Few occasions have been filled with as many announcements about Disney’s theme park plans as the recent D23 convention. New attractions have been revealed for all six Disney resorts around the world. In fact, the announcements were such that some escaped media attention almost entirely.
One of the most welcome reveals wasn’t about a new theme park or even a new attraction, but an update to an existing attraction.
Disneyland in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando are home to a Star Wars simulator called Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which is one of the biggest missed opportunities in theme park history.
Sitting atop a life-size reproduction of the Millennium Falcon, Smugglers Run allows visitors to live out the fantasies of their formative years by putting them at the controls of the iconic Star Wars spaceship. Each pilot assumes one of 3 roles depending on the seat assigned to them. , with the lucky few sitting in the front wielding weapons and controls.
The cabin looks just like it does on the big screen, right down to the tan color of the seats. The scenario is accompanied by quite genuine images on the vertical screen in front of the window. The images are generated through computers in real time, allowing pilots to fly freely along a predetermined trajectory and push the lever that launches the Falcon at the speed of light. The gunner can fire the ship’s lasers at will, and at a key moment, a harpoon fires from the Falcon when an engineer in the rear presses a flashing button.
So, Smugglers Run lives up to its reputation of putting guests in control of the fastest piece of scrap steel in the galaxy, as the Falcon is affectionately nicknamed in the Star Wars movies. The disruption of force is its story.
Rather than being based on the Falcon’s famous owner, Han Solo, so memorably played by Harrison Ford, Smugglers Run is themed after a character who first appeared in the Star Wars spin-off PC animated series, The Clone Wars. The exhibit is aimed at children, many visitors won’t know the character and the same goes for the fuel he asks them to collect on their adventure in space. Called Coaxium, he played a lead role in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars. Story, which ended up being one of the biggest box office mistakes in Star Wars history, as we reported, so that’s not well known either.
Neither Ford’s famous face nor his voice appear on the merry-go-round, and Chewbacca, his character’s furry sidekick, has only a short-lived role. This leaves the enthusiasts with nothing else and at D23, they gave it to them. At the center of the conference, Dave Filoni, artistic director of Disney’s Lucasfilm subsidiary, announced that in 2026, Smugglers Run would receive a new project focused on the hit Star Wars streaming series, The Mandalorian.
It made so much noise that many in the media missed the news that this is rarely the only Mandalorian charm that’s on Disney’s radar. Vanity Fair was one of the few publications to report that Filoni and Mandalorian leader Jon Favreau were eyeing Epic Games. Unreal Engine software, which creates the series’ special effects, to allow enthusiasts to enter and walk through its alien worlds. its sets. No further discussion was made on what this might entail. Until now.
When Disney announced that it had bought a $1. 5 billion stake in Epic Games in February, it was widely perceived as just a step into video games, but it could actually be just part of the story. ‘History.
Video games moved to a mid-level when Disney lifted the curtain on the blockbuster deal in February when it announced it would create an entertainment universe connected to Epic’s hugely popular online game, Fortnite. True to his word, at D23 Disney revealed that his Marvel Comics characters, including fan-favorite villain Doctor Doom, would be appearing in a Fortnite Battle Royale story.
Doom is in the news as Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr. recently announced that he would be playing the character in upcoming Marvel films. Disney is capitalizing on this momentum by placing hints and clues in Fortnite about the plots of upcoming Marvel movies. This makes the game a central component of Marvel’s storytelling, although the synergy doesn’t preclude that.
At D23, Disney also announced that Epic’s Unreal Engine 3D creation platform, which powers many of the biggest video games, will be used to create the visuals for the new Mandalorian project in Smugglers Run.
Fittingly, the Mandalorian himself has innovated in the use of the Unreal engine. The Visual Effects Division of Industrial Light
ILM called the screen and software package StageCraft and built the first in 2018 to film the first series of The Mandalorian at Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles. Since then, a second screen has been built there, followed by others at Fox Studios Australia, ILM’s Vancouver facility and Pinewood Studios in London. This helped attract film studios to film there, which led to more business for ILM’s United Kingdom division.
As we revealed last week in the London Evening Standard newspaper, despite actor and writer movements delaying productions for much of last year, revenue in ILM’s United Kingdom department remained strong at $111. 6 million (£86. 2 million). In addition, its net profit nearly tripled to $11. 9 million (£9. 2 million) as more people worked remotely, allowing it to reduce rents for its headquarters from London.
The StageCraft generation has been used in all 3 seasons of The Mandalorian, as well as the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett and other Star Wars streaming screens that add Ahsoka, Andor, and the upcoming Skeleton Crew. Several Marvel films have used it as well as others from rival studios such as Warner Bros. ‘Batman and Adam Negro. Es possible that cinema is only the beginning.
With continuous immersion, the theme parks look like an herb house for StageCraft. That may be on the way, according to Philip Galler, co-founder of Lux Machina, the automotive visual effects company that has partnered with ILM and Epic to expand on the technologies deployed on the big screen.
Measuring 20 feet tall and 75 feet wide, the original style features 1,326 ROE Black Pearl BP2 LED presentations giving it 270-degree scanning. It harmoniously joins a circular flat screen suspended above to recreate the sky. For total immersion, two huge LED screens can even be installed to create a 360-degree environment.
Big screens are nothing new in the theme park industry, but what makes this one completely new globally is that the images displayed on them move in real time with the cameras. This is due to the Ungenuine Engine running on 11 interconnected computers powered by NVIDIA processors with d3 media servers to store the photos and send them to the LED screens. The entire workflow is controlled through ILM’s proprietary software and incorporated into presentations with Lux Machina. He provided the hardware for the LED display and had a magic touch.
StageCraft provides digital backgrounds for the filming of “The Mandalorian” ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd.
Prior to StageCraft’s progression, photographs projected onto screens in the background of filming only seemed plausible if the camera remained static or moved along a pre-programmed trajectory. In fact, the photographs on the screen can simply be created to reflect this specific path. However, because the photographs were pre-rendered, they would not adjust accordingly if the camera deviated from them, which would break the illusion. The StageCraft demo has a trick up its sleeve to prevent this from happening.
The junction between the video wall and the screen suspended above is covered with motion capture cameras that track the position of the cameras on set. This knowledge is used to replace photorealistic 4K 3-D photographs on the screen so that they move at the pace of the cameras. In an interview with AV Magazine, Galler explained that “real-time camera tracking and interactive, real-time rendering are some of the key features” of the system.
The 3D photographs of the screens can be edited into real-time filming, and you will have a team to help you with on-the-fly color correction and virtual lighting. Having exact control over the lighting of the screens is a must. -It has to do so because it will have to adapt perfectly to the lighting of the set in front of it and vice versa.
Galler said that from an actor’s perspective, “being able to see the environment, the action and the overall environment in which they act creates a vastly enhanced narrative experience. ” His words do not apply to Disney specifically, but to any studio of this generation. This would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago.
The most productive way to describe the formula is that it looks like an actual edition of the Holodeck from the sci-fi series Star Trek. The LED display immerses the team in a photorealistic virtual environment that gets bigger far and wider. and moves to the rhythm of the actors and the cameras that film them. Not only is there no need to build sets, but filmmakers also don’t want to spend time and money traveling to remote locations, as actors can be transported there with an undeniable click.
Gone are the days when film crews would travel the world only to find that bad weather prevented them from filming there. Ideal lighting situations can be digitally created and displayed on the screen so filmmakers can shoot there all day.
Decoration can be done with a single click ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd.
Above all, the symbols and light from the screen are reflected even on the physical props on set, so the reflections don’t want to be inserted digitally in post-production, as is the case when filming in front of a green screen. This explains why Lux Machina is described as a closed-door visual effects company and this cutting-edge strategy came to fruition on the set of The Mandalorian while its eponymous protagonist is dressed in silver armor. If a green screen had been used, the post-production team would have had to remove the green glow from its armor and update it with a virtual symbol of its surroundings.
Instead, the environment around him on the screens appears on his dress, as well as on the steel surfaces of cars and weapons. This makes it seem like they’re in this alien place, which makes the series more compelling.
In fact, Galler said the biggest benefits of employing LED display are “interactive lighting, reflections, if possible in-camera definitive pixel photography in some cases, and immersive environments for productions. “
The producers of HBO’s Westworld used screens to show exterior shots of Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences complex, which represents the company’s headquarters at the center of the series. The shots are reflected in the windows of the interior sets and move subtly as the camera moves.
However, formula sensitivity can be a double-edged sword. In classic cinema, the camera will only see a small part of the stage. However, when you’re in the middle of a 270- or 360-degree screen, the whole environment is a soft box: the elements that the camera can reflect on the actors’ faces, costumes, or props.
This isn’t the only impediment that managers want to be wary of. If the camera lens is too sharp, the edges of the Mandalorian’s armor would stand out too much from the background and could appear as if they were superimposed on it.
To avoid this, Filoni and Favreau used Panavision’s Ultra Vista 1. 65x full-frame anamorphic lenses, which are known for their softness. Taking photos of the background with comfortable lenses also had the added benefit of cutting out the wavy patterns of visual interference that were noticeable. when a camera is filming a screen.
Technology has revolutionized cinema ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd.
Despite all the benefits of LED screens, Galler said: “There are a lot of scenarios where you might not be able to watch the final behind closed doors. Large war scenes, complex choreography, and many scenes with immediate camera and lighting adjustments will be difficult to achieve. Likewise, the doors will have to be part of the physical stage because the actors cannot pass through the LED screen.
He added that administrators aren’t distracted by the ability to create the best shot. “Just because it’s real-time doesn’t mean it should be treated as such. You can get stuck trying to tap all the other controls in real-time and lose sight of the overall purpose of telling a story. Treat it like you’re a genuine environment. You wouldn’t show up in a redwood forest and try to move all the trees in one day, so don’t do it in real time.
He added that it is vital that managers not forget that “this workflow affects each and every facet of production, including post-production, accounting, production design, hair/makeup, etc. ” » The production procedure is reversed because, unlike classic productions, the computer-generated backgrounds must be finished before filming begins.
For the first season of The Mandalorian, ILM used the popular program Maya to design the backgrounds in 3D before they were mapped with images of real locations to ensure the end result was photogenuine. ILM received photographs from Iceland and the United States, but did not use many workers to do so. In fact, each team used traditional apparatus with six Canon EOS 5DS and MKIV cameras, all taking pictures simultaneously.
Photos of the day were taken to reflect other lighting situations and ILM used software such as Agisoft De-Lighter to remove shadows so they could be practically illuminated on the LED screens. The screens were used in more than 50% of the first season of The Mandalorian. and when they were not suitable for filming, the screen would turn green at the touch of a button.
Unlike a classic green screen, which is made of canvas, virtual editing takes time to set up and its length can be adjusted to delimit exactly the required area. The effects are then inserted into post-production with virtual motion removal. Capture cameras that coat the junction at the top of the screen. On the other hand, grass or rocks are used to hide the junction between the back of the screen and the background.
The demo requires significant installation time as well as external preparation so that all software and media servers are running. As Galler explains, Lux Machina wants to “calibrate the camera tracking, color and asset channels, production schedules, and all departments, to get the right shot. “
He has made Lux Machina a force to be reckoned with in the LED demo industry and, in the last few years alone, has installed them in the UK for Warner Bros. and Apple, built a transitional for FOX Upfront, and completed his Prysm level at Trilith Studios in Atlanta. Lux Machina also worked on Amazon’s massive LED screen at the historic Culver Studios Stage 15. Measuring a staggering 80 feet in diameter and standing 26 feet tall, it’s incorporated with AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing platform. to optimize workflow. Film studies are possibly just the beginning.
StageCraft generation can create exclusive theme park reports ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. Matrix. . [+] All rights reserved.
ILM presented its StageCraft formula to the public for the first time at D23 and the possibilities of the theme park have become temporarily apparent. Not just the screen of the same caliber as the one used in the next The Mandalorian movie.
Right in front of the convention’s semicircular screen was a black level with a droid on top of it. With the push of a button, the background changes from the neon-lit streets of an alien city to the hangar of a space station with ships coming and going. Lightsaber-wielding guests were able to remain level while a camera rotated around them, making it appear as if they were in the environment shown on screen. The 10-second clips were then emailed to each guest, giving them even more compelling content than they would receive at a character meet-and-greet at a theme park.
“Oh, it’s great,” said one guest as she left the level smiling. “A once-in-a-lifetime possibility. “
As this is just a temporary exhibition on the grounds of a conference centre, it shows what a permanent installation in a theme park can achieve. Imagine yourself in a set full of otherworldly props that cover the level and the edges of the screen showing an alien city on the horizon. Instead of being a static backdrop like you’d find on a theme park attraction, the alien cityscape in the distance zooms in as you walk towards it, just as it would in real life.
Disney even developed cute bipedal robots, which can populate the landscape, as well as a creative floor surface that allows it to specifically capture the installation’s footprint. Called holotile, it acts as a multi-directional treadmill so visitors can head in any direction they need and items in the distance on the screen come closer as they walk towards them instead.
Most likely, it’s a low-capacity charm that can have a high value, as it would create content that can’t be discovered anywhere else. Not only would this involve the same generation used in Hollywood blockbusters, but it would also make visitors feel like they’ve been transported to alien worlds.
Disney is already going in this direction since its Avengers Campus in Paris offers a photo shoot with characters consistent with the heroes taken through a ring of cameras that surround them. It generates a 360-degree slow-motion video clip modeled after the bullet scenes in the Matrix movies. It comes at the princely price of €16. 54 (€15) per year, in addition to the €82. 72 (€75) of the park’s photopass package. An even more premium product may be just what parks want by accumulating profits in the face of declining attendance, as we recently reported.
When asked if his idea that StageCraft could be used in theme parks in the future, Galler said: “Of course, I think in many cases real-time engines are used in theme parks. Theme park attractions. Real-time generation for driving power. Preview, installation and eventual commitment.
The interview was published 3 years ago, but feels incredibly prescient in light of the recent D23 announcement. So while Filoni and Favreau are still considering the StageCraft formula just to immerse enthusiasts in alien worlds, its release in the parks probably isn’t too far away. .
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