School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts To Partner With Synapse Virtual Production In Building Virtual Production Institute Stages
The School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M University will partner with Synapse Virtual Production to build four virtual production stages as part of its emerging Virtual Production Institute.
With funding support from the 88th Texas Legislature for the Virtual Production Institute’s faculty, staff and equipment, the institute will reach beyond entertainment and into workforce training and simulation for first responders, health care, the military, manufacturing, product and architectural design, digital twin environments and live performances.
As early as mid-fall, students will have access to virtual production teaching-prototype stages composed of large LED walls that display computer-generated imagery to create immersive worlds where subjects can see and react to what is happening around them. Real-time game engines will process photorealistic imagery and live-action scenes to create in-camera visual effects.
Based on Texas A&M’s main campus in Bryan-College Station with an extension at Texas A&M-Fort Worth, the institute arrives as the state continues to increase its commitment to the film and media industry. Several virtual production studios have opened around the state in recent years, and the worldwide virtual production market was valued at $2.97 billion in 2023.
Tim McLaughlin, dean of the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, said Los Angeles-based Synapse is closely aligned with the goals for the Virtual Production Institute.
“Synapse is a very innovative and entrepreneurial team that is a collection of professionals who have a long history in the industry — cinematographers, producers, directors, designers, engineers and visual effects supervisors,” he said. “They are at the heart of where virtual production is going in terms of its uses and technology. They’re thinking about it the way we’re thinking about it: Where is virtual production going next? Where is virtual production headed?”
The search process was extensive and in-depth, with considerable research to identify the best candidate, said David Parrish, director of the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts at Texas A&M-Fort Worth. Synapse’s approach was the most detailed and the most comprehensive, he said, including strong designs and visualizations.
Justin Diener, Synapse chief executive officer, said the school’s leadership team showed “incredible foresight” in recognizing the value of virtual production and in providing tools to students that will aid in their future success.
“Within the first few hours of arriving at College Station and meeting with the leadership team, we became enamored with Texas A&M’s incredible history and culture,” he said. “Learning more from Tim and his colleagues about the vision of this program excited all of us tremendously. In the course of that experience, supporting their efforts became a company priority for us, whether or not we ended up winning the contract.”
Setting The Stage
Extended reality — including augmented and virtual reality, display technology, sensing technology, artificial intelligence, real-time 3D graphics and simulation — creates enhanced visual experiences. As an application of extended reality technologies, virtual production captures such visual effects in-camera in real time. This differs from green-screen technology, which requires computer-generated imagery to be completed in post-production.
Synapse will provide expertise in designing, procuring, building and training for four virtual production stages in Bryan-College Station and in Fort Worth. Each stage will have a different design based upon specific use and the physical shape of the stage location.
“Synapse will, for each of our spaces, design that shape and form and then the technology that supports it, including the LED panels, the computing and workstations, lighting — all that is part of the configuration,” McLaughlin said. “Then they will procure it. Once the equipment is available, they will set it up, make sure it’s running, train our faculty and staff on how it’s all supposed to work. And they’ll stay with us for a period of time, making sure it’s all working right.”
Teaching-prototype stages will be located in the Langford Architecture Center, Building A, on main campus, with an LED wall approximately 38 feet wide and 10 feet tall; and in the Winfield Place building in Fort Worth, where the school is sharing space with gaming company ProbablyMonsters, with an LED wall approximately 20 feet wide and 13 feet tall.
Larger teaching-production stages will be in two locations. At Backlot Studio in Fort Worth, where the school is collaborating with Red Productions, a curved LED wall 50 feet wide and 14 feet tall will be built. And in a to-be-determined location in Bryan-College Station, a U-shaped stage is being planned with an LED wall 56 feet wide and 20 feet tall.
The two larger stages will also incorporate an LED ceiling and mobile walls that provide additional lighting and reflection capabilities.
Teaching-prototype stages are expected to be up and running by mid-fall, and the teaching-production stages by mid-spring.
Student And Industry Benefits
In tandem with the Virtual Production Institute, a new minor in virtual production begins in the fall semester, with courses offered at both the main campus and at Texas A&M-Fort Worth.
Additionally, graduate students in the Visualization program are currently taking a 10-week summer course in virtual production, guided by experts at Stray Vista Studios in Dripping Springs.
Higher education is also a top priority for Synapse, and the company has previously worked with the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. Aaron Gordon, Synapse chief operating officer, said the relatively young virtual production space leads to a significant need for a properly trained talent pool.
“It’s a moment in time where a rising tide can lift all boats,” he said. “As a company, we are dedicated to developing a strong virtual production talent pipeline and enhancing the reputation of virtual production across the range of industries it will continue to benefit — setting standards of excellence along the way that ensure the highest quality experiences across all industries it serves.”
Diener said supporting the goals of the institute was “the North Star for us,” and added that Synapse is eager to share knowledge and collaborate with the leadership in the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts.
“Given Texas A&M’s esteemed global reputation and dedication to innovation, we are truly excited to begin this exchange of expertise with their leadership, and to collaborate on new, diverse and significant approaches to harness this technology,” he said.
Though course instruction will dominate the four stages, the facilities will also be available to industry professionals, said Wayne Miller, special adviser to the dean in the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. Those producers can then employ students and provide additional work and training opportunities.
“That experience for students is priceless,” he said. “The fact that we’re not only going to be a learning and teaching facility, but also a facility that is producing content for the industry and the world of entertainment — it’s a great opportunity for the students.”
‘Going All In’
McLaughlin compared the advantages of virtual production to his experiences in visual effects in the 1990s at Industrial Light & Magic. A digital effects wave had just begun, sparked by Steven Spielberg’s influential hit “Jurassic Park.”
Visual effects artists who had previously used large-scale models and real environments now found themselves sitting at workstations in darkened offices, creating computer-graphic imagery, McLaughlin said. They worked alone, then presented the results to the larger group for notes and changes, then went right back to their workstations.
Virtual production brings the creative team together, encourages on-site collaboration and communication and improves efficiency, he said.
“In the virtual production stage environment, all those iterations happen with everybody there seeing the same technical problems and creative opportunities at the same time,” McLaughlin said. “You can be more decisive and make decisions more quickly because it’s all there with you — together. You’re not having to do one part of the process in first-unit production and another part of the process in post-production and then trying to integrate those together. It’s all happening at once, and that’s the most exciting part of it.”
Gordon said Synapse “fell in love in minute one” upon hearing the plans for the Virtual Production Institute. The team recognized Texas A&M’s strengths in science, engineering and research; the success of the Visualization program; and the university’s new focus on the arts through the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. They jumped at the opportunity, he said.
“What virtual production represents is the convergence of a lot of art forms and technologies,” he said. “We live in the age when technology and art aren’t in separate categories — they’re one in the same. This suite of technologies that makes up virtual production is such a fine example of that. We see this as a logical next step. Tim’s grand vision of it just gets us that much more excited, because it’s one of the first examples of someone who we feel like is exemplifying going all in on what is the inevitable.”
Synapse’s expertise includes producing and servicing projects on its own virtual production stage including television, films, music videos and commercials. Miller said this experience is key to the collaboration.
“They are right in the middle of the industry,” he said. “It’s so important to be working with an integrator that on a daily basis is involved in using the tool of virtual production. They’re using it, they will see the changes in it and they are staying up to date with state-of-the-art equipment. It’s a huge benefit to us to be working with a company like that.”
‘Ideal Timing’
Since the Virtual Production Institute was announced in February, Parrish has heard from industry partners and former colleagues in visual effects and animation “who are amazed, excited and interested in what we’re doing at Texas A&M.”
“My anticipation is that this will be a groundbreaking achievement for Texas A&M and for the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts,” he said. “This collaborative effort across multiple performance-based industries is something that is not happening anywhere else. The way we’re approaching it — with multiple scales to provide multiple levels of connectivity to industry; opportunities for students to learn and to provide job skills; but also to explore the capabilities of virtual production and this new form of vision for collaboration and performance — I think is unparalleled in education and in the industry.”
The institute is the culmination of a long journey for McLaughlin. In 2005, while working on a prototype for James Cameron’s groundbreaking film “Avatar,” he became intrigued with the idea of integrating live action and real-time computing.
In 2019, he started pondering the possibility of building a virtual production stage at Texas A&M to serve students, academic and research interests and the production community.
Five years later, that idea is taking shape.
“For this to finally take place, with the support of the Texas Legislature, I think is perfect,” he said. “The industry is perfectly poised to take advantage of it. The way that technology has reached a point for real-time computing and graphics and simulation, along with the introduction of AI, it’s ideal timing.”
Image courtesy of Synapse Virtual Production
