Rob Legato uses Blackmagic Design solutions for the virtual production of 'The Lion King'

The Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor for films such as 'Hugo' and 'The Jungle Book' takes technology to another level in the production directed by Jon Favreau.

Rob Legato, visual effects supervisor, used a wide variety of the company's products in creating the virtual production environment for the film The lion king. The new factory movie Disney, directed by Jon Favreau, has grossed almost $1.5 billion worldwide since its release on July 19 of this year.

With the technology available today, producing a 3D feature film does not have to be a process in which you have to wait for the team responsible for the animations to have finished their work. Rob Legato, Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor for films such as Hugo y The jungle book, wanted to take technology to another level. Therefore, it created a space where traditional filmmakers could work in a digital environment with tools familiar from the real set. “The goal was not to generate each shot on the computer,” said Legato, “but to photograph the digital environment as if it were a real one.”

This story features the return to the big screen of beloved characters in the African savanna, in which the future king must overcome betrayal and tragedy to claim his place at King's Rock. Like Disney Animation's original 1994 film, which was a huge 2D hit at the time, this year's version challenged the limits of modern technology, when using advanced computerized graphics to create an unprecedented photorealistic style. Beyond the final look, the project incorporated innovative equipment throughout the production process, using a state-of-the-art virtual environment.

The production set where it was filmed The lion king It was perhaps a bit strange, with unusual devices to fill the main floor and various technicians behind computers located around the perimeter. Likewise, all this was just the beginning. To begin filming, director Jon Favreau and filmmaker Caleb Deschanel They had headphones that took them to the virtual world of Mufasa and Simba.

Instead of forcing filmmakers to adopt digital tools, Legato modified physical devices for the purpose of use in the virtual world. For example, a crane was altered with tracking equipment to allow computers to recreate its movement perfectly. A Steadicam mount was even purchased, in order to give Deschanel the possibility of moving the camera virtually with the same features as in a real shoot. The goal was for the production to create content in a traditional way with standard products that exist not only on set but also digitally. “In the classic preview stage, you would move the camera completely around the computer,” Legato said. “But on our virtual set, we directly added rails for the tracking shot, which represented this very accurately.”

Studio and virtual world

Blackmagic Design It was not only part of the system, but also the basis of the entire process, since it provided the infrastructure for both the virtual world and the studio. Matt Rubin, VFX producer, explained: "We first used Blackmagic equipment to distribute the signals throughout the building, as well as to manage them at each stage of the production. We also used DeckLink cards to capture the images, various Micro Studio Camera 4K units as secondary cameras, various mixers, such as the models ATEM Production Studio 4K y Atem Television Studio HD“.

The editing and visual effects creation stages were linked using matrices Smart Videohub, which offered both departments access to the projection room, as well as to the images used there for the different shots. As the virtual environment was generated, the material was captured with the cards DeckLink and was reproduced through a video network, the signal of which was sent to the control room and recorded on different devices HyperDeck Studio Mini.

Once the material was recorded and stored on the computer equipment, the work dynamic became MPC, the company responsible for the visual effects, in order to generate the photorealistic images. During the stage of evaluating the images and maintaining an updated edition, Legato and his team relied on the program DaVinci Resolve Studio and various devices DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel in two different rooms, in which he himself applied chromatic adjustments to the shots as a guide for the final grading. The project in DaVinci Resolve was updated several times a day with new material supplied by MPC. Since Legato was only showing the images to Favreau in context, rather than including individual clips, it was important that he be able to unify the aesthetics of the shots, ensuring a more enjoyable experience. The software database was shared across the entire team, allowing multiple members to view the same timeline without having to go to the screening room.

Despite the modern systems used to shoot the feature film, the final product reflects the true art of cinema, simply by providing real tools throughout the creative process. “The virtual environment created a flexible world for us to film in," added Legato. "Whether it was allowing Caleb to move the sun to get the perfect time of day, or the art director to position trees or different pieces of scenery during production, this digital world was a fantastic platform to shoot the film in. It was certainly a new type of filmmaking, with all the challenges of a standard production but more creative flexibility.”