Deal brings together VFX company’s creative talent with XR studio’s volumetric and real-time development to enrich relationships and service offerings across film, episodic and animation projects.
VFX and animation company DNEG and XR entertainment studio Dimension have joined forces on a virtual production partnership. The collaborative project aligns the XR studio’s volumetric and real-time development capabilities with DNEG’s creative talent, technology teams, and entertainment industry relationships.
The companies are working together on several high-profile virtual production projects including the short film, Fireworks, directed by DNEG’s award-winning creative director Paul Franklin; produced by Wilder Films’ BAFTA Award winner, Annalise Davis; and written by screenwriter and playwright Steven Lally. The film is also supported by Epic Games, Lipsync Post Production, and StoryFutures Academy.
Virtual production uses real-time technologies to remove the barrier between live action capture and visual effects. The partnership merges Dimension’s real-time development and LED stage expertise with DNEG’s in-house virtual production resources and real-time workflows, furthering the scope of both companies’ service offerings and relationships across film, episodic and animation projects.
Both companies have recently increased their virtual production capabilities in North America, with Dimension naming Jim Geduldick SVP, virtual production supervisor and head of dimension in North America, and DNEG appointing James Sweeney as virtual art department (VAD) supervisor - both based on the US West Coast.
“This partnership helps position DNEG and Dimension at the forefront of what is possible in virtual production,” remarked DNEG CEO Namit Malhotra. “Our industry is evolving quickly, accelerated by the changes brought about by the global pandemic. This new creative process enables fresh approaches to the production of filmed content, opening more creative avenues for our filmmaking partners and addressing a number of the limitations imposed by the current restrictions on being on-set and travelling. Dimension is one of the best in its field, and I’m delighted to be partnering with Simon, Steve and the Dimension team to bring our clients the benefits of this exciting technology.”
“DNEG is one of the world’s leading VFX companies, and we’re very excited to be partnering with them to provide filmmaking clients with the very best virtual production experience,” shared Dimension joint managing director Steve Jelley. “Game technologies like Unreal Engine are elevating the creative process for filmmakers and storytellers and we’re seeing a surge in demand for our virtual production and volumetric services - right across the entertainment sphere. These state-of-the-art production techniques point toward an exciting new era for content creation and our partnership with DNEG brings these services to an even wider set of clients across film, episodic and animated content.”
Dimension provides productions with custom-built LED stages and is finalizing plans for permanent virtual production stages in the UK and North America. The studio also recently unveiled its Polymotion Stage, a state-of-the-art mobile multi-solution studio capable of capturing high-quality volumetric video, image, and avatar creation at up to 4K with integrated motion capture.
DNEG has built on its experience of utilizing on-set digital front projection and LED video wall displays on Oscar and BAFTA-winning films such as Interstellar and First Man to develop a strong filmmaker-focused virtual production offering, which has already been used on films including Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Death on the Nile for director Kenneth Branagh, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage for director Andy Serkis.
Source: DNEG
