#4: Dynamic Gaussian Splats - Virtual Production Workflow

Dreaming up a new way for actors to interact with props in virtual movie production

We also explored how dynamic Gaussian Splats might assist the movie production pipeline, including virtual production, virtual art department, and props.

Our CoSTAR National Lab Disguise partnership enabled us to devise a short film, ‘Office Daydream’ to test the performance and the look of Splats in a Virtual Production shoot.

The film was shot on our VP stage, we experimented with integrating a number of static Splats as well as two types of dynamic Splats (a motion capture of paper being thrown into the air, and a vase falling from a desk and floating in mid-air).

We learnt a great deal through this process and believe there is a strong potential for integration of Gaussian Splats into VP in time, however, improvements in a number of key areas will greatly improve suitability and adoption.

Adding motion was time consuming with the existing stop frame options available. The size of the Splats themselves added rendering performance challenges. Re-lighting was probably the biggest challenge as it limited the aesthetic of the final outputs and, as such, the probable current uptake in a broad range of VP use cases. These challenges all form part of ongoing research at the National Lab