MR Factory relies on Blackmagic Design as the center of its 4K virtual production system

Based in Madrid, some of MR Factory's clients include HBO, TVE, Volkswagen, WPP Group and Tornasol Films.

MR Factory It is using six cameras Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2 of Blackmagic Design, each with a device Ultimatte 12, as the center of your system 4K virtual productions.

The workflow perfectly synchronizes live signals from the studio, recorded against a green background, with the renowned computerized environments, generated by OctaneRender, Unreal Engine and Infinity. Based in Madrid, some of MR Factory's clients include HBO, TVE, Volkswagen, WPP Group and Tornasol Films.

Photorealistic virtual

Oscar M. Olarte, co-founder of the company, comments that "we now have the ability to create, capture and composite more than 10 minutes of finished material in 4K, in real time, every day. This means that we can place actors and actresses in photorealistic computer-generated locations during the course of the filming day."

"Because all compositing is done live via the Ultimatte device, the directing and photography team can view and modify finished effects during production. This can save clients time and money, especially in post-production," he explains.

By choosing the Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K G2 model, cinematographers had access to professional digital cinema cameras commonly used in a traditional live action shoot.

During the confinement due to the global pandemic, the company has allowed a certain number of productions to continue safely. According to Olarte, "We were scheduled to work on a television commercial earlier this year for the British market. We chose to hire a director from there, as well as some of the team members."

"However, when lockdown was imposed, we had to rethink our approach. We came up with a solution with protocols that would allow the director to work remotely all the time," he says.

Compositor Ultimatte

To make the virtual set come to life, MR Factory relied on the camera tracking function, which provides the possibility of capturing all the movement of the camera and lenses in the scene with great precision. The foreground 4K signal captured in the studio was then sent to the Ultimatte 12, which combined it with the computerized background in real time.

“By using an Ultimatte composer exclusively with each camera, we can record multiple angles in a single shot, without having to worry about green overshoot.” I can confidently say that the Ultimatte device is the best composition solution I have used in my 30 years of experience in the industry,” adds the MR Factory co-founder.

All layers of the final composition, including the foreground, background, and exclusion mask, are recorded using units HyperDeck Studio 12G and then they are synchronized according to the time code. a matrix Smart Videohub 12G 40×40 manages all signals, transmitting them to screens throughout the studio, in order to view them in real time.

The 4K mixed reality sequences are then edited, graded and delivered with DaVinci Resolve Studio.

"The use of advanced virtual production techniques is increasing. By combining the best of the photoreal 3D format with the studio technology offered by Blackmagic Design, we are confident that MR Factory can continue to be a leader in this space," concludes Oscar M. Olarte.