Round Two

An award-winning filmmaker, Joshua is known throughout the production world for his YouTube channel, which has become one of the premier places to learn about virtual production online. With over 41,000 subscribers, his channel has grown popular, in part, because it approaches filmmaking from an optimistic perspective, showing artists how much can be accomplished if they just go for it.

This ethos has been with Joshua since the beginning. When he was young, you’d find him running around with his friends and a Super 8, cobbling together scenes with whatever was on hand. And like most budding filmmakers, filming would often take place in his own backyard, on the childhood street right outside his door. This was the location for his first zombie movie, a flick filled with all the lurching movements, gunfire and action you’d expect from a bunch of creative kids having fun.

Recently, Joshua has been thinking back on those times and wondering what they might have produced if he had a different set of tools at his disposal. A chance encounter with World Labs’ Marble, an emerging 3D world and Gaussian splat generator, gave him the idea to revisit his film and give it another go. This time with even more production value.

The results are night and day. With a simple wipe, Joshua turns his childhood street into an apocalyptic wasteland, imbued with an eerie fallout-like glow that suggests something is not quite right. Upside Down-like tentacles snare nearby cars, while 3D zombies meet the wrath of Joshua’s laser gun, all before he runs into a mammoth demon. It’s stylized, creative, and in Joshua’s mind, the result of workflow that’s now accessible to any type of director. Even a new one.

“It’s amazing what a single filmmaker can do today when given the right tools,” said Kerr. “Entire worlds born from your imagination can be created with ease and control and then applied to lightweight, guerilla shoots that produce great results without a lot of post. It’s time to make your movie.”

The Process

Since Joshua knew he’d be augmenting his street, he began by journeying to Newcastle upon Tyne, UK to take iPhone snaps for his HDRI. With all 360° covered, he loaded the image into Google Gemini to start generating apocalyptic variations, including busted cars, ominous tentacles and crumbling houses. After a few edits in Photoshop, he was ready to load his image into Marble to generate a Gaussian splat, a growing medium that is giving creators fast access to detailed 3D worlds.

To keep the shoot lightweight and mobile, Joshua turned to Lightcraft Jetset, which allowed him to create an onset virtual production with his iPhone. Using Jetset, Joshua could see his alternate reality onscreen at any time, helping him play with different ideas on the fly with full confidence. For relighting, his team turned to Beeble AI, which made sure the daytime footage seamlessly morphed into night. Everything was then assembled and rendered in Unreal Engine — including the 3D zombies, demons and fire — before finishing touches, like the analog VHS look, were added in DaVinci Resolve.

“Pairing generated environments with Jetset opens up a new world for creators, where we can not only make more elaborate content, but start shooting scripts quickly and see if everything’s working before we move on to our full production,” adds Kerr. “Creators just want to create and the tech needs to get out of the way. With this new workflow, people have everything they need to do all that and more. The question becomes: “What do we want to create?”

About Jetset

With Jetset, users can access virtual production at any stage of the creative process — from the earliest story hacking sessions to the last days of post. Built on Lightcraft’s Emmy-winning Previzion system, Jetset puts Gaussian splats, compositing, keying, tracking, scanning and more all in one place, giving artists everything they need to make fulfilling films and shows. Because it runs on an iPhone or iPad, Jetset can bring more freedom to any environment, allowing creatives to blend real-time 3D and live-action footage in whatever place seems best — including living rooms, stages and remote outdoor locations.