Avatar’s Augmented Reality and Blackmagic
By the end of the production of Avatar, Glenn Derry would see Naavi, humans and the planet Pandora wherever he looked - literally!
As Avatar's virtual production supervisor, Glenn architected a facility and filmmaking workflow that allowed James Cameron see the live scenes being shot alongside the virtual world of Pandora, anywhere in the facility. This was not a virtual production, it was bigger than reality itself!
Glenn Derry calls this bigger than reality workflow 'augmented reality' filmmaking. It sounds as sci-fi as the movie he helped to create. Glenn built his Simulcam workflow by combining the CGI and 3D technologies for Avatar, making this 'augmented filmmaking' a reality. This unique workflow gave James Cameron the ability to view live action, simultaneously with the virtual world the actors were soon to be transported to. He could see live action actors hitting their lines in the studio, next to a CGI created Naavi surrounded by the Pandoran trees and animals. With this new workflow, every actors' performance was played out in Pandora as if it was the real world.
Until Avatar, nothing like this had been done on this scale. One of the challenges for Glenn was to be able to bring the multiple streams of realtime video to wherever James Cameron was on set. Using multiple Videohubs for routing, as well as HDLinks for monitoring, and Multibridge as their I/O, the technical team was able to use all of these Blackmagic Design tools as the backbone to this unique workflow for Avatar.
The Avatar Augmented Reality Backbone
By 2006, many of the parts of the Pandoran world and its inhabitants (both human and Naavi) were already built by the film’s CGI artists and ready to be placed into the Simulcam workflow.
All of the best CGI and acting in the world was useless if James Cameron could not see what he needed, when he needed it. So Glenn was tasked with creating a workflow that was able to handle the enormous data requirements of 3D and CGI, as well as multiple data streams coming from the film’s high-end cameras. Routing of all the data was the core of what made the Simulcam work, and this is where Blackmagic Design's Videohubs made their mark.
Glenn used six Blackmagic Design Videohubs on the set, with control of these routers being done through a centralized management system. Using all different sized Videohubs, including the Videohub Studio, Broadcast and Enterprise, Glenn architected an integrated system where he could use multiple routers to meet different viewing requests during the shoot. All of which could be scaled immediately as different routing needs took place.
“For James Cameron, it was all about access, and that access had to be immediate to ensure the highest level of creativity. The Videohubs were our central routing solution, and they allowed for the flexibility to put together any number of different setups to give access to what James needed, regardless of what camera or monitor he was in front of,” said Glenn.
Another advantage of the Videohub network was the ability to set up “hot buttons” to manage different combinations of routers. Using a management program developed specifically for Avatar, The Video Engineers were able to switch between four Videohubs simultaneously, streaming the Simulcam’s three main high-end cameras and easily routing at the click of a mouse, regardless of content format or location on the set.
“We found ourselves switching multiple feeds from multiple cameras to and from our Avid editing system one minute, and a minute later having to route a completely different set of video content to a different part of the building. I could not have done this without the Blackmagic Design's Videohub,” said Glenn.
Beyond the ability to route multiple streams of CGI and live action, Glenn had to build the Simulcam workflow to work in 3D. 3D on the scale of Avatar had never been done before. The massive amounts of data needed to support a 3D film such as Avatar, could easily overwhelm Cameron and other viewers on the set. Controlling the amount of content through Blackmagic's Videohub became a key component of the Simulcam workflow.
“With 3D, we discovered that routing control and being able to manage all of your streams of content was as important as figuring out how to shoot and edit in 3D,” said Glenn. “We went a long way towards building the 3D workflow that other filmmakers will be using in the future, and Blackmagic played a huge part in that.”
There were several other Blackmagic Design product lines in use during the Virtual Production and Simulcam workflow. Using Blackmagic’s HDLink monitoring solution to show content being routed to both low and high-end monitors around the set, and Blackmagic's Multibridge capture and playback I/O to aid with HD video assist. Glenn was able to build a reliable infrastructure at a fraction of the cost that would have been needed with products other than Blackmagic's.
“The price of Blackmagic's technology was great, and I easily integrated them with all of our existing systems. The whole Blackmagic workflow was not just about building a better way to move data around. It was about freeing James and the actors to be as creative as possible without limitation,” said Derry.
