The bright, towering "volume" feels new, exciting, and sometimes intimidating to look at in person, but professional, prepared crews operate the equipment as if it's an extension of themselves. The virtual production (VP) workflow offers unrivaled efficiency, reliability, and creative potential for production teams.
Understanding the expectations of partnering with a virtual production studio can reduce stress for producers and Directors of Photography (DPs), helping them capture their creative visions. This includes learning the studio's layout, crew roles, production requirements, and creative possibilities.
Even if they offer different capabilities, specs, or volume sizes, most virtual production studios follow similar physical layouts. Light-emitting diode (LED) volumes typically need a lot of space — at least 10 feet of ceiling height for smaller volumes and 20 feet for professional setups.
Most studios position the curved LED volume near or against a wall to maximize the possible distance between the camera and the screen. Many further extend their digital backdrops with LED ceilings, floors, and movable "wild walls."
These types of setups support greater creative freedom when handling cinematography, enabling teams to capture wide shots, moving shots, and deep focal lengths. Setting the camera farther from the volume also improves picture quality, especially when using a larger pixel pitch.
Forge Virtual Studios offers two separate LED stages, each with unique benefits:
Beyond the volume itself, the studio space must accommodate standard film equipment, such as camera stands and audio gear. Virtual studios also leverage various virtual production-specific tools and amenities, including:
These virtual studio layouts are more complex than traditional production setups, such as green screen layouts. Most green screens are hung or painted against a flat wall, leaving space for film equipment, though virtual studios often demand more space for specialized lighting and hardware.
In any production, you can't simply jump on set with a camera, cast, and inexperienced crew. This is even more true for virtual production workflows, considering the amount of work required to prepare visual effects (VFX) and test footage.
Virtual production partnerships begin with an initial meeting between your existing production team and the virtual studio's team. Forge's on-set team will meet with your current production crew (if you already have one assembled) to discuss goals, workflows, and production logistics from all possible angles. With virtual production explained, you can approach principal photography aware of your creative possibilities and limitations.
Virtual production hinges on the collaborative relationship between the VP supervisor roles and the Director of Photography, whether the DP is from the studio or your production team. The Director of Photography should establish the types of angles, movements, and frame sizes they're planning so the VP supervisor can plan studio space and VFX accordingly. The VP supervisor should clearly establish the LED volume's limitations, including what angles they can't achieve or how close they can safely zoom in without risking image quality.
The virtual production workflow relies on a system-wide synergy, allowing the digital background to shift with the camera's movement and the lights to adjust with the screen. This requires VP supervisors and teams to set up and calibrate various devices and systems as part of their morning routines.
Key steps include:
While virtual production offers huge advantages over green screens, LED volumes require some additional work to get everything running. First, onsite volume technicians, Unreal Engine operators, and other specialized virtual production crew roles will load the digital environments by importing 3D scenes and other prepared assets.
Professional partners in creativity, such as Forge, thoroughly test the visuals and footage before production. However, they should also double-check and test the visuals on the day to make sure everything still looks high-quality and as intended.
Beyond "morning routines," having an on-set VP team allows DPs, creative directors, and other decision-makers to request instant changes to the LED's visuals. For instance, they change the time of day, weather, and object placement without requiring extra rendering time or manual light changes.
In-camera visual effects give production teams unmatched visibility into their film's final image, allowing them to make changes and avoid mistakes on set. Whereas green screens leave much of your framing and blocking to guesswork, LED screens show you exactly how your digital background looks before you even record. This way, you can easily make physical or digital adjustments to capture your creative vision perfectly.
LED volumes also help you avoid one of the most common issues of green screens: spillage. Even with good editing, footage filmed on green screens can leave annoying green borders or reflections on talent and props, making your subjects look very obviously out of place. Ditching the green screen and replacing it with an ambient IBL light source ensures your talent and prop look like they belong in the surrounding scenery.
The in-camera VFX benefits don't end there — LED volumes also emit strong but balanced lighting. You can easily recreate either a bright outdoor or dark indoor setting with minimal setup. Plus, the ambient LED light can serve as both a backlight and fill light, depending on your setup, to give your subjects an alluring, immersive glow.
LED volumes achieve a high level of "movie magic" thanks to their intricate LED panel designs, which are composed of two layers:
Many production and branding teams are choosing the LED volume studio experience because of its high efficiency and reliability. The LED volume workflow offers key production benefits:
Green screen footage requires post-production teams to carefully remove the backgrounds, add new backgrounds and VFX assets, and recolor all elements to match visually. The virtual production workflow lets you achieve all of this at once during production, significantly reducing post-production time for a faster distribution turnaround.
By offering more control over your space, LED volumes can even eliminate the "fix it in post" vibe of filming at in-person locations. Filming at a real location may require post-production teams to adjust the color between shots taken at different times of day. Alternatively, they may need to digitally remove signs and logos in the background or sift through footage without a random passerby in the background.
With a virtual production studio, you don't have to worry about any of this. Onsite teams review captured footage on the day to ensure the blend between physical and digital is seamless. This way, they can quickly film another take rather than requiring the editor to do all the work.
With any production, you must consider the human element. Crews need fair payment, food, parking, and accessible transportation methods for each day of your production. This can get costly if you're filming at multiple locations, especially if any locations are more than 30 miles away from your primary production or business location.
By allowing you to film at "multiple locations" in a single studio space, virtual production studios save you the time and costs of travel logistics. Additionally, professional studios, such as Forge, offer craft services, tech bays, and calm atmospheres to make long shoot days feel manageable and productive.
Transitioning from traditional film production to virtual production requires teams to learn (or at least adapt to) a lot of new technology — but the effort is absolutely worth it. Partnering with an experienced virtual production studio, such as Forge, will help you prepare for everything your next project may throw at you while maximizing your creative potential.
Start planning your project by contacting the Forge team for consultation.