Virtual Set Production One of the exciting things about this new technology that you can see in the production still above is that it can composite images in real time. In the past composited images could only be rendered after they were filmed because it would take computers upwards of several minutes to render one second of composited video. With tremendous computing power, this new virtual set technology renders previews of final composites in real time from low resolution files. This capability to render in real time gives directors much more creative freedom to experiment with framing, staging, and camera movement in the course of filming. The final HD composites are rendered after shooting is complete. What is different about this technology from the technology used in Star Wars special effects type movies is that Sonalysts has made this capability much more affordable by originating with the production proven Panasonic 720P Varicam High Definition camera system. The affordabitlty of the Panasonic's 100 Mbps DVCPro HD format puts this capability within the budgets of regional commercial, corporate, and documentary producers. For instance, historical documentary producer's will be able to film convincing recreations on locations that no longer exist but are computer generated from old photographs or historistical accounts. Corporate producers will be able to demonstrate how their products fit in a futuristic world of tommorrow. While commercial producers will be able to shoot on remote or inaccessible locations. Click to return to Virtual Set Production Introduction