Visualization Students Exploring Virtual Production With Captiv Studios During Summer Industry Course
The Summer Industry Course is in full swing for Visualization students. Over the course of 10 weeks, nine undergraduate and three graduate students will explore virtual production with industry partner Captiv Studios from Houston.
Caleb Kicklighter, co-instructor for the course and instructional associate professor, said the course is an opportunity for students to learn from film industry professionals. The students will work together on the entire production cycle, from developing storylines and a script to planning out their shooting week and then capturing their films on set.
“The projects this year are virtual production films, which is basically a live-action film project that incorporates virtual digital environments into the filming process,” he said. “So, our students are creating virtual worlds using Unreal Engine that their actors will then act in front of on LED walls. It’s like a giant curved television screen that will be synced up to the camera, and the students will be controlling it in real-time while they’re shooting, and they’ll have their actors acting in front of it.”
Captiv Studios’ co-founder, Justin Bowers, and Isaiah Trevino, virtual production specialist, visited Tuesday’s class as students presented storyboard pitches to make commercials for fictional products. One group will create an advertisement for a pirate-themed soft drink and the other for a futuristic robotic camera.
The students will source props, cast actors and create their digital film environments before they shoot their commercials in July at a Virtual Production Institute stage at Texas A&M-Fort Worth. Kicklighter said he is looking forward to students building out their commercials and is eager to see the projects become more polished each year.
“The projects look better and better and better,” he said. “We’re excited to see what the students make with all this extra internal knowledge and infrastructure that has developed in just a year.”
