inching closer to a world built for multi-screen, short-attention-span audiences.
We’ve got some ambitious plans for 2025: live-streaming podcasts (we’re toying with VPodcast—silent P or V, or not), a Starting Pixel world tour, integrating with established conferences, a shiny website upgrade, and even a VP 101 training platform. After all, we know what a ‘nit’ is—most people don’t—and that’s a serious blocker for wider adoption.
It’s going to be a wild ride—just make sure you don’t blink.
If you are enjoying the newsletter and see its value, please consider supporting the newsletter and the community by buying the team a coffee.
WHAT'S HOT
CES: Disguise, Nikon and MRMC - A Turnkey VP Studio HERE
Capturing the Future HERE
The Gorge Trailer - if you know, you know... HERE
High Speed Virtual Production for Stills and Video Content Creation HERE
Live stunt sequence on a high-speed moving train HERE
Driving the nDisplay or ICVFX Wall with an XBOX Controller in UE HERE
STARTING PIXEL NEWS
The Top WhatsApp Chats from Last Week:
Fight sequence on top of a train in Show and Tell:
Rigging the physical backlight to follow the sun path from the Unreal project improved the look and shooting speed. Being handheld within the screens, without losing tracking, was a breakthrough. Shadows in Unreal environments still need refinement, and more time in the tunnel would have preserved shadow detail amidst technical hiccups. - link above.
AI driving the physics of a car for ICVFX
The VAD group's discussion delved into real-time crash simulations, AI’s role to streamline the physics to make more realistic movement. Unreal Engine already has a 'learning agent' that is trained, reducing complex solutions designed for the car industry, down to minutes of learning.
Events, Offers, Work and Training
New Art of Visual Storytelling with HDR with Dolby. Mo-Sys StarTracker after market sale. And World VFX Day recap.
IP ownership of locations
Location capture's pretty easy (results can vary), but who owns the capture? Depends where you are in the world, and what has protection to local law, but still a lot of interpretation.
STARTING PIXEL BLOGS
SPONSOR MESSAGE
Discover the Future of Filmmaking with Morden Wolf!
As a premier end-to-end virtual production studio, Morden Wolf combines cutting-edge technology with seamless storytelling.
Morden Wolf, where imagination meets innovation.
EVENTS
4th Feb | Barcelona | Starting Pixel After Party @ISE | HERE
24th Feb - 26th March | Belfast | XR Festival | HERE
5-9th Apr | Las Vegas | NAB | Reg interest HERE
6th Apr | Las Vegas | Starting Pixel After Party @NAB | HERE
9-10th Apr | Brenda NL | Virtual Production Gathering | HERE
14th May | London | Starting Pixel After Party @MP&T | HERE
2-7 June 2025 | SXSW London | Reg Live | HERE
10-14 Aug 2025 | Vancouver | SIGGRAPH | Submit | HERE
15th Oct 2025 | London | SPL25! | Reg your interest | HERE
TRAINING
If you have any events or training drop us a note hello@startingpixel.com
Comments