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Passive markers including retroreflective spheres, hemispheres, and flat discs are easily tracked with OptiTrack's precision, long range cameras.

Signature Pulse Active enables 100% error free marker ID's, low latency data delivery and <0.1s acquisition time. The benchmark for startlingly-good rotational accuracy.

Active LEDs are illuminated markers which are synched with the cameras in order to extend battery life, but otherwise have no unique signature and do not communicate their unique IDs to the system.

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Passive markers including retroreflective spheres, hemispheres, and flat discs are easily tracked with OptiTrack's precision, long range cameras. Signature Pulse Active enables 100% error free marker ID's, low latency data delivery and <0.1s acquisition time. The benchmark for startlingly-good rotational accuracy.

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The new VIVE Mars will be available starting on April 18.
We welcome you to join our Early Bird Program.

Discover Mars

Follow us on social media to keep up to date!

HTC VIVE is helping level the field in film making with its first dedicated entry into virtual production - VIVE Mars CamTrack. The cost-effective solution provides accurate camera tracking for live video compositing with a set-up time that only takes minutes.

VIVE Mars simplifies virtual production - letting content creators focus on what's important, creating.
Launch Video

Virtual production made simple

With SteamVR™ Tracking 2.0 technology and VIVE Trackers, HTC VIVE delivers a simple yet accurate camera tracking solution optimized for virtual production.

VIVE Mars for virtual production

See what VIVE Mars can do

Since no installation is required, VIVE Mars reduces how long it takes to set up for real-time virtual production from hours to minutes.

Genlock, Timecode sync, and robust connections - all essential to reduce latency.

No production is the same. Use up to three Rovers to track cameras, lights, or props.* Create a setup that works best for you.
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*Requires 3 included Rover modules and 3 trackers supported by SteamVR™ Tracking BS2.0. Kit includes 2 VIVE Trackers (3.0). Additional supported VIVE Tracker unit sold separately.

Let talent step into new virtual backgrounds in real-time - wherever you need.

Discover what's happening on Mars

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VIVE Mars CamTrack - Your VR Companion in Virtual Production

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The new VIVE Mars will be available starting on April 18.We welcome you to join our Early Bird Program. Discover Mars Follow us on social media to keep up to date! HTC VIVE is helping level the field in film making with its first dedicated entry into virtual production - VIVE Mars CamTrack.

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Video: Studio Above&Below on augmented & mixed reality

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Video: Studio Above&Below on augmented & mixed reality

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Find out how these artists are mixing realities in their practice

Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

Studio Above&Below is a London based art and design practice founded by Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden after graduating from the Royal College of Art. The duo's collaborative practice focuses on interactive and speculative projects, based on hands-on research at the intersection of technology and interactive art - focusing on future scenarios in which emerging technologies and code have the potential to improve our planet's well being.

More information about Above&Below's work can be found at studioaboveandbelow.com.

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (https://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Studio Above&Below on augmented & mixed reality - Collusion

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Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

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a dedicated device designed to play back your MadMapper setups

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During our safe distancing times, this research has developed effective and affordable techniques to connect theatre and dance performers from their separate homes and place them within virtual sets online to create, rehearse and perform together as if on a real stage.

The website provides helpful DIY case study guides and resources, including audio-visual materials and analysis of residency projects with ten performing arts companies.

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During our safe distancing times, this research has developed effective and affordable techniques to connect theatre and dance performers from their separate homes and place them within virtual sets online to create, rehearse and perform together as if on a real stage.

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Codec is short for "coder-decoder." It is an algorithm used to encode data, such as an audio or video clip. The encoded data must be decoded when played back.

A media codec is not equivalent to media compression, since it is possible to encode a file without compressing it. However, most codecs do compress the original data, reducing the size of the original file. This is important for multimedia files, since they often have large file sizes. Compressed files take up less disk space and can be downloaded more quickly.

Generally, a codec reduces the file size of a media file, but increases the processing power required to play the file back correctly.

Lossless vs Lossy Codecs

Some codecs are lossless, meaning they do not reduce the quality of the original media file. Examples of lossless audio codecs include the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), and the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). Video codecs that support lossless compression include H.264 and QuickTime RLE. A lossless codec can often reduce the file size of a media file to about 50% without altering the quality.

Other codecs are lossy, meaning the compression reduces the quality of the media. Examples of lossy audio codecs are Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) and MPEG-1 Layer 3 ( MP3). Common lossy video codecs include MPEG-2 and HEVC. Most lossy codecs provide a variable compression setting, which allows you to select how much to compress the media. For example, if you apply heavy compression to an audio file, it may reduce the file size to 10%, but the audio may sound like it has been compressed. If you use a lower compression setting that reduces the file size to 30%, it may be closer to the original file.

NOTE: Lossy codecs are commonly applied to streaming media so the data can be transferred more quickly over the Internet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Codec is short for "coder-decoder." It is an algorithm used to encode data, such as an audio or video clip. The encoded data must be decoded when played back. A media codec is not equivalent to media compression, since it is possible to encode a file without compressing it.

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Game Engine Definition

Game engines are pieces of computer software and/or code libraries that handle common game development tasks. They facilitate video game creation at a higher level, without game developers having to worry about programming everything from scratch.

Using existing, mature game engine technology allows game developers to reduce development time and focus entirely on creating their game.

Game engines sometimes feature dedicated editors and tools to make tasks such as level, game object and user interface design easier. Features can also integrate with third party tools for some or all of these tasks.

Game Engine Types and Features

Modern video game engines come in a huge range of shapes and sizes. Each engine tends to have their own particular way of working, in terms of tool pipeline & programming/scripting language used. This means that although some skills (such as programming & design) may be transferable, much of the development process is usually game engine specific.

Most modern commercial engines such as Unreal Engine, Unity 3D and CryEngine are capable of handling 2D and 3D game development. Most high end commercial solutions feature a state-of-the-art real-time graphics rendering engine, a built in physics engine and have complex built-in visual editors with drag and drop scene editing to help streamline the game design process.

Most commercial game engines are cross-platform, with multiple possible build targets. This makes it easier for the game developer to create versions for all the popular home computer, games console and mobile platforms from the same game code and assets, with minimal changes for each target.

The programming language used varies, with most of the commercial solutions using some variant of C.

Game engines can range from small, free and/or open source engines for 2D games (sometimes focusing on a specific genre of game), right up to huge, flexible, commercial software packages that can be used to create any game imaginable.

Game Engine Licensing

Historically many high level commercial game engines were difficult and extremely expensive to license. This put them out of reach of the very small scale developer. With the advent of casual gaming, the indie development boom and increased competition, many commercial game engines have now switched to a subscription model and/or revenue share over a certain threshold and relaxed the entry requirements. This has made it feasible for even the smallest single person teams to use the top commercial game engines for their projects.

Royalty terms on game revenue vary, with some game engine developers taking a percentage cut from games produced using their engine and some taking no additional cut beyond any flat costs of using it.

Some simpler game engines are open source and free to use.

Cross-Platform Builds

Most commercial game engines allow building games to all popular gaming platforms, from desktop PCs and Macs to games consoles and mobile devices.

Smaller game engines may target one platform only, or require the use of third party tools in order to build to multiple platforms.

Game Engine vs Game Framework

Self-contained software packages that provide a graphical user interface and built in editor and build tools, are always referred to as game engines. Notable examples of fully featured game engines used in the commercial 3D gaming world are Unity 3D and Unreal Engine.

Purely code libraries that handle these common game development tasks and require use of third party code editors and tools are often called "game frameworks". In these instances, where the line is drawn between a game framework and a game engine is much debated. Often, the terms are used interchangeably.

There is no clear definition when it comes to code libraries. Some argue that all code libraries, are game frameworks. Others argue that a certain level of task specific functionality qualifies a code library as an engine and others use the term game engine for all code libraries.

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Game engines are pieces of computer software and/or code libraries that handle common game development tasks. They facilitate video game creation at a higher level, without game developers having to worry about programming everything from scratch. Using existing, mature game engine technology allows game developers to reduce development time and focus entirely on creating their game.

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DanceEast green screen studio technical spec

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DanceEast green screen studio technical spec

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Digital Suite Technical Specification - DanceEast

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Get the technical specs for our new digital suite, including green screen facilities

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Derivative is a software company that offers TouchDesigner, a visual development platform.

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VJing (pronounced: VEE-JAY-ing) is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music festivals and sometimes in combination with other performative arts. This results in a live multimedia performance that can include music, actors and dancers. The term VJing became popular in its association with MTV's Video Jockey but its origins date back to the New York club scene of the 70s. In both situations VJing is the manipulation or selection of visuals, the same way DJing is a selection and manipulation of audio.

One of the key elements in the practice of VJing is the realtime mix of content from a "library of media", on storage media such as VHS tapes or DVDs, video and still image files on computer hard drives, live camera input, or from computer generated visuals. In addition to the selection of media, VJing mostly implies realtime processing of the visual material. The term is also used to describe the performative use of generative software, although the word "becomes dubious (...) since no video is being mixed".

Historically, VJing gets its references from art forms that deal with the synesthetic experience of vision and sound. These historical references are shared with other live audiovisual art forms, such as Live Cinema, to include the camera obscura, the panorama and diorama, the magic lantern, color organ, and liquid light shows.

The color organ is a mechanism to make colors correspond to sound through mechanical and electromechanic means. Bainbridge Bishop, who contributed to the development of the color organ, was "dominated with the idea of painting music". In a book from 1893 that documents his work, Bishop states: "I procured an organ, and experimented by building an attachment to the keys, which would play with different colored lights to correspond with the music of the instrument."

Between 1919 and 1927, Mary Hallock-Greenewalt, a piano soloist, created a new technological art form called , which means "essence of light" in Arabic. Her light music consisted of environmental color fields that produced a scale of light intensities and color. "In place of a keyboard, the Sarabet had a console with graduated sliders and other controls, more like a modern mixing board. Lights could be adjusted directly via the sliders, through the use of a pedal, and with toggle switches that worked like individual keys."

In clubs and private events in the 1960s "people used liquid-slides, disco balls and light projections on smoke to give the audience new sensations. Some of these experiments were linked to the music, but most of the time they functioned as decorations." These came to be known as liquid light shows. From 1965 to 1966 in San Francisco, the visual shows by artist collectives such as The Joshua Light Show and the Brotherhood of Light accompanied The Grateful Dead concerts, which were inspired by the Beat generation-in particular the Merry Pranksters-and fueled by the "expansion of consciousness" from the Acid Tests.

The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, between 1966 and 1967, organized by Andy Warhol contributed to the fusion of music and visuals in a party context. "The Exploding Party project examined the history of the party as an experimental artistic format, focusing in particular on music visualization - also in live contexts"

During the late 1970s video and music performance became more tightly integrated. At concerts, a few bands started to have regular film/video along with their music. Experimental film maker Tony Potts was considered an unofficial member of The Monochrome Set for his work on lighting design and film making for projections for live shows. Test Department initially worked with "Bert" Turnball as their resident visual artist, creating slideshows and film for live performances. The organization, Ministry of Power included collaborations with performance groups, traditional choirs and various political activists. Industrial bands would perform in art contexts, as well as in concert halls, and often with video projections. Groups like Cabaret Voltaire started to use low cost video editing equipment to create their own time-based collages for their sound works. In their words, "before [the use of video], you had to do collages on paper, but now you present them in rhythm-living time-in video."[citation needed ] The film collages made by and for groups such as the Test Dept, Throbbing Gristle and San Francisco's Tuxedomoon became part of their live shows.

An example of mixing film with live performance is that of Public Image Ltd. at the Ritz Riot in 1981. This club, located on the East 9th St in New York, had a state of the art video projection system. It was used to show a combination of prerecorded and live video on the club's screen. PiL played behind this screen with lights rear projecting their shadows on to the screen. Expecting a more traditional rock show, the audience reacted by pelting the projection screen with beer bottles and eventually pulling down the screen.

An artist retreat in Owego New York called Experimental Television Center, founded in 1971, made contributions to the development of many artists by gathering the experimental hardware created by video art pioneers: Nam June Paik, Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, and made the equipment available to artists in an inviting setting for free experimentation. Many of the outcomes debuted at the nightclub Hurrah which quickly became a new alternative for video artists who could not get their avant garde productions aired on regular broadcast outlets. Similarly, music video development was happening in other major cities around the world, providing an alternative to mainstream television.

A notable image processor is the Sandin Image Processor (1971), primarily as it describes what is now commonly referred to as open source.

The Dan Sandin Image Processor, or "IP," is an analog video processor with video signals sent through processing modules that route to an output color encoder. The IP's most unique attribute is its non-commercial philosophy, emphasizing a public access to processing methods and the machines that assist in generating the images. The IP was Sandin's electronic expression for a culture that would "learn to use High-Tech machines for personal, aesthetic, religious, intuitive, comprehensive, and exploratory growth." This educational goal was supplemented with a "distribution religion" that enabled video artists, and not-for-profit groups, to "roll-your-own" video synthesizer for only the cost of parts and the sweat and labor it took to build it. It was the " Heathkit" of video art tools, with a full building plan spelled out, including electronic schematics and mechanical assembly information. Tips on soldering, procuring electronic parts and Printed Circuit boards, were also included in the documentation, increasing the chances of successfully building a working version of the video synthesizer.

In May 1980, multi media artist / filmmaker Merrill Aldighieri was invited to screen a film at the nightclub Hurrah. At this time, music video clips did not exist in large quantity and the video installation was used to present an occasional film. To bring the role of visuals to an equal level with the DJ's music, Merrill made a large body of ambient visuals that could be combined in real time to interpret the music. Working alongside the DJ, this collection of raw visuals was mixed in real time to create a non-stop visual interpretation of the music. Merrill became the world's first full-time VJ. MTV founders came to this club and Merrill introduced them to the term and the role of "VJ",inspiring them to have VJ hosts on their channel the following year. Merrill collaborated with many musicians at the club, notably with electronic musician Richard Bone to make the first ambient music video album titled "Emerging Video". Thanks to a grant from the Experimental Television Center, her blend of video and 16 mm film bore the influential mark of the unique Rutt Etra and Paik synthesizers. This film was offered on VHS through "High Times Magazine" and was featured in the club programming. Her next foray into the home video audience was in collaboration with the newly formed arm of Sony, Sony HOME VIDEO, where she introduced the concept of "breaking music on video" with her series DANSPAK. With a few exceptions like the Jim Carrol Band with Lou Reed and Man Parrish, this series featured unknown bands, many of them unsigned.

The rise of electronic music (especially in house and techno genres) and DJ club culture provided more opportunities for artists to create live visuals at events. The popularity of MTV lead to greater and better production of music videos for both broadcast and VHS, and many clubs began to show music videos as part of entertainment and atmosphere.

Joe Shannahan (owner of Metro in 1989-1990) was paying artists for video content on VHS. Part of the evening they would play MTV music videos and part of the evening they would run mixes from local artists Shanahan had commissioned.

Medusa's (an all-ages bar in Chicago) incorporated visuals as part of their nightly art performances throughout the early to mid 80s (1983-85). Also in Chicago during the mid-80s was Smart Bar, where Metro held "Video Metro" every Saturday night.

In the 1980s the development of relatively cheap transistor and integrated circuit technology allowed the development of digital video effects hardware at a price within reach of individual VJs and nightclub owners.

One of the first commercially distributed video synthesizers available in 1981 was the CEL Electronics Chromascope sold for use in the developing nightclub scene. The Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI), first produced in 1983, was revolutionary in this area, allowing complex digital effects to be applied in real time to video sources. The CVI became popular amongst television and music video producers and features in a number of music videos from the period. The Commodore Amiga introduced in 1985 made a breakthrough in accessibility for home computers and developed the first computer animation programs for 2D and 3D animation that could produce broadcast results on a desktop computer.

A number of recorded works begin to be published in the 1990s to further distribute the work of VJs, such as the Xmix compilations (beginning in 1993), Future Sound of London's "Lifeforms"(VHS, 1994), Emergency Broadcast Network's "Telecommunication Breakdown" (VHS, 1995), Coldcut and Hexstatic's "Timber" (VHS, 1997 and then later on CDRom including a copy of VJamm VJ software), the "Mego Videos" compilation of works from 1996 to 1998 (VHS/PAL, 1999) and Addictive TV's 1998 television series "Transambient" for the UK's Channel 4 (and DVD release).

In the United States, the emergence of the rave scene is perhaps to be credited for the shift of the VJ scene from nightclubs into underground parties. From around 1991 until 1994, Mark Zero would do film loops at Chicago raves and house parties. One of the earliest large-scale Chicago raves was "Massive New Years Eve Revolution" in 1993, produced by Milwaukee's Drop Bass Network. It was a notable event as it featured the Optique Vid Tek (OVT) VJs on the bill. This event was followed by Psychosis, held on 3 April 1993, and headlined by Psychic TV, with visuals by OVT Visuals. In San Francisco Dimension 7 were a VJ collective working the early West Coast rave scene beginning in 1993. Between 1996 and 1998, Dimension 7 took projectors and lasers to the Burning Man festival, creating immersive video installations on the Black Rock desert.

In the UK groups such as The Light Surgeons and Eikon were transforming clubs and rave events by combining the old techniques of liquid lightshows with layers of slide, film and video projections. In Bristol, Children of Technology emerged, pioneering interactive immersive environments stemming from co-founder Mike Godfrey's architectural thesis whilst at university during the 1980s. Children of Technology integrated their homegrown CGI animation and video texture library with output from the interactive Virtual Light Machine (VLM), the brainchild of Jeff Minter and Dave Japp, with output onto over 500 sq m of layered screens using high power video and laser projection within a dedicated lightshow. Their "Ambient Theatre Lightshow" first emerged at Glastonbury 93 and they also provided VJ visuals for the Shamen, who had just released their no 1. hit "Ebeneezer Goode" at the festival. Invited musicians jammed in the Ambient Theatre Lightshow, using the VLM, within a prototype immersive environment. Children of Technology took interactive video concepts into a wide range of projects including show production for "Obsession" raves between 1993 and 1995, theatre, clubs, advertising, major stage shows and TV events. This included pioneering projects with 3D video / sound recording and performance, and major architectural projects in the late 1990s, where many media technology ideas were now taking hold. Another collective, " Hex" were working across a wide range of media - from computer games to art exhibitions - the group pioneered many new media hybrids, including live audiovisual jamming, computer-generated audio performances, and interactive collaborative instruments. This was the start of a trend which continues today with many VJs working beyond the club and dance party scene in areas such as installation art.

The Japanese book "VJ2000" (Daizaburo Harada, 1999) marked one of the earliest publications dedicated to discussing the practices of VJs.

The combination of the emerging rave scene, along with slightly more affordable video technology for home-entertainment systems, brought consumer products to become more widely used in artistic production. However, costs for these new types of video equipment were still high enough to be prohibitive for many artists.

There are three main factors that lead to the proliferation of the VJ scene in the 2000s:

1. affordable and faster laptops;

2. drop in prices of video projectors (especially after the dot-com bust where companies were loading off their goods on craigslist)

3. the emergence of strong rave scenes and the growth of club culture internationally

As a result of these, the VJ scene saw an explosion of new artists and styles. These conditions also facilitated a sudden emergence of a less visible (but nonetheless strong) movement of artists who were creating algorithmic, generative visuals.

This decade saw video technology shift from being strictly for professional film and television studios to being accessible for the prosumer market (e.g. the wedding industry, church presentations, low-budget films, and community television productions). These mixers were quickly adopted by VJs as the core component of their performance setups. This is similar to the release of the Technics 1200 turntables, which were marketed towards homeowners desiring a more advanced home entertainment system, but were then appropriated by musicians and music enthusiasts for experimentation. Initially, video mixers were used to mix pre-prepared video material from VHSplayers and live camera sources, and later to add the new computer software outputs into their mix. The 90s saw the development of a number of digital video mixers such as Panasonic's WJ-MX50, WJ-MX12, and the Videonics MX-1.

Early desktop editing systems such as the NewTek Video Toaster for the Amiga computer were quickly put to use by VJs seeking to create visuals for the emerging rave scene, whilst software developers began to develop systems specifically designed for live visuals such as O'Wonder's "Bitbopper".

The first known software for VJs was Vujak - created in 1992 and written for the Mac by artist Brian Kane for use by the video art group he was part of - Emergency Broadcast Network, though it was not used in live performances. EBN used the EBN VideoSampler v2.3, developed by Mark Marinello and Greg Deocampo. In the UK, Bristol's Children of Technology developed a dedicated immersive video lightshow using the Virtual Light Machine (VLM) called AVLS or Audio-Visual-Live-System during 1992 and 1993. The VLM was a custom built PC by video engineer Dave Japp using super-rare transputer chips and modified motherboards, programmed by Jeff Minter (Llamasoft & Virtual Light Co.). The VLM developed after Jeff's earlier Llamasoft Light Synthesiser programme. With VLM, DI's from live musicians or DJ's activated Jeff's algorithmic real-time video patterns, and this was real-time mixed using pansonic video mixers with CGI animation/VHS custom texture library and live camera video feedback. Children of Technology developed their own "Video Light" system, using hi-power and low-power video projection to generate real-time 3D beam effects, simultaneous with enormous surface and mapped projection. The VLM was used by the Shamen, The Orb, Primal Scream, Obsession, Peter Gabriel, Prince and many others between 1993 and 1996. A software version of the VLM was integrated into Atari's Jaguar console, in response to growing VJ interest. In the mid-90s, Audio reactive pure synthesis (as opposed to clip-based) software such as Cthugha and Bomb were influential. By the late 90s there were several PC based VJing softwares available, including generative visuals programs such as MooNSTER, Aestesis, and Advanced Visualization Studio, as well as video clip players such as FLxER, created by Gianluca Del Gobbo, and VJamm.

Programming environments such as Max/MSP, Macromedia Director and later Quartz Composer started to become used by themselves and also to create VJing programs like VDMX or pixmix. These new software products and the dramatic increases in computer processing power over the decade meant that VJs were now regularly taking computers to gigs.

The new century has brought new dynamics to the practice of visual performance. To be a VJ previously had largely meant a process of self-invention in isolation from others: the term was not widely known. Then through the rise of internet adoption, having access to other practitioners very became the norm, and virtual communities quickly formed. The sense of collective then translated from the virtual world onto physical spaces. This becomes apparent through the numerous festivals that emerge all over Europe with strong focus on VJing.

VJ events in Europe

The VideA festival in Barcelona ran from 2000 - 2005., AVIT, clear in its inception as the online community of VJCentral.com self-organising a physical presence, had its first festival in Leeds (2002), followed by Chicago (2003), Brighton (2003), San Francisco (2004), and Birmingham (2005), 320x240 in Croatia (2003), Contact Europe in Berlin (2003). Also, the Cimatics festival in Brussels should be credited as a pioneering event, with a first festival edition in 2002 completely dedicated to VJing. In 2003, the Finnish media arts festival PixelAche was dedicated to the topic of VJing, while in 2003, Berlin's Chaos Computer Club started a collaboration with AVIT organisers that featured VJ Camps and Congress strands. LPM - Live Performers Meeting was born in Rome in 2004, with the aim to offer a real meeting space for often individually working artists, a place to meet the fellow VJ artists, spin-off new projects, and share all VJing related experiences, softwares, questions and insights. LPM since has become one of the leading international meetings dedicated to artists, professionals and enthusiasts of VJing, visual and live video performance, counting its 20th edition in 2019. Also around this time (in 2005 and 2007), UK artists Addictive TV teamed up with the British Film Institute to produce Optronica, a crossover event showcasing audiovisual performances at the London IMAX cinema and BFI Southbank.

Two festivals entirely dedicated to VJing, Mapping Festival in Geneva and Vision'R in Paris, held their first edition in 2005. As these festivals emerged that prominently featured VJs as headline acts (or the entire focus of the festival), the rave festival scene also began to regularly include VJs in their main stage lineups with varying degrees of prominence.

VJ events beyond Europe

The MUTEK festival (2000-present) in Montréal regularly featured VJs alongside experimental sound art performances, and later the Elektra Festival (2008-present) also emerged in Montréal and featured many VJ performances. In Perth, Australia, the Byte Me! festival (2007) showed the work of many VJs from the Pacific Rim area alongside new media theorists and design practitioners.

With lesser funding[citation needed ], the US scene has been host to more workshops and salons than festivals. Between 2000 and 2006, Grant Davis (VJ Culture) and Jon Schwark of Dimension 7 produced "Video Salon", a regular monthly gathering significant in helping establish and educate a strong VJ community in San Francisco, and attended by VJs across California and the United States. In addition, they produced an annual "Video RIOT!" (2003-2005) as a political statement following the R.A.V.E. Act ( Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act) of 2003; a display of dissatisfaction by the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004; and in defiance of a San Francisco city ordinance limiting public gatherings in 2005.

Several VJ battles and competitions began to emerge during this time period, such as Video Salon's " SIGGRAPH VJ Battle" in San Diego (2003), Videocake's "AV Deathmatch" series in Toronto (2006) and the "VJ Contests" at the Mapping Festival in Geneva (2009). These worked much like a traditional DJ battle where VJs would be given a set amount of time to show off their best mixes and were judged according to several criteria by a panel of judges.

Publications

Databases of visual content and promotional documentation became available on DVD formats and online through personal websites and through large databases, such as the " Prelinger Archives" on Archive.org. Many VJs began releasing digital video loop sets on various websites under Public Domain or Creative Commons licensing for other VJs to use in their mixes, such as Tom Bassford's "Design of Signage" collection (2006), Analog Recycling's "79 VJ Loops" (2006), VJzoo's "Vintage Fairlight Clips" (2007) and Mo Selle's "57 V.2" (2007).

Promotional and content-based DVDs began to emerge, such as the works from the UK's ITV1 television series Mixmasters (2000-2005) produced by Addictive TV, Lightrhythm Visuals (2003), Visomat Inc. (2002), and Pixdisc, all of which focused on the visual creators, VJ styles and techniques. These were then later followed by NOTV, Atmospherix, and other labels. Mia Makela curated a DVD collection for Mediateca of Caixa Forum called "LIVE CINEMA" in 2007, focusing on the emerging sister practice of "live cinema". Individual VJs and collectives also published DVDs and CD-ROMs of their work, including Eclectic Method's bootleg video mix (2002) and Eclectic Method's "We're Not VJs" (2005), as well as eyewash's "DVD2" (2004) and their "DVD3" (2008).

Books reflecting on the history, technical aspects, and theoretical issues began to appear, such as "The VJ Book: Inspirations and Practical Advice for Live Visuals Performance" (Paul Spinrad, 2005), "VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture" (Michael Faulkner and D-Fuse, 2006), "vE-jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video" (Xárene Eskandar [ed], 2006), and "VJ: Live Cinema Unraveled" (Tim Jaeger, 2006). The subject of VJ-DJ collaboration also started to become a subject of interest for those studying in the field of academic human-computer interaction (HCI).

The availability and affordability of new consumer-level technology allowed many more people to get involved into VJing. The dramatic increase in computer processing power that became available facilitated more compact, yet often more complex setups, sometimes allowing VJs to bypass using a video mixer, using powerful computers running VJ software to control their mixing instead. However, many VJs continue to use video mixers with multiple sources, which allows flexibility for a wide range of input devices and a level of security against computer crashes or slowdowns in video playback due to overloading the CPU of computers due to the demanding nature of realtime video processing.

Today's VJs have a wide choice of off the shelf hardware products, covering every aspect of visuals performance, including video sample playback (Korg Kaptivator), real-time video effects (Korg Entrancer) and 3D visual generation.

The widespread use of DVDs gave initiative for scratchable DVD players.

Many new models of MIDI controllers became available during the 2000s, which allow VJs to use controllers based on physical knobs, dials, and sliders, rather than interact primarily with the mouse/keyboard computer interface.

There are also many VJs working with experimental approaches to working with live video. Open source graphical programming environments (such as Pure Data) are often used to create custom software interfaces for performances, or to connect experimental devices to their computer for processing live data (for example, the IBVA EEG-reading brainwave unit, the Arduino microprocessor, or circuit bending children's toys).

The second half of this decade also saw a dramatic increase in display configurations being deployed, including widescreen canvases, multiple projections and video mapped onto the architectural form. This shift has been underlined by the transition from broadcast based technology - fixed until this decade firmly in the 4x3 aspect ratio specifications NTSC and PAL - to computer industry technology, where the varied needs of office presentation, immersive gaming and corporate video presentation have led to diversity and abundance in methods of output. Compared to the ~640x480i fixed format of NTSC/PAL, a contemporary laptop using DVI can output a great variety of resolutions up to ~2500px wide, and in conjunction with the Matrox TripleHead2Go can feed three different displays with an image coordinated across them all.

A significant aspect of VJing is the use of technology, be it the re-appropriation of existing technologies meant for other fields, or the creation of new and specific ones for the purpose of live performance. The advent of video is a defining moment for the formation of the VJ (video jockey).

Often using a video mixer, VJs blend and superimpose various video sources into a live motion composition. In recent years, electronic musical instrument makers have begun to make specialty equipment for VJing.

VJing developed initially by performers using video hardware such as videocameras, video decks and monitors to transmit improvised performances with live input from cameras and even broadcast TV mixed with pre-recorded elements. This tradition lives on with many VJs using a wide range of hardware and software available commercially or custom made for and by the VJs.

VJ hardware can be split into categories -

Source hardware generates a video picture which can be manipulated by the VJ, e.g. video cameras and Video Synthesizers.

Playback hardware plays back an existing video stream from disk or tape-based storage mediums, e.g. VHS tape players and DVD players.

Mixing hardware allows the combining of multiple streams of video e.g. a Video Mixer or a computer utilizing VJ software.

Effects hardware allows the adding of special effects to the video stream, e.g. Colour Correction units

Output hardware is for displaying the video signal, e.g. Video projector, LED display, or Plasma Screen.

There are many types of software a VJ may use in their work, traditional NLE production tools such as Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Apple's Final Cut Pro are used to create content for VJ shows. Specialist performance software is used by VJs to play back and manipulate video in real-time.

VJ performance software is highly diverse, and include software which allows a computer to replace the role of an analog video mixer and output video across extended canvasses composed of multiple screens or projectors. Small companies producing dedicated VJ software such as Modul8 and Magic give VJs a sophisticated interface for real-time processing of multiple layers of video clips combined with live camera inputs, giving VJs a complete off the shelf solution so they can simply load in the content and perform. Some popular titles which emerged during the 2000s include Resolume, NuVJ.

Some VJs prefer to develop software themselves specifically to suit their own performance style. Graphical programming environments such as Max/MSP/Jitter, Isadora, and Pure Data have developed to facilitate rapid development of such custom software without needing years of coding experience.

There are many types of configurations of hardware and software that a VJ may use to perform.

Several research projects have been dedicated to the documentation and study of VJing from the reflective and theoretical point of view. Round tables, talks, presentations and discussions are part of festivals and conferences related to new media art, such as ISEA and Ars Electronica for example, as well as specifically related to VJing, as is the case of the Mapping Festival. Exchange of ideas through dialogue contributed to the shift of the discussion from issues related to the practicalities of production to more complex ideas and to the process and the concept. Subjects related to VJing are, but not exclusively: identity and persona (individual and collective), the moment as art, audience participation, authorship, networks, collaboration and narrative. Through collaborative projects, visual live performance shift to a field of interdisciplinary practices.

Periodical publications, online and printed, launched special issues on VJing. This is the case of AMinima printed magazine, with a special issue on Live Cinema (which features works by VJs), and Vague Terrain (an online new media journal), with the issue The Rise of the VJ.

Amerika, Mark (2007). Meta/Data: A Digital Poetics. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01233-1

Bargsten, Joey (2011). "Hybrid Forms and Syncretic Horizons". Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-3-8465-0355-3

Dekker, Anette (May 2006), "Synaesthetic Performance in the Club Scene", Cosign 2003: Computational Semiotics

Eskandar, Xárene (ed) (2006). vE-jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio-Video. San Francisco: h4SF. ISBN 978-0-9765060-5-8

Faulkner, Michael / D-Fuse (ed), 2006. VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture. London: Laurence King. ISBN 978-1-85669-490-2

Harada, Daizaburo (1999), VJ2000 (in Japanese), August

Jaeger, Timothy (2006), VJ: Live Cinema Unraveled. Handbook for Live Visual Performance (PDF)

Lehrer, Jonah (2008). Proust was a neuroscientist. New York:Mariner. ISBN 978-0-618-62010-4

Lund, Cornelia & Lund, Holger (eds), 2009. Audio.Visual- On Visual Music and Related Media. Estugarda: Arnoldsche Art publishers. ISBN 978-3-89790-293-0

Manu; Ideacritik & Velez, Paula, et al. (2009) " Aether9 Communications: Proceedings". TK: Greyscale Editions. Vol3, Issue 1. ISSN 1663-7658

Momus, VJ Culture: Design Takes Center Stage, Adobe Design Center

Spinrad, Paul (2005). The VJ Book: Inspirations and practical Advice for Live Visuals Performance. Los Angeles: Feral House. ISBN 1-932595-09-0

Ustarroz, César (2010), Teoría del VJing - Realización y Representación Audiovisual en Tiempo Real (in Spanish), Ediciones Libertarias, ISBN 978-84-7954-703-5

VJ Theory (ed) (2008). "VJam Theory: Collective Writings on Realtime Visual Performance". Falmouth:realtime Books. ISBN 978-0-9558982-0-4

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VJing (pronounced: VEE-JAY-ing) is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music festivals and sometimes in combination with other performative arts.

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Resolume VJ Software & Media Server - Resolume

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Wire is a modular node-based patching environment to create effects, mixers and video generators for Resolume Arena & Avenue. Learn more about Wire ➜

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Virtual Production is the process of mixing live footage and computer graphics simultaneously, to get real-time feedback and to make decisions on set about composition, VFX and animations. Read more...

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Video: Dave Norton on creation a motion capture system

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Video: Dave Norton on creation a motion capture system

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Find out how Limbotech use virtual reality trackers to capture motion

Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

LimboTech was established in 2016 to entertain, educate and inspire through the power of Digital Technology. Dave Norton is the Creative Director at Limbo Tech and is a Creative Technologist with a background in participatory Theatre. His specialisms include Motion Capture, VR & AR, Interactive Artwork and he runs an extensive range of Education and Training programs. His work has ranged from large scale interactive installations at firstsite gallery and Landguard Fort, to directing live theatre in a virtual world at the Mercury Theatre.
Info on Limbo Tech's work can be found at www.limbotech.co.uk.

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (http://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Dave Norton on creating a motion capture system - Collusion

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Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice. LimboTech was established in 2016 to entertain, educate and inspire through the power of Digital Technology.

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An introduction to using dynamic projections in live theatre

Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

Edalia Day is a spoken word artist, video designer and theatre maker based in Norwich. Trained at Lecoq and Alra, her theatre is visually stunning, with physical comedy, interactive video projection and a child like sense of play at the heart of everything she makes. Info on Edalia's work can be found at edaliaday.co.uk. Pretty To Punch and Super Hamlet 64 are available online.

Music: Inspired, by Ketsa, from the album Loss To Gain / Creative Commons license.

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (http://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Artist Edalia Day on projection mapping // Collusion

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Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice. Edalia Day is a spoken word artist, video designer and theatre maker based in Norwich.

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Find out how Sian has combined physical and virtual practices in her work

Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

Sian Fan is an interdisciplinary artist based in London, where she is artist in residence at the Sarabande Foundation. Her work combines movement, the female body and technology to explore embodiment, spirituality and human experience in the digital age. She works across mediums, combining the physical and the virtual through sculpture, performance, animation, moving image and virtual & augmented reality, and seeks to create works that heighten our awareness of the experience of being online. She is fascinated by virtual identities, and in how we construct virtual bodies which exist in hyperspace beyond our physical bodies. Info on Sian's work can be found at www.sianfan.com.

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David Russell - The Fusion Works (http://www.thefusionworks.com)

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Sian Fan on mixing realities - Collusion

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Collusion's ART // TECH // PLAY video series shares insights from artists about their work with creative technologies, aiming to spark curiosity and act as an introduction for others who would like to incorporate similar techniques into their work and practice.

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Download Unity Beta

Get early access to our latest features, and help us improve quality by providing valuable feedback.

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Awesome. Download Unity here if you have a Plus or Pro subscription.

System requirements

OS: Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.12+; Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and CentOS 7.

GPU: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities.

Releases

Resources

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Get early access to our latest features, and help us improve quality by providing valuable feedback. Download Beta Awesome. Download Unity here if you have a Plus or Pro subscription. OS: Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.12+; Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and CentOS 7.

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Isadora provides a cost-effective and easy-to-program solution for fast media playback and cueing. It can also be easily interfaced to work with other software media tools. If you want to find out more about Isadora's extensive range of features and how they can be tailored to serve you, please contact us.

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Over the last few years Deborah Johnson, also known as CANDYSTATIONS, has closely collaborated with musician Sufjan Stevens on music videos, comedy sketches, and most notably mind blowing live visuals, some of which you can see in the trailer to the right.

"When I designed the visuals for Sufjan Stevens' the Age of Adz, Sufjan and I wanted parts of the show to feel very artificial and Tron-like, complementing the awkward, handmade brilliance of artist Royal Robertson and my own designs. I also wanted to be able to 'play' visual instruments along with the band."

You can read more about CandyStations and her upcoming fall tour on our blog.

Perhaps the greatest honor a video artist from the UK can get, this year The Eclectic Method was brought on by BBC America to perform a 45 minute live AV remix of Doctor Who at SXSW in celebration of the shows 50th year. Preparation for the event included carefully cutting up samples from hundreds of hours of old episodes by theme along with creating original new music to match each section before sequencing them with Ableton Live and VDMX.

You can read more about how the Eclectic Method makes his remixes on our blog.
mmmlabs.com
Touring with illuminated performance pods designed by Martin Phillips and video content by Mike Figge and his crew @ Possible, Momo was tasked with making their vision into a visual reality. What makes his setup especially unique is his custom OpenFrameworks application 'Glitch Lights' that feeds into VDMX using Syphon to control the light strips on the pods. A full detailed report available at Created Digital Motion.
cstng-shdws.com
Telling the story of humans marking time letting Edison's insane finger chops do the talking, triggering mapped video projections and audio samples from a single controller.
youareatourist.com
Visual designer Nicholas Gould worked with director and set designer Otis Bumblebee and Johnny Legostein shooting the worlds first "live, scripted, single-take music video".

Four separate machines running VDMX were used to live trigger video files over MIDI and OSC with real-time FX and projection mapping via Quartz Composer.

Norwegian light designer Joakim Faxvaag shows us that concert video isn't just for VJs. Instead of a traditional projection surface he points a 15000 ansi projector from front of house directly at the band making the entire stage and the musicians part of his lighting rig with stunning results.
weirdcore.tv
With additional FX programming from Andrew Benson, flight404, and vade this is one of the wildest tour setups we've seen in a while... but you wouldn't expect anything less doing for the worlds most known electronic musician. Pitchfork may have said it best, "First, we can't really talk about anything until we talk about the visuals."
msavisuals.com
An example of a 3D shape created using a GLSL being animated using the VDMX audio analysis plugin to drive shape and FX settings. The original shader code and an in depth explanation available on the Mega Super Awesome Visuals blog.

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Over the last few years Deborah Johnson, also known as CANDYSTATIONS, has closely collaborated with musician Sufjan Stevens on music videos, comedy sketches, and most notably mind blowing live visuals, some of which you can see in the trailer to the right.

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qlab figure 53 theater audio video lighting software cues control macos

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QLab is sound, video, and lighting control for macOS. It's used by everyone, big and small.

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Unreal Engine is a complete suite of development tools for anyone working with real-time technology.

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OBS Studio is equipped with a powerful API, enabling plugins and scripts to provide further customization and functionality specific to your needs.

Utilize native plugins for high performance integrations or scripts written with Lua or Python that interface with existing sources.

Work with developers in the streaming community to get the features you need with endless possibilities.

Browse or submit your own in the Resources section

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OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.

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vMix is a Software Video Mixer and Switcher that utilises the latest advances in computer hardware to provide live HD video mixing, a task previously only possible on expensive dedicated hardware mixers.

vMix also functions as live streaming software that allows you to publish your live productions directly to the Internet!.

vMix runs on the Windows 10 platform.

vMix is a complete live video production software solution with features including LIVE mixing, switching, recording and LIVE streaming of SD, full HD and 4K video sources including cameras, video files, DVDs, images, Powerpoint and much much more.

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vMix is a Software Video Mixer and Switcher that utilises the latest advances in computer hardware to provide live HD video mixing, a task previously only possible on expensive dedicated hardware mixers. vMix also functions as live streaming software that allows you to publish your live productions directly to the Internet!.

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Article: The Breakthrough In VR Storytelling Is Not What We Thought It Would Be. It's Better.

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Article: The Breakthrough In VR Storytelling Is Not What We Thought It Would Be. It's Better.

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For years, I've been making a quip to illustrate a principle about the power of storytelling. Recently, I realized that the joke has come true.

The principle is this: humans are wired for story. We tell each other stories to connect and build relationships. We tell ourselves stories to make sense of the world. (In our waking and unconscious lives.) Stories help us remember information better than charts or stats. Stories help us care about people and can motivate us to do hard things.

And the quip I tell is this: no matter what newfangled VR-Snap-Robot-Media-Contraption gets invented next, that human power of storytelling will be the thing that makes it successful in the media realm. Twitter only became a force in the world when it became less about sharing what you had for breakfast and more about sharing stories-or links to stories. Tiktok's virality comes from the stories that are built by creators on top of each others' content, most of which originate with a backstory itself. Instagram Stories are literally what's kept the photo sharing app from going the way of the buffalo.

The quote-unquote "strategy" for harnessing any new media technology that comes out will be whatever manages to help people harness the power of storytelling to help us connect, remember, and care.

Reality is, though, outside of video games, VR has struggled to find mainstream adoption. Maybe that's why "VR" is part of the joke line-it's been hard to picture how that happens. Like many tech enthusiasts, ever since I first put on a virtual reality headset years ago, I've been convinced that VR would change the world one day. But after half a decade since Oculus Rift came out and kids everywhere weren't switching from living on Instagram to living in VR, pundits have variously declared that we should temper our expectations about how mainstream VR can get, or even that "VR is dead."

Except, something wonderful has happened.

If you've been watching Rings of Power, or House of the Dragon, or the new Star Trek-or if you're one of the 16 million people who watched all of season 1 of The Mandalorian -you've spent hours of your life on a newfangled VR-Snap-Robot-Media-Contraption.

In a terrific example of lateral thinking, VR technology is now powering your favorite movies and TV series. We're not putting on headsets, but the tech that powers a VR headset is being used to create virtual worlds for actors to perform in. Instead of flying film crews to Tunisia or building expensive physical sets, we can put far-flung locations on LED walls in a film studio anywhere.

VR tech is what makes it look real.

"Be it filmmaking, broadcast, cut scenes for video games, these different types of storytelling are all using the same technology now," says Ray Mosco, Developer Relations Partner Manager at HTC Vive, which makes VR and camera-tracking technology.

For decades, filmmakers have used "rear projection" to pretend that actors are somewhere they're not. Usually you see it in car scenes (where the world outside the car windows looks kind of fake).

The classic example is this scene from Eyes Wide Shut, where Tom Cruise walks down a street, only he's really walking on a treadmill in front of a wall with a projection of a moving street:

(What it looked like)

(Behind the scenes)

The problem with rear projection is it often looks fake. As soon as the camera moves, the wall appears flat. And a projection on a wall just can't quite compete with the crispness of the real world.

But now we have affordable LED walls-essentially giant TVs-that we can put behind actors. And to make things look real when the camera moves, clever folks have hacked VR technology to subtly move the LED background in 3D so the human eye believes it's real.

Instead of putting a 3D world inside a headset, we can put that world on a film studio wall.

As filmmakers started hacking VR tech to pull off this kind of virtual production, companies like HTC Vive, which originally focused on gaming tech, have stepped in to help.

"We saw the direction that the industry was going," Mosco says, "and adjusted our existing hardware infrastructure to support that."

In other words, the VR industry is leaning into filmmaking.

Recently, while several device-makers have launched enterprise tools to help big productions connect cameras to their 3D background walls, HTC Vive released a cost-effective VR product specifically for filmmakers. Vive's relatively new Mars tracker lets any film crew connect a camera to a 3D world for a few grand-less than the cost of many film cameras themselves.

All of this suggests that mass adoption of VR tech won't start inside some sweaty goggles; it could actually stem from the ability to help filmmakers big and small tell stories on regular screens. Sure, VR gaming will continue to make leaps. But your grandparents watch Disney+ at night, and your little cousins watch Youtube on their tablets. Those are the places VR tech is making the biggest impact right now.

Simply put, VR's mainstream success might be as a tool for creating stories for different platforms, rather than VR being the medium itself.

"I don't think virtual production is a silver bullet for every film production," Mosco says, "but there are definite cost savings, and it's really exciting to be able to make this technology more accessible so that more people can tell stories with it."

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The Breakthrough In VR Storytelling Is Not What We Thought It Would Be. It's Better.

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For years, I've been making a quip to illustrate a principle about the power of storytelling. Recently, I realized that the joke has come true. The principle is this: humans are wired for story. We tell each other stories to connect and build relationships. We tell ourselves stories to make sense of the world.

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Video: Game of Thrones virtual production using Unreal Engine

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Video: Game of Thrones virtual production using Unreal Engine

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‘Game of Thrones’: Virtual Production | Spotlight | Unreal Engine

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Video: The secrets of the BBC's Tokyo 2020 studio

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Video: The secrets of the BBC's Tokyo 2020 studio

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The secrets of the BBC's Tokyo 2020 studio | Tokyo Olympics

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Powering the future of broadcast consumer experiences with live-streamed volumetric video.

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Article: Royal Shakespeare Company to stage live play in virtual Midsummer Night's Dream forest

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Article: Royal Shakespeare Company to stage live play in virtual Midsummer Night's Dream forest

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The Royal Shakespeare Company is set to put on a virtual play called Dream that will be performed by actors in motion capture suits and animated in real-time.

The digital world, which is revealed above in an exclusive video shared with Dezeen, was designed by London creative studio Marshmallow Laser Feast using the same game engine as popular online game Fortnite

Dream follows Puck, the mischievous sprite from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, as he embarks on a journey through a magical woodland.

It will be performed live for ten nights between 12 and 20 March in a seven by seven-metre cube in Portsmouth's Guidhall.

The play will be live-streamed to audiences who will see not the performers, or the stage, but their movements and voices expressed by virtual avatars in the virtual world.

This will be made possible through the same technology that has long been used to create characters for video games and feature films, such as Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

But while this process has previously involved lengthy pre- or postproduction to create an unchangeable outcome, Dream is animated as it is being acted out, which leaves unprecedented room for spontaneity.
Trailer for Dream
"There's space for performers to improvise and for us to allow for happy accidents to occur and to find beautiful moments through the rehearsal process," Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) founder Robin McNicholas told Dezeen.

"This just hasn't been done in the past because motion capture is generally quite a laborious and painting-by-numbers approach. We're using the same techniques but in a live setting. As a result, it's really high-risk but really exciting. It feels like an adventure."

With the help of a web player that was specially designed for this project, viewers will be able to manipulate Dream's virtual world via their laptop, phone or tablet.

MLF has designed both the digital sprite characters as well as their surrounding forest world in advance using Unreal Engine. This 3D production platform, created by American video game developer Epic Games, was previously used to animate Fortnite as well as several Star Wars films.

To populate the virtual woodland, MLF worked with the play's writer Pippa Hill to incorporate the flora mentioned in A Midsummer Night's Dream that would be found in English forests at the time the play was written.

Marshmallow Laser Feast's VR exhibition sends "important environmental message"

"Instead of presenting the traditional Victorian illustrated fairy world that Midsummer Night's Dream is often portrayed with, we thought: let's focus on the wonders of the natural world and the magic of it," McNicholas explained.

"We take people from the canopy of the trees down to underneath the forest floor, which provided us with lots of different spaces to be creative within and to frame characters."

Although the world was pre-designed, the way the characters move and interact with their environment will be determined by the actors, who will wear both facial rigs and mocap suits.

Vicon motion capture cameras will record the actors' actions and expressions while large LED screens surrounding the performers help them to imagine where their avatar is in the virtual world.

Staging blocks, which are used to give the actors elevation, will be the only props involved in the play and will be animated as anything from rocks to roots and branches.

At key points, the actors will also able to use their movements and gestures to manipulate the play's score, which was recorded by London's Philharmonia Orchestra.

"We have all the different instruments recorded separately, so one performer's arm could be a cello and another's could be a harp," McNicholas explained. "But it is tailored in such a way that any note that is played corresponds to the overall score."

Viewers will be able to participate in the play as fireflies, which can be controlled via a mouse, trackpad or touchscreen. These fireflies will appear both on the viewers' screens as well as on the LED screens surrounding the performers.

"The audience at home are part character, part lighting department, part costume," said McNicholas. "And neither they nor the performers, the cast or the crew know the outcome of the performance. Each one is unique - it will look and sound different."

The production is the outcome of a multi-year research and development collaboration, which was funded by the UK government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and aimed at finding new ways to engage audiences through technological innovation.

The Royal Shakespeare Company previously staged a mixed reality production in 2016, using live performance capture via Unreal Engine to render Ariel, the spirit from The Tempest, as a 3D hologram on stage.

The technology is set to become more readily available for smaller creators, as Unreal Engine announced last month that it would be releasing an app called the MetaHuman Creator, which allow anyone to create a realistic digital character in a matter of minutes.

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Royal Shakespeare Company to stage play in virtual Midsummer Night's forest

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The Royal Shakespeare Company is set to put on a virtual play called Dream that will be performed by actors in motion capture suits and animated in real-time.

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The Mandalorian is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). It stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run after being hired to retrieve " The Child".

Star Wars creator George Lucas had begun developing a live-action Star Wars television series by 2009, but this project was deemed too expensive to produce. He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in October 2012. Subsequently, work on a new Star Wars series began for Disney+. Favreau signed on in March 2018, serving as writer and showrunner. He executive produces alongside Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson. The series' title was announced in October 2018, with filming starting at Manhattan Beach Studios in California. Visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic developed the StageCraft technology for the series, using virtual sets and a 360-degree video wall to create the series' environments. This has since been adopted by other film and television productions.

The Mandalorian premiered with the launch of Disney+ on November 12, 2019. The eight-episode first season was met with positive reviews, was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, and won seven Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. A second season premiered on October 30, 2020, and a third season is in pre-production. Several spin-off series will expand on the series' timeline, including The Book of Boba Fett and .

Beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983) and the fall of the Galactic Empire, The Mandalorian follows Din Djarin, a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. He is hired by remnant Imperial forces to retrieve the child Grogu, but instead goes on the run to protect the infant. While looking to reunite Grogu with his kind, they are pursued by Moff Gideon, who wants to use Grogu's connection to the Force.

Pedro Pascal stars as Din Djarin, the series' title character and a lone bounty hunter. Pascal compared the character to Clint Eastwood, with advanced combat skills and of "questionable moral character". The character's real name is not given until " Chapter 8: Redemption", but Pascal accidentally revealed it early in November 2019. His bounty in " Chapter 1: The Mandalorian" is " The Child"-colloquially known as "Baby Yoda" by audience members-an infant of the same species as Star Wars character Yoda. He is created with animatronics and puppetry, augmented with visual effects. He becomes the Mandalorian's ward, and his name is revealed to be Grogu in " Chapter 13: The Jedi".

The first season features several recurring co-stars, including Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, leader of a bounty hunter guild; Werner Herzog as " The Client", an enigmatic man; Omid Abtahi as Dr. Pershing, a scientist working for the client; Nick Nolte as the voice of Kuiil, an Ugnaught moisture farmer who helps the Mandalorian; Taika Waititi as the voice of IG-11, a bounty hunter droid; Gina Carano as Cara Dune, a former Rebel shock trooper-turned-mercenary; Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon, a former officer of the Imperial Security Bureau; and Emily Swallow as " The Armorer", a Mandalorian who forges armor and equipment from beskar steel.

Esposito, Carano, Weathers, and Abtahi return for the second season. Several actors appear as characters from previous Star Wars media, including Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth, Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze, Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. Other recurring co-stars for the second season include Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, reprising her role from the first season; Misty Rosas, who was the on-set performer for Kuiil in the first season, as the Frog Lady; Mercedes Varnado as Koska Reeves; and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, also reprising her role from the first season.

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2020)

creator George Lucas began development on a live-action Star Wars television series known as Underworld in early 2009. More than 50 scripts were written for the series by 2012, but they were eventually deemed too expensive to produce. In January 2013, ABC president Paul Lee stated that his network would be discussing potential live-action Star Wars television series with Lucasfilm after the latter had been sold by Lucas to ABC's parent company The Walt Disney Company in October 2012. In November 2017, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney and Lucasfilm were developing a live-action Star Wars television series for the new streaming service Disney+.

While working on The Lion King (2019), a photo-realistic remake of the 1994 animated film, in 2017, director Jon Favreau pitched an idea he had for a Star Wars television series to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Kennedy suggested Favreau discuss the idea with Dave Filoni, executive producer on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Favreau and Filoni had met at the Skywalker Ranch when Favreau was working on (2008) and Filoni was working on the first season of The Clone Wars, and Favreau subsequently voiced the Mandalorian character Pre Vizsla in The Clone Wars for Filoni. When Favreau met with Filoni about his series idea, the latter drew a doodle of a baby of the same species as the Star Wars character Yoda which became " The Child". Favreau wanted to explore the "scum and villainy" of the Star Wars universe following the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). He began spending several hours at the end of each day developing the series while he was directing The Lion King.

Lucasfilm announced that Favreau would write and executive produce a new Star Wars series for Disney+ in March 2018. Kennedy added that the series was an opportunity for a diverse group of writers and directors to be hired to create Star Wars stories, after the franchise's films had been criticized for being written and directed solely by white men. In May, Favreau stated that he had written scripts for four of the series' eight episodes before being officially hired for the project. On October 3, Favreau announced that the series was titled The Mandalorian and revealed the premise for the show. The following day, Lucasfilm announced that Filoni, Kennedy, and Colin Wilson would executive produce the series alongside Favreau, with Karen Gilchrist acting as co-executive producer. The series premiere was set to be available with the launch of Disney+ in November 2019. Star Pedro Pascal described the series as taking the space Western undertones from the Star Wars films "and infusing it with steroids".

In July 2019, Favreau confirmed that there would be a second season of the series and that he had begun writing it. Iger announced in February 2020 that the second season would premiere that October. By late April, Favreau had been writing a third season for "a while" and further development on the season was beginning. In September, co-star Giancarlo Esposito said the second season would "start to lay the groundwork for the depth and breadth that's going to come in season 3 and season 4, where you're really gonna start to get answers." Favreau announced in December 2020 that the third season was in pre-production. It is expected to begin filming in September 2021.

In November 2018, Pedro Pascal was confirmed to be portraying the Mandalorian after being rumored to be cast in the role for some time. Pascal initially thought he was being cast as the Star Wars character Boba Fett due to the visual similarities between that character and the Mandalorian, but the latter is actually a separate character named Din Djarin. Favreau called Pascal "a classic movie star" who "had the presence and skill[s]" necessary to portray a character largely concealed under a helmet. The Mandalorian is also portrayed by stunt doubles Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder. Pascal worked with Favreau and Filoni to record the character's dialogue later.

In February 2021, Lucasfilm said Gina Carano, a recurring co-star during the first two seasons, was no longer employed by the company. This came after Carano made a social media post comparing being a Republican in the United States to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust, with Lucasfilm saying the post was "abhorrent and unacceptable". Carano had been repeatedly warned about her social media posts by Lucasfilm executives who reportedly had been looking for a reason to fire her for two months. The February 2021 posts were "the final straw", and the decision to fire the actress was made by Lucasfilm executives rather than Favreau. The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek said Carano was fired because her posts did not align with the values of Disney, which he said were "universal" and not political. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Carano's role of Cara Dune was not expected to be recast, though industry insiders felt that was still a possibility due to story and merchandising reasons.

The series is filmed at Manhattan Beach Studios in California. Filoni directed the series' first episode, making his live-action directorial debut, with Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi also directing for the first season. Filoni, Howard, and Famuyiwa returned for the second season, and were joined by Favreau (who was unable to direct during the first season due to his commitment to The Lion King), Peyton Reed, co-star Carl Weathers, and Robert Rodriguez. Weathers will direct again in the third season.

Visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic, a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, opened a new division in November 2018 called ILM TV, specifically intended for episodic and streaming television. Based in London with support from ILM's San Francisco, Vancouver, and Singapore locations, one of the first projects for the new division was The Mandalorian. While directing The Jungle Book (2016), Favreau had used large screens on set to create interactive lighting so when live action footage was combined with a digital environment in post-production the effect would be more realistic. He found the process to be effective, but time-consuming. When he began working on The Lion King, Favreau worked with visual effects vendor Moving Picture Company, technology developer Magnopus, and the game engine software Unity to develop a new virtual camera system that allowed him to film scenes in a virtual reality environment as if he was filming with physical cameras. For The Lion King, the results of the virtual photography were then rendered by MPC as final animation for the film. On The Mandalorian, Favreau wanted to use the virtual technology to aid live action photography and also develop the video wall system. ILM partnered with video game developer Epic Games to create a new system named StageCraft based on Epic's game engine Unreal Engine. StageCraft consists of large LED video screens on which digital environments can be rendered in real time for actors to perform in front of.

During pre-production, the virtual photography process developed for The Lion King was used to plan the series' filming and determine what environments would be needed on set. The digital environments were then created by ILM and added to StageCraft ready for live action photography with the actors. Some of these environments were based on location photography in countries such as Iceland and Chile, on which Favreau said, "The actors aren't brought on location. The location is brought to the actors." The environments were designed by the series' visual art department, led by Lucasfilm's creative director Doug Chiang and production designer Andrew L. Jones. During filming, the digital environments were rendered on a video wall in real time, allowing the filmmakers and actors to see the environments. ILM used a smaller version of the technology for Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), but on The Mandalorian they utilized a 21-foot-tall (6.4 m) set that was 75 feet (23 m) in diameter, surrounded by a 360-degree semicircular LED video wall and ceiling. The Manhattan Beach Studios set is referred to as a "volume", which is traditionally the name for motion capture stages. Favreau's initial intention was to use the video wall as a way to provide realistic interactive lighting for the actors, with a section of the screen behind the actors displaying a green screen so a higher quality version of the background could be added in post-production. During filming tests with the technology, the team realized that the Unreal Engine could render visuals fast enough that they could have the background move in relation to the camera. This allowed the system to maintain the appearance of parallax, where the environment would appear differently based on the angle it was being looked at just as a real 3D environment would. This effect causes some distortion to the image on the video wall, but looks like a real environment when viewed through the camera. The images rendered on the video wall in real time were often of a high enough quality to be used as final effects when filmed on set.

Physical elements were added to the volume to match the digital backgrounds, such as dirt on the floor to match dirt displayed on the video wall. Interior spaces were also created, such as an office used by Imperial agents where the walls and ceiling were displayed on the video wall around a physical table. The production had several physical sections of the Razor Crest, the Mandalorian's ship, that could be placed within the volume, such as having the front half of the ship physically built and the back half rendered digitally. The environments could be manipulated in StageCraft on set as required, allowing the filmmakers to request changes to the environment and have them rendered on the video wall on the same day. The production was able to change between environments within half an hour, or even faster if the physical elements within the volume were not visible and did not need to be changed. One of the primary advantages of using the video wall technology was the realistic lighting, with the wall providing ambient light and accurate reflections on the actors. This was especially important for the Mandalorian, who wears reflective armor. Traditionally, on a production using green screen, the visual effects team would have to remove the green reflections from a reflective character or object in post-production, and then add new reflections that matched the digital environment. Using StageCraft, the reflections in the Mandalorian's armor were already correct on set. It also allowed for the series' cinematographers to light scenes in a way that would match the background, rather than lighting the set and hoping the digital background would match in post-production as they would have to do with green screen. A technique used by the production to ensure the lighting from the video wall looked natural was to have the actors in shadow, with light from the environment behind them, often creating silhouettes.

Composer Ludwig Göransson was recommended by several of his previous collaborators to Favreau, including directors Ryan Coogler and Anthony and Joe Russo, and musician Donald Glover. Favreau knew that music would be important to the series due to the impact of John Williams' score on the Star Wars films, but also wanted the music of the series to be different from the films. He wanted the series to sound "a little grittier, a little edgier and a little more tech-oriented". Göransson first met with Favreau in November 2018, when Favreau showed the composer concept art for the series and discussed his inspirations for the story and tone, including Western and samurai films. They also discussed how they felt when they first heard Williams' Star Wars music, and Göransson set out to recreate those feelings and "capture the soul of what Star Wars is" but in a new way.

Göransson was announced as composer for the series in December 2018. The basis of the main theme was created from Göransson experimenting with a bass recorder, digitally manipulating it to make it more "futuristic". Guitars, a piano, drums, and synthesizers are also featured in the main theme. A 70-piece orchestra was used for the first season, combined with recordings of Göransson playing the main instruments which he augmented with synthesizers and other digital manipulation. Walt Disney Records released a soundtrack album for each episode of the first season. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, orchestra players were recorded remotely or in smaller, distant groups for the second season. Two albums were released for the second season, each covering four episodes of the season.

One of the primary themes of The Mandalorian is parenting and fatherhood, particularly through the father-son relationship dynamic between the Din Djarin and the Child. Ryan Britt of wrote that this is unusual in Star Wars stories, and that past examples of parenting in the franchise have tended to be poor ones, from the murderous Darth Vader, father of Luke Skywalker, to the neglectful Galen Erso, father of Jyn Erso in (2016). Britt wrote: "For years the Star Wars franchise avoided depicting a parent-child dynamic. With Mando and Baby Yoda, that's finally changing." The dynamic between Kuiil and IG-11 also reflect the childrearing theme in The Mandalorian. The two have a relationship similar to that of a father and son, as demonstrated in the scene in which Kuiil teaches IG-11 how to operate and function after the droid is reprogrammed.

writer Kathryn VanArendonk argued that parenting has been the subject of past Star Wars stories, but almost always during later stages of parenthood, rather than an infant in early stages such as the Child. As examples, she cited Obi-Wan Kenobi serving as a mentor to the adolescent Anakin Skywalker, Princess Leia lamenting over her grown son Kylo Ren, or the absence of Rey's parents. Britt argued strong parental examples in Star Wars are important because the franchise is so often associated with the childhoods of its fans. The Mandalorian particularly highlights the challenges of being a single parent, and a working parent, as the Mandalorian struggles to continue his day job as a bounty hunter and mercenary while serving as the sole caretaker of the Child. Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter described the show as "the adventures of a single dad looking for a job". Several reviewers have compared the dynamic between the Child and the Mandalorian to Lone Wolf and Cub, a manga about a samurai warrior and his young son. Favreau acknowledged Lone Wolf and Cub as an influence in an episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian's parental role in the series makes him a softer and more relatable character; he changes in a positive way because of raising the Child, becoming less selfish and self-absorbed. He risked his life and drastically changed his career as a bounty hunter to accept his responsibility as the Child's caretaker and guardian, marking a significant parental sacrifice. When the Mandalorian seeks work to earn money, he is now doing so to provide not only for himself, but for the Child as well. We see several examples of the Mandalorian parenting the Child throughout the series, such as when he stops the Child from pressing random buttons in the cockpit of the Mandalorian's spaceship, ultimately by holding him in his lap. In another example, the Mandalorian establishes a car seat for the Child in the cockpit of his ship, so he can be seated safely and comfortably during their travels.

The relationship between the Mandalorian and the Child is an example of unexpected fatherhood. The Mandalorian feels a connection and parental bond with the Child because of his own childhood, when he was orphaned upon the death of his parents and was adopted by the Mandalorian culture as a "foundling". Nevertheless, fatherhood is not a role the Mandalorian initially seeks, and he makes repeated initial attempts to avoid this responsibility. He first does so in "Chapter 3: The Sin", when he first leaves the Child with the Client. He does so again in "Chapter 4: Sanctuary", when he plans to leave the Child with Omera, a protective mother on the planet Sorgan, who is willing to take the Child into her own family. The Mandalorian does not fully commit to the role of fatherhood until the first-season finale, "Chapter 8: Redemption", when the Child himself is also adopted into the Mandalorian culture as a "foundling" and the Mandalorian is formally declared to be his father figure. He nonetheless continues to search for what he feels may be a more appropriate guardian for the Child, as in the second season's fifth episode, "The Jedi", in which he seeks to leave him with Ahsoka Tano.

Several writers suggested the fact that the Mandalorian's face is concealed has a tabula rasa effect and his anonymity allows viewers to see and imagine themselves as parents. Britt said this "allow(s) us to dream about what arsenal we might deploy to protect our children". However, Singer said the show's setting in space make the challenges of child-rearing seem more exciting and exotic than they might otherwise be. Anthony Breznican of Vanity Fair has noted that none of the day-to-day difficulties of parenthood are portrayed in the series: "There is no shrill squawking from Baby Yoda, no tantrum, no spit-up, no uncontrollable shrieking that burrows into a parent's psyche like a dentist's drill shredding a soft, pink nerve." Likewise, Vulture writer Kathryn VanArendonk said the show ignores or does not address many parenting details that make fatherhood difficult, such as what the Child eats, when he goes to sleep, and whether he wears diapers. She wrote: " The Mandalorian is uninterested in diapers, and so Mando gets to be a very particular image of fatherhood: the guy who doesn't have to sweat the small stuff." VanAnderonk described this as a wish fulfillment fantasy for parents or prospective parents: "a vision of parenting stripped so thoroughly of all detail and specificity that all that's left are archetypes: the parent, the child".

The Child encounters a handful of other protector figures throughout the first season, including Omera, IG-11, and Peli Motto. Some observers have criticized the series for the fact that the Mandalorian repeatedly leaves the Child alone or in the hands of relative strangers, as well as for making decisions that place the Child in danger. One example is in "Chapter 6: The Prisoner", when he allows a team of dangerous mercenaries to use his ship while the Child is on board, nearly resulting in the Child's death. An interaction the Mandalorian has with Peli Motto in "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger" is one of the most overt discussions about the challenges of caring for the Child. When the Mandalorian accidentally wakes the child, who had been sleeping in Peli's arms, she chides him: "Do you have any idea how long it took me to get it to sleep?" She also condemns the Mandalorian for leaving the child alone on the ship, saying: "you have an awful lot to learn about raising a young one". ScreenCrush writer Matt Singer argued the Mandalorian's parenting errors makes the show that much more appealing because making mistakes is a large part of being a parent. Eileen Chase of echoed this: "He is not an ideal parent, just like the rest of us who have to balance parenting and work."

Good and evil; nature versus nurture

The nature of good and evil and the question of nature versus nurture is raised repeatedly throughout The Mandalorian, perhaps most overtly through by Kuiil's reprogramming of IG-11 from a bounty hunter to a nurse droid and protector. Even after IG-11 is reprogrammed, the Mandalorian does not believe he has truly changed, because he believes droids have an essential nature and that IG-11's nature remains murderous and untrustworthy. But in reprogramming IG-11, Kuiil nurtures him and helps him to change; Kuiil feels that in the process of learning how to function again, IG-11 gained a new personality. Kuiil insists to the Mandalorian: "Droids are not good or bad - they are neutral reflections of those who program them." Keith Phipps of Vulture wrote of IG-11 and the nature versus nurture theme: "He's not bad. He's just programmed that way, and with care and change he can do a lot of good in the world."

The Kuiil and IG-11 scenes also demonstrate that the way in which the "child" character is raised makes a significant difference in whether the child becomes an asset or a threat to those around him. The droid was a dangerous assassin before Kuiil reprogrammed him, but thanks to the Ugnaught's parenting, he becomes a protector and helper instead. Some writers have likewise suggested the Child is not inherently good or evil, but that instead, like all children, he is impressionable and does not fully understand the events occurring around him. He is learning about the world around him and needs guidance as he develops his abilities. It will largely fall to the Mandalorian to provide this guidance, as when the Mandalorian stops him from strangling Cara Dune.

However, multiple writers have questioned whether the violent acts the Child has repeatedly witnessed throughout The Mandalorian are having a negative impact on his development, and that he is learning to become violent himself as a result. Phipps wrote of this: "That look of wonder in the Child's eyes as IG-11 kills and kills again is hilarious, but also a little chilling." One particular scene in "Chapter 7: The Reckoning" led many reviewers and fans to question whether the Child may be demonstrating evil tendencies. During a scene on the Mandalorian's spaceship, the Child observes as the Mandalorian and Cara Dune engage in a friendly arm wrestling match. During the contest, the Child uses the Force to choke Cara, nearly strangling her before the Mandalorian intervened. Throughout the Star Wars franchise, that ability has been most commonly associated with the Dark Side of the Force, particularly Darth Vader.

Sarah Bea Milner of Screen Rant wrote: "The moment is genuinely shocking - and more than a little disturbing." Some reviewers noted, however, that the Child likely mistakenly believed the Mandalorian was in danger and intervened to help. Additionally, in the same episode, the Child uses Force healing to save Greef Karga, a power typically associated with the Light Side. Nevertheless, some writers have suggested viewers had been underestimating the Child's capacity for evil because he is so adorable. Fans speculated the Child could be presenting a false personality or using the Force to manipulate people into caring about him to help ensure his survival. However, Caitlin Gallagher of suggested rather than building toward making the Child evil, the show could be suggesting the Mandalorian needs to find a way to raise the Child in a less violent environment.

The Mandalorian premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on its United States launch day, November 12, 2019. The second season premiered on October 30, 2020.

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 7.96/10 based on 36 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Action-packed and expertly-crafted-if at times a bit too withholding- The Mandalorian is a welcome addition to the Star Wars universe that benefits greatly from the cuteness of its cargo." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 for the season, based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating with an average score of 8.54/10, based on 25 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "With fan favorites and fresh faces galore both in front of and behind the camera, The Mandalorian's sophomore season solidifies its place as one of Star Wars's most engaging and exciting sagas." Metacritic assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The Mandalorian was the first production to be filmed using real time rendering for realistic, parallax environments. Favreau believed that the StageCraft technology developed for the series would have a significant impact on the production of films and television series moving forward. He attributed the breakthroughs made with the technology to the support of Kathleen Kennedy, who was in charge of both Lucasfilm and ILM, as well as to his own drive for innovation, and to previous work done by George Lucas on new technology for the Star Wars films. Favreau also acknowledged that much of the technology involved in StageCraft is not proprietary and is readily available to others, it just had not been combined in this way before. Favreau invited other filmmakers and studios to visit the series' set and see how the new technology was being used, noting that Lucas and other filmmakers such as James Cameron had done the same when they had been working on innovative film projects. Favreau added that the companies working on the series' new technologies-including ILM, Epic, and MPC-were being encouraged to share their work and develop the technology further beyond the requirements of the series. Several actors working on the series, including Carl Weathers and Giancarlo Esposito, gave high praise to the technology and the way it allowed them to act within the environment rather than pretend in front of green screen. After learning lessons about the technology during production on the first season of The Mandalorian, ILM was able to make several advancements beginning with the second season. This included transitioning StageCraft to a fully in-house product utilizing ILM's own game engine, Helios, rather than Epic's Unreal Engine. In February 2020, ILM announced that it was making its StageCraft technology available to all filmmakers and production studios as a complete end-to-end solution, and that December, it was announced that three additional StageCraft volumes-in Los Angeles, London, and Australia-were being built.

In November 2019, Walt Disney Studios CCO Alan Horn said if the series was successful, a film featuring the Mandalorian could be developed. The next month, Favreau said there was an opportunity to explore the series' characters in other Star Wars films or television series. Bob Iger said in February 2020 that spin-offs of The Mandalorian were being considered, and there was potential to add more characters to the series with the intention of then giving them their own series. Favreau said in October that as more characters are introduced in the series, "we are beginning to explore where we could go". He felt Lucasfilm could be "more responsive" to audience reactions in determining potential spin-offs due to the faster production time for television series than films. Favreau looked to his experience working in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where smaller stories exist within the larger narrative, as a potential guide for spin-offs. Additionally, both Favreau and Pascal were open to the idea of the Mandalorian appearing in a Star Wars film, but Favreau was in "no rush" to do this. In December 2020, the spin-off series Rangers of the New Republic, Ahsoka, and The Book of Boba Fett were announced, with all three series developed by Favreau and Filoni, set within The Mandalorian's timeline, and planned to culminate in a "climactic story event". Rangers of the New Republic was not in active development by May 2021.

A spin-off miniseries focused on Boba Fett was reported in November 2020. It was officially announced as The Book of Boba Fett a month later, and was already in production by that point. Favreau, Filoni, and Robert Rodriguez executive produce, with Morrison and Wen reprising their respective roles as Fett and Fennec Shand. The series will debut in December 2021.

A limited series titled Ahsoka, featuring Dawson reprising her role as Ahsoka Tano, was revealed in December 2020 with Filoni writing and executive producing alongside Favreau.

A documentary series, Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, features interviews with the cast and crew of The Mandalorian, behind-the-scenes footage, and roundtable conversations hosted by Favreau that explore the production of the series. The first season premiered on Disney+ on May 4, 2020, Star Wars Day. An hour-long special covering the second season was released on December 25, 2020, with a second special episode covering the season two finale releasing on August 25, 2021.

Lucasfilm announced a publishing campaign of tie-in books and comics for the series in June 2020. The campaign was announced to include The Art of The Mandalorian (Season One) by Phil Szostak, an original adult novel written by Adam Christopher and published by Del Rey Books, a visual guide written by Pablo Hidalgo and published by DK, a junior novelization of the first season written by Joe Schreiber, and comic books inspired by the series to be published by Marvel Comics and IDW. One month later, the novel by Adam Christopher was delayed from December 2020 to November 2021, before both it and the visual guide by Pablo Hidalgo were cancelled in March 2021.

In November 2020, released a Star Wars-themed downloadable content, which included locations and characters from The Mandalorian. Din Djarin and Grogu appear in Zero Point, Fortnite Battle Royale's Chapter 2 event. Djarin's sniper rifle and jetpack were also available as playable items.

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The Mandalorian is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983).

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The secret to pulling your subjects out of the real world and placing them into a digital domain is chromakey. That means going green with a green screen. Green screen is a useful tool in cinematography. It opens up a world of endless possibilities for what can be put on screen.

Through the magic of video effects and technology, you can superimpose your subjects onto virtual backgrounds. You can place them over animated digital backdrops or transport them to a desert oasis.

You can shrink down a full-grown man so he can stand on a tabletop, use visual effects to make him fly through the sky like a superhero, or simply simulate your own TV weather report.

But to do it right, you're going to need a lot of green. No, we're not talking about money. The green we mean comes in the form of a green screen.

Chroma key allows you to take subjects out of the real world and placing them into a completely new world. In this article, we'll cover all the essentials you need to know to pull off clean chroma keys and composite digital backdrops and virtual backgrounds into your video editing.

What is chroma-keying?

Chroma keying is the process of isolating a single color or brightness value in an electronic image and using software to make that value transparent, allowing another image to show through the affected areas. Luminance keying, or luma keying, is the process of keying out a brightness value or range, like black or white. Luminance keys are often used for applying mattes. Color keying, or chromakeying, identifies a specific color to remove.

Why green?

Many people use the terms chroma-keying and green-screening interchangeably, but the principle that powers chrominance keying is not limited to the green parts of the spectrum.

In the visual effects world of Hollywood, blue screens are far more common than green. In fact, you can key out any color; red, yellow, purple or pink, blue and yes, green.

So why is that odd and ugly shade of green the hue of choice for television and video? The biggest factor is contrast.

In order to isolate one area from the rest, the background color must be distinctly different. Bright green beats blue partially because it is not a color commonly worn by talent. Any clothing that matches the background color too closely will also key out. It'll punch a hole in your subject's body, or make them invisible altogether.

Any clothing that matches the background color too closely will also key out. It'll punch a hole in your subject's body, or make them invisible altogether.

We narrowly escaped a chroma key crisis years ago when I was working at a Northern California TV station. One St. Patrick's Day our wacky weatherman showed up to work dressed head-to-toe in a bright green leprechaun suit. Fortunately, we quickly pointed out the problem and he was able to find a change of clothes before he went live.

Green screen requirements

You can erect a simple chromakey setup almost anywhere with just a few basic tools. In order to shoot footage that will key cleanly, you need a green background, a source of bright, even lighting, and a tripod to lock your camera in place. We'll cover each of these elements in detail.

Buy or build a background

The most obvious need is for the background itself. Fortunately, there are many options, and many of them are inexpensive. In short, anything that's bright green will work, and anything that works is valid. I've produced professional green screen scenes using giant dedicated sets, large professional fabric chromakey backdrops, sheets of material purchased by the yard from a fabric store, smooth walls or pieces of paneling painted with a gallon of dinosaur-green paint from the kids section of the hardware store, even sheets of green poster board taped together. (NOTE: Be sure to avoid textured walls if you're painting it green. Texture causes shadows.)

What do you need to look for when buying or making a green screen?

The only requirements are that your background is large enough to fill your screen, smooth enough to take light evenly without showing wrinkles or casting shadows, and bright enough to contrast well with your subject.

If you intend to chromakey a sock puppet your backdrop may be relatively small. If you need to chromakey a full-body shot of an adult actor, you will need a much larger background.

Anything that's bright green will work as a green screen, just be aware of textures

Also, if you are experimenting with chroma keying for the first time, you can test the process on a small scale before you build a big set. You can quickly create a functional miniature table-top set with an action figure and a sheet of posterboard. However, it doesn't take much more effort to stretch a sheet of green fabric between two step ladders or paint a small section of wall.

Light it smoothly

Even a professional-quality cyc wall won't key well without proper lighting. If there is a secret technique to getting good keys, it is in lighting the wall. The goal is to light the set as evenly as possible using soft light. Any variation in lighting will read as gradient coloring and will complicate your key in post. Achieving even lighting can be more difficult than you might think.

Hard light sources cast narrow and focused beams that create circular hot spots and leave outer portions gradually darker. It helps to move small lights farther away so they cast broader, soft light beams.

When you're lighting a green set the color temperature of the instrument is not as important as lighting your background evenly.

If you have access to softboxes, they are excellent options for casting evenly spread light. I've had success lighting green screens with long tubular fluorescent fixtures along the top and sides of the backdrop. You can get a six-foot garage-style fixture from your local home hardware store for less than lunch. These fixtures cast a soft light that is quite appealing for your green screen. When you're lighting a green set the color temperature of the instrument is not as important as lighting your background evenly.

Light it separately

Another important, but often overlooked, essential is lighting your subject independently of your set. This is important for two "key" reasons: shadows and reflections. Part of keeping your wall evenly lit is keeping your subject's shadow from falling across it. Position the talent at a distance of at least a few feet from the screen, and light them separately using three-point lighting.

Proper positioning of lights to minimize shadows

If you do not have a lot of distance to work with, position your key & fill lights slightly to the sides, not straight on, so any resulting shadows will fall outside the visible frame. Another advantage of moving your subject away from the wall is the reduction of reflected green spill light on your talent. Reflected spill light can rim your subject in a tinted halo that can be difficult to discern with the naked eye, but if your actor is too close to your wall, it will be there, and any green bouncing off your actor will mess up the cleanliness of your key. You can wash away a fair amount of reflected green using a bright backlight, but you will find that distance is your best friend.

Lock your tripod down

Unless you are planning to use motion tracking markers and a complicated visual effects compositing software to motion track your subject into a virtual 3D environment so that the movement of the camera perfectly matches that of the digital background shot, even the smallest camera motion is unacceptable. This is a case where it's got to be all or nothing. Either commit to motion tracking or use a good tripod, and take your hand off when you roll to prevent any vibration.

The trick is to shoot your subject in a way that blends well with the background. In most green screen scenes the digital backdrops will be a still, a stable computer generated (CG) image or animation, or a clip of video shot from a locked down camera. If the camera moves or shakes, even a little, your subject will appear to bounce around in front of your keyed background scene, and that's a chromakey faux pas to avoid at all costs.

Frame and focus

For the same reason, do not zoom in or out as you record. This will make your subject appear to shrink or grow in size in relation to the background. Use the zoom to frame the subject where you need them to be. Once you've set up the shot, step away from the controls.

I typically recommend setting your focus on the sparkle, or specular highlight, in the eyes, but in a chroma key setup, I make an exception.

Focus is another important consideration. The only way to know that you have the sharpest focus possible is to zoom all the way into your lens' maximum telephoto setting when you adjust your focus. I typically recommend setting your focus on the sparkle, or specular highlight, in the eyes, but in a chroma key setup, I make an exception. The best keys come from clean, sharp edges, so it's important that the edges of your talent be in crisp focus when you shoot on the green.

Pay attention to your camera's compression

The camera you use for shooting green screen footage for visual effects and virtual backgrounds does make a difference. Because chroma keying is a digital process, the way your camera creates the image directly affects your ability to pull a clean key.

Footage with a 4:2:2 ratio is much easier to key than 4:2:0. 4:2:0 typically leaves a ring of pixels around the edge of the subject. With some effort, the halo can be removed, but footage with a ratio of 4:1:1 or below is not an optimal option for chromakey. Check your camera's specs to find out what type of color subsampling your model uses.

Pull the key during editing

If you have successfully shot your subject in front of a smooth, bright, evenly-lit wall, lit your subject independent of the background to avoid shadows and spill, and shot with a crisp, clear focus, then pulling the key to reveal your digital backdrops or virtual backgrounds should be a relatively easy process.

Setting up the timeline and keying software

First, import the clip to your timeline and place the footage you would like to show through on a lower track. Then apply a chromakey filter from your effects menu to the green screen shot.

The key filter will offer you adjustment options in the effects control panel. With a little tweaking, you can use these controls to dial in the key, eliminating grainy areas or green edges. Poorly lit green screen footage may still be keyable, but might require multiple key passes. Taking the time to light and shoot the scene well makes things as easy as possible in the edit.

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Chuck Peters is a 3-time Emmy award winning writer and producer. He is currently Director of Operation for LifeWay Kids in Nashville, TN.

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Green screen - how does it actually work?

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The secret to pulling your subjects out of the real world and placing them into a digital domain is chromakey. That means going green with a green screen. Green screen is a useful tool in cinematography. It opens up a world of endless possibilities for what can be put on screen.