Optical Tracking Central to Studio’s Virtual Production and VR Workflows

CBS Digital helps expand creative boundaries for clients in network and cable television, feature films, commercials and beyond, offering visual effects, graphic design and virtual reality services, among others. The studio’s artistry can be seen on Amazon’s “Transparent,” NBC’s “This Is Us,” Fox’s “Last Man On Earth” and Netflix’s “G.L.O.W.” They also played a part in Netflix’s first foray into VR, a creepy trip inside hit series “Stranger Things.” Throughout varied endeavors, optical tracking remains a constant in CBS Digital’s workflow, primarily for creating room-scale VR experiences and virtual production.

“Virtual set work is the future of production, especially in TV where faster turnaround times and tighter schedules are the norm,” said Craig Weiss, Executive Creative Director, CBS Digital. “Real-time previs is hugely beneficial for mapping out sequences, and technology and artistry have advanced so far that it often makes more sense to have actors perform on blue or green screens and create CG set pieces rather than physical ones. We’ve basically built our pipeline around optical tracking.”

A permanent 35’ x 30’ stage setup with 24 Prime 13 cameras and Motive software allows CBS Digital to work through projects quickly and efficiently, handling up to seven shows simultaneously. While it mainly serves as the core tracking engine across different areas of virtual production, CBS Digital also uses the mocap setup for performance capture and on the road for tracking VR experiences.

“As real-time rendering progresses, live action and CG content will continue to converge. VR is so immersive and different, and employing positional tracking further elevates experiences. Without our OptiTrack system, we wouldn’t be able to achieve the necessary degree of accuracy and efficiency to tell compelling stories.”