A Virtual Production Glossary launches today at VPGlossary.com, through a collaboration between the Visual Effects Society, American Society of Cinematographers and individuals from the community, with support from Epic Games and Netflix.
It represents part of an effort to establish a common vocabulary among those working in this still evolving area of production. Suggestions for new terms and updates to existing terms are encouraged.
Three-time Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor Rob Legato, a member of both ASC and VES who contributed to the glossary, relates, “The pandemic has sped up the demand to work together while not under the same roof. Simple creative questions can be answered easily and visually using shared screens via video conference, and the interactivity that virtual production can afford speeds up the creative decision-making process. Having the Virtual Production Glossary as a resource will help minimize miscommunications associated with the terms that define many of these newly emerging processes and technologies.”
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Even the term virtual production itself may be used in multiple ways. As defined in the glossary, virtual production “uses technology to join the digital world with the physical world in real-time. It enables filmmakers to interact with the digital process in the same ways they interact with live-action production.”
Explains glossary contributor, Magnopus co-founder and VFX Oscar winner Ben Grossmann: “Virtual production unites two different worlds in film production that have been running separately for the last couple decades. Physical and digital production can now happen together, creating a better experience for the filmmakers. Similarly, The Virtual Production Glossary brings the terminology of those two worlds together, shines a light on the meanings and clarifies the differences with context, so that the physical and digital crews can work together seamlessly on the same stage.”
