Light-emitting diode (LED) volumes revolutionize what filmmakers can achieve, but this process isn't automatic. The work put in by art directors ultimately determines whether a digital environment immerses audiences and reads as real.
Virtual production isn't a replacement for art direction. Instead, it's the latest evolution of art direction for film and television, building off the traditional crafts filmmakers have used for years. Art direction and set design now include both physical and digital set construction, and the right approach ensures these environments blend together as one.
Virtual environments can be attention-grabbing, immersive, and game-changing for the brands that know how to use them. None of that happens on its own, and you can't simply throw some stock photos on the screen and expect your brand films to stand out. Likewise, you can't generate a background with artificial intelligence (AI) without at least having some creative direction or purpose behind your idea.
Digital environments that lack intentional design feel artificial and inauthentic. This isn't because virtual studio environments are limited or unexciting, but because they offer so much creative potential. Used with intent, that potential is what makes a virtual environment land with an audience.
Real-time rendering and other production advancements give brands and filmmakers unmatched levels of creative freedom when crafting their stories. Creative directors can weave cinematic language and visual grammar in new, innovative ways without the practical limitations of traditional production.
Production design for virtual production requires filmmakers to learn some new skills, such as how to collaborate with an Unreal Engine operator or make the most out of simulated natural light. At the same time, effective LED volume environment designs still hinge on the traditional disciplines most filmmakers already command. Existing creative instincts become more decisive on the wall, especially if you approach with intentionality and vision.
Environmental storytelling and strategic composition can drive the narrative forward, making the background feel like a cohesive part of the story. Intentional details and visual imperfections, such as texture and wear, can prevent a virtual space from looking synthetic and keep viewers focused on your message.
How real LED volumes (and even green screens) look depends on how effectively you blend them with the rest of the frame. Some of the most notoriously fake-looking green screen scenes in movies ineffectively match the background and foreground, while others don't blend the two at all. Infamous examples of this include:
Today, most of these immersion issues are easily avoidable with strong creative intentionality and the right technology. Strategic virtual production teams use various production elements and creative decisions to make the physical and virtual sets appear as one world. These elements include:
Blending practical and digital sets requires strong collaboration between the art, lighting, and virtual production teams, as well as a clear creative vision. For example, the VFX designers could consult with the art team to strategize the Unreal Engine art direction around the physical art direction.
Virtual production enables this level of creative direction through pre-visualization. Teams and creative decision-makers can conceptualize, test, and tweak every last detail before production even starts without ever leaving the studio. This way, they can avoid common virtual production mistakes and keep production focused on the creative vision.
Depth and scale are where a volume most often gives itself away. They're what lets the eye accept a space as real, and the challenge on the wall is holding geographic consistency and believable proportion between subjects when most of the environment lives on a screen.
At a storytelling level, intentional depth and scale can drive emotional weight and audience perspectives. For instance, a wide shot where actors stand in front of a large, expansive digital background can make the landscape feel monumental and awe-inspiring. Conversely, a compressed lens can make the background appear massive, as if it's right behind an actor. This can make the image appear flat and create either a claustrophobic or cozy aesthetic, depending on your composition.
LED volumes create new, practically limitless opportunities to create cinematic virtual environments, but you can't rely on the screens alone. Real physical foregrounds and mid-ground details add layers to give each frame more depth and atmosphere. This bridges actors to the wall, making the digital landscape an unquestionably real part of their world rather than a background gimmick.
Objects in the foreground can also create a visual sense of parallax when the camera moves. Real-time rendering allows details in the background to move at a faster rate when the camera moves, whereas the physical objects in the foreground stay fixed in place. This creates an illusion that makes the scale and depth of field appear much deeper and larger than the actual studio space.
This practice of practical and digital set blending has been used since the conception of virtual production. The Mandalorian kickstarted the use of LED volumes in 2019, allowing the show's titular hero to travel to any type of planet or location the writers dreamed of — even when the COVID-19 pandemic limited production. The show didn't just rely on the screen — the production team created massive, intricate sets, such as wide rocky landscapes and spaceship interiors, that the LED volume simply added to.
Much of the work of real-time VFX techniques falls on the Unreal Engine operators, the VFX artists, and the art directors leading them. Virtual landscapes and architecture should maintain 1:1 proportionality with your real-world subjects and practical set dressing (unless you want your actors to look unrealistically large or small). For example, on-set actors should look like they can feasibly walk through the virtual doorways behind them. This proportional integrity and accuracy maintain realism and immersion so audiences stay focused on the story.
LED floors, ceilings, and wild walls further expand possibilities for angling and moving the camera. However, the bottom-edge transition where the stage floor meets the LED wall can break the illusion if not properly addressed.
Many art leads use physical barriers and foreground dressing, such as furniture or realistic-looking plant life, to block the seam from the camera's view. This pulls double duty in solving the floor seam issue and continuously challenging production teams to add more depth of field.
Beyond that, art leads lean on a handful of camera and post tricks: shooting on longer focal lengths to throw the background soft so the seam goes unnoticed, raising the subject and camera above the transition point so it never enters frame, or rotoscoping the seam out in post.
Art direction is where the craft of virtual production gets locked in. Virtual production art directors are involved in both the physical set design and the digital set construction to maintain cohesion, parallax, and artistic integrity.
Well before the camera rolls, art directors are usually heavily involved in both pre-visualization and technical planning sessions. Even if they aren't making creative decisions yet, they work alongside the decision-makers to understand their vision. They can then explain virtual production in practical terms, including what's possible to achieve and how they can achieve it.
In addition to the physical art department, art directors work alongside the volume operations team to create the digital environments. The pre-visualization and technical planning enable them to build virtual environments and stages early in the pre-production process. They then have time to test the footage and catch problems with realism or creative vision without wasting production time.
Art directors must have an evaluative eye to confirm that both the physical and digital sets will hold up. Test footage and virtual scouting are where they assess and refine environmental detail — color, texture, background elements — throughout digital set construction. Adding practical references to those sessions pulls the virtual production set design back to human scale, while testing specific camera angles and moves exposes how the space behaves on camera, so scale, perspective, and depth can be readjusted before the day. Light gets the same scrutiny, since it can fall differently in the virtual environment than in the real world and quietly throw off color balance and contrast.
Just as an artist double-checks for blemishes as the paint dries, art directors are continuously scouring the screen for ways to improve its realism or accuracy to the director's vision.
Forge Virtual Studios offers two virtual production stages with dedicated and experienced art and operations teams. With a collaborative approach and an eye for detail, these teams are ready to help brands and agency teams bring their ideas to life by mastering real-time rendering.
Get in touch to discuss your next environmental builds, and check out our rendering guide to explore the full potential of high-end environments.