- Demoreel:
- Reflection on Guest Speaker: Vikram Verma – Real-World Perspectives on Virtual Production
- Learning from Pif Edwards: The Story Behind JALI
- Metahuman Character
- Immersion Room Tech Demo:
- Guest Speaker Reflection: Jamie Hurcomb
- Learning from Catarina Rodrigues: A Motion Capture Journe
- Tech demo : 2D House
- Thank you post draft:
- Reflection : sp studios
- Thank You Post
Demoreel:
Reflection on Guest Speaker: Vikram Verma – Real-World Perspectives on Virtual Production
I was inspired by Vikram Verma’s story of how his diverse career experiences across different places allowed him to gather skills that became essential in Virtual Production. His transition from theme park media production, set builds, VR/AR projects, and more into a producer role in Virtual Production showed me the importance of mastering every skill. It reminded me that what we learn in one area may prove valuable in unexpected ways. I also gained a clearer perspective on the industry through his explanation of "pre-pre-production" processes such as budgeting, shot listing for VP, and contracts. Thank you, Vikram Verma, for sharing your real-world experiences with us, your insights were both eye-opening and motivating.
Learning from Pif Edwards: The Story Behind JALI
I had the amazing opportunity to have Pif Edwards as our guest speaker. His innovative solution for Cyberpunk 2077’s massive challenge of animating lip sync for over 2 million lines of dialogue in 10 languages was truly fascinating. The fact that his highly optimized algorithm could even run on a cellphone was incredibly impressive.
It was also really cool to see how JALI beautifully maximizes efficiency while giving artists even greater creative control. The way it allows changes to be made seamlessly whenever needed—through a creative and user-friendly UI—was truly impressive.
As a student VFX artist working with a modest setup, I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of pushing efficiency and optimization to their limits without compromising on quality. Learning about the creation of JALI, its purpose, and how a 1.6-megabyte algorithm could solve such a large-scale problem was deeply inspiring.
Thank you, Pif, for taking the time to share your invaluable insights and the incredible story behind JALI’s creation. Your session was both inspiring and motivating.
Metahuman Character
I had a lot of fun working on this assignment and gained valuable insights into how the Metahuman Creator functions within Unreal Engine 5.6. Since I had to scan my own face and use that mesh in Unreal Engine, I encountered some interesting challenges along the way.
One issue I faced was related to my beard — its uneven texture caused imperfections during the facial scanning process. Although I was able to clean up these imperfections in Blender, I noticed that my jawline mesh included the volume of my beard which made it look slightly off. It was interesting because it seemed very obvious once I noticed it, yet it was still surprising at the same time. To correct the facial proportions, I used the face sculpting tools in metahuman creator to refine my face structure.
Another challenge was the lack of beard, hair, and moustache options in the Metahuman library that matched my appearance. I chose the closest available options, but this experience made me curious about creating custom hair and facial hair assets, especially since I have prior experience with CFX grooming in Houdini.
Overall, this project helped me better understand the capabilities and potential of Unreal Engine. I plan to continue improving and refining my Metahuman to make it as close to my real self as possible.
Immersion Room Tech Demo:
I had the incredible opportunity to visit the Immersion Room. During my visit, I learned a lot about how the real world operates in the virtual production industry. It was inspiring to hear about Mike Boers and Tanya Stemberger’s journey and the history of the Immersion Room. Mike kindly gave us a tour of the studio and demonstrated the different technologies they use. Heather Campbell and Jess Kalucki, the VAD artists, were also very helpful in showing us their workflow and sharing advice on how to improve our skills in this industry. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Immersion Room was their innovative approach to solving expensive technical problems. Instead of relying on costly processors for their LED wall, like other big studios in Toronto, they built their own solution. Their LED wall was powered by a Linux machine running two RTX 5090 GPUs. The output methods—Ethernet and fiber optics—were similar to those used by Brompton processors. They even developed custom Linux tools to monitor performance, accessible to the VAD team through a closed network. This setup was incredibly impressive and demonstrated the potential of custom-built technology in virtual production. Another new concept I learned about was “Ghost Framing”, which displays images based on the camera’s shutter angle and speed. Mike demonstrated this by flashing the wall with two outputs so that the camera could only see one image at a time. Since their LED wall was controlled by a Linux-based processor, he could instantly switch frames through a command line. This technique opens up new possibilities for procedural control in virtual production—such as dynamically changing ghost framing based on the camera’s position or rotation—allowing for creative and technically advanced shots. I was also amazed to learn that their LED wall could run at 960 Hz. Mike also mentioned their R&D department, which is currently developing a custom real-time 3D rendering engine specifically for virtual production. Although we didn’t get to meet the R&D team, Mike shared details about their work. As an independent VFX artist and procedural enthusiast, I found this particularly inspiring. I am very interested in pursuing a career in Research and Development, as I am deeply passionate about pushing the virtual production industry to its limits. The field is growing rapidly, and I believe there is tremendous potential to create better tools and rendering engines that enhance efficiency and creative control in virtual production. My long-term goal is to contribute to this growth by developing innovative technologies that make high-end virtual production more accessible and flexible. Thank-You Post Draft: I want to sincerely thank Mike Boers and Tanya Stemberger for introducing us to the Immersion Room. The visit was incredibly informative and inspiring. As a VFX artist and aspiring R&D developer, I was deeply impressed by their custom Linux LED wall setup and their innovative approach to problem-solving. Mike’s creativity and technical expertise are truly motivating—he’s an inspiration and a role model for anyone pursuing virtual production. Thank you for the amazing tour and valuable insights!
Guest Speaker Reflection: Jamie Hurcomb
I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Jamie Hurcomb, and her insights into careers and essential skills in media and entertainment showed how widely Unreal Engine is used across many industries today. She also highlighted how various virtual production sectors rely on Unreal Engine, and I was amazed to learn that Unreal has already been used in more than 850 films. Her discussion on the value of being a generalist and adopting a transmedia mindset clearly showed how creators can better engage diverse audiences in today’s industry. The session helped me better understand how developing versatile technical and creative skills can strengthen my own career path in virtual production. Hearing real-world examples of how these skills are applied across industries motivated me to further improve my Unreal Engine and cross-disciplinary knowledge. Thank you, Jamie Hurcomb, for taking the time to share your experiences with us and for providing practical and inspiring guidance during your live session.
Learning from Catarina Rodrigues: A Motion Capture Journe
I had the opportunity to attend a talk by motion capture and creative technology specialist Catarina “Cat” Rodrigues, where I learned how complex and technology-driven the motion capture industry truly is. Hearing about her career journey was inspiring and helped me better understand the pathway I hope to pursue in this field. I was especially fascinated by her explanation of the 360-degree 3D scanning rig and how even a small cable error can disrupt the entire photogrammetry setup, highlighting the precision required in this work. As someone passionate about technology, learning about new and emerging tools used in the industry further motivated me to deepen my technical skills. The session gave me clearer insight into career possibilities in motion capture and creative technology and encouraged me to prepare more seriously for this path. Thank you, Catarina Rodrigues, for generously sharing your time, experiences, and practical advice with our class.
Tech demo : 2D House
I had the amazing opportunity to visit 2D House Virtual Production Studio as part of a tech demo in the Virtual Production program at Humber Polytechnic. During my time there, I saw several new technologies that I had not previously learned about in depth or seen in person. What stood out most was how their workflow and hardware setup differed from other virtual production studios in Toronto that I have visited. One of the biggest differences was their use of an inside-out tracking system instead of the more common outside-in tracking setup. They had a Star Tracker system, with tracking markers (stickers) installed across the ceiling around the volume. What made this even more unique was their transparent LED ceiling, where tracking markers were installed behind the LED panels. This was the first time I had seen a setup like this in person. It was especially interesting to understand the practical advantages of this system. Compared to outside-in tracking systems, their setup required less frequent recalibration, which can save significant production time and reduce technical interruptions on set. Another new piece of technology for me was their use of the NovaStar LED processor, which differed from the Brompton processors I have commonly seen in other VP studios. Although it was similar in terms of setup and outputs, it was insightful to see how different processors manage signal flow, bandwidth, and refresh rates. James Hughes explained the technical considerations behind running the LED wall at higher frame rates, including bandwidth limitations and the hardware requirements needed to maintain stable performance. This gave me a clearer understanding of how deeply system configuration affects final visual output in virtual production. A great thanks to James Hughes and Evan Blacker for showing us around and teaching us. They discussed a lot of different roles in virtual production, ranging from technical to creative positions within the LED volume and systems pipeline. Out of all the roles mentioned, the one I was most interested in was the Systems Technician position. This role stood out to me because it involves working closely with both hardware and software, troubleshooting complex technical setups, managing networking systems, and ensuring everything runs smoothly during production. I am particularly drawn to how this position pushes the limits of industry technology while requiring strong problem-solving skills and technical precision. Given my interest in understanding how systems function behind the scenes, this role aligns closely with my career goals in virtual production
Thank you post draft:
I recently had the opportunity to visit 2D House Virtual Production Studio as part of our Virtual Production program at Humber. It was an incredible experience to see their VP studio, The Mirage, in action. A big thank you to James Hughes and Evan Blacker for taking the time to walk us through their workflow and for sharing valuable insights about the different roles within virtual production. Grateful for the opportunity to learn from industry professionals who are pushing the boundaries of virtual production technology.
Reflection : sp studios
During my visit to SP Studios, we were greeted by Adam Shone, who showed us around the facility and introduced us to the different technologies used in their virtual production workflow. I learned a lot of new things during this visit. One of the key technologies they used was a star-based tracking system similar to what is used in 2D House. It was interesting to see how this system was implemented in a real production environment. They were also using three Brompton Tessera SX40 processors to run their LED wall. Another interesting detail I noticed was the type of connectors used for the LED panels. It seemed like they were using a single cable for both power and data, which was very efficient and reduced the complexity of cabling on set. Instead of using an LED ceiling, they were using multiple lights combined with a large diffuser acting as a ceiling. This setup allows for better and more flexible control over lighting, which can be very useful depending on the needs of the production. Another important point was that SP Studios is one of the very few virtual production studios that shoot at 23.976 fps with the LED wall. While discussing the technical specifications of the wall, Adam also explained IP genlock and how SP Studios is working towards implementing it in their workflow. We also had the opportunity to meet Cait Salmon, a VAD artist at SP Studios. Cait showed us several industry-standard practices used in the Virtual Art Department. She also shared helpful tips and solutions for problems we had faced during our own production, especially related to VAD and Unreal Engine. Some of these included using level snapshots for each shot and using FreeFileSync to sync the project with the render node. These were very practical insights that we can apply in our future projects. The job positions that interest me include VAD, Virtual Production Supervisor, and Stage Technician. These roles involve both technical and creative aspects of production, which is something I am particularly interested in.
Thank You Post
I had the incredible opportunity to visit SP Studios, and it was a great learning experience. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge during my visit, and it was really exciting to see a professional virtual production environment in action. A huge thanks to Adam Shone for showing us around and taking the time to explain everything in detail. I also want to thank Cait Salmon for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the workflow and for sharing her experience as a VAD artist. I am very grateful for this opportunity and everything I learned from the visit.