Mo-Sys Engineering announced that NearTime, its automated re-rendering service for on-set Virtual Production has been utilised to deliver stunning VFX scenes for the Dr Who 60th Anniversary Special at a fraction of the cost.
London, UK – 09th December 2023
Painting Practice is a renowned boutique studio recognized for empowering filmmakers to explore their concepts and expand creative horizons. Collaborating with top CGI, animation, and VFX experts, RealTime partnered with Mo-Sys in 2022 to establish an innovative and cost-effective workflow for an especially VFX-intensive special episode of Dr. Who.
James Uren, Mo-Sys Technical Director said: “Thisambitious diamond anniversary Dr Who special was set to have more than 250 VFX shots, meaning traditional VFX approaches would be cost-prohibitive. So, we had to think differently.”
Painting Practice use Unreal Engine to create animated pre-visualisations of complex VFX sequences. Could this be extended to whole scenes or a whole episode? Could we take those pre-visualisations and bring them onto set with the real camera? Could we use Unreal Engine right up to the ‘Final Pixel’, automatically re-rendering what had been filmed on set?
RealTime and Mo-Sys had recently collaborated on Netflix production Dance Monsters, where 6 cameras and 8 monster characters were combined in real-time – also using the Unreal Engine and Mo-Sys VP Pro, to film it as a live light-entertainment show. As part of this Mo-Sys and RealTime developed a pipeline for transferring the precision camera and lens tracking data from Mo-Sys StarTracker through to post-production, to help automate and dramatically speed up the VFX workload.
In parallel andin partnership with AWS, Mo-Sys had built and patentedits NearTime solution. NearTime offers adual workflow which enablesautomated Unreal re-rendering in the cloud.Tracking data is re-rendered with background plates and delivered back with increased quality and/or resolution in the same VFX delivery window, while making on set renders available for real-time feedback.
Putting pre-vizualisation, on-set camera tracking, real-time pre-viz, NearTime rendering and automated VFX pipelines together meant this VFX-heavy special could be completed with stunning visuals throughout at a fraction of the cost of traditional VFX.
About Mo-Sys Engineering
Mo-Sys Engineering is a world leader in image robotics, virtual production and remote production solutions. The company’s products are used by leading broadcasters, filmmakers, and live event producers around the world. Mo-Sys is headquartered in the UK, with offices in the US, Europe, and Asia.
