In this blog, we interviewed two seasoned members of our team, Joachim and Øystein, and asked them to give us an intro to Pixotope and what makes our solution unique.
Can you explain why Pixotope is the perfect solution for flexible virtual production?Joachim: Pixotope incorporates all modes of virtual production into 1 package: VS (Virtual Sets), AR (Augmented reality), and XR (Extended reality/LED Volume) and any mix of those.. Pixotope is designed for real-time broadcast production and fast adoption into existing studio workflows.
Øystein: Pixotope is battle-tested through a lot of large-scale multi-camera productions. It has a strong tracking server covering most tracking systems out there today, along with a non-destructive composite pipeline. Paired with those is our "what you see is what you get" editor that allows a fully composited output with tracking while the artist is working in the editor. The lack of need to render or pre-bake virtual scenes is extremely valuable in high pace production environments.
How has Pixotope changed virtual production?Øystein: Pixotope gives the user full access to all that Unreal Engine has to offer but adds powerful tools to align quickly with your production needs; camera tracking, lens control, multi-machine configuration, time code, and a strong composite suite built for real-time VFX integration. This means that it offers a great toolset to integrate and match your AR with other elements in your scene, shadow quality/intensity/coloring, holdouts, reflection controls, etc.
What are some of the benefits of an agnostic virtual production system like Pixotope?Joachim: We do not rely on any other technology so we are completely flexible to adapt to any needs a customer might have. We support all standard tracking protocols, we are based on the latest version of Unreal Engine, which means you can work in a normal Unreal Editor and import the projects straight into Pixotope. There is no proprietary hardware or software configuration needed.
Explain some of the technical challenges you are overcoming with the solution?Øystein: Virtual Production can be extremely complex. Aligning, and making sure you are an integral part of any production and workflow is important. A lot of this has been solved by the Pixotope team by executing very large-scale productions and building a toolset that integrates well. Pixotope is a swiss army knife or perhaps Rambo survival knife of virtual production you might say.
Joachim: The system is fast to install and set up. Only 1 machine needed to do basic virtual production, including tracking, keying, and outputting a complete composited image. Completely real-time, so any adjustments can be done on the fly, with no baking or time-consuming tasks interrupting the production process. Pixotope is adaptable with most real-time production workflows with little effort. Integration with DMX, media servers, or other external tools is supported either by us or our partners´ integrations.
Talk us through some of the features that make Pixotope unique?Joachim: All in one solution. Agnostic. Based on native Unreal Engine, so you get the full performance benefit and visual quality from it. Modern implementation with support for all common hardware configurations.
Øystein: Easy to set up, multi-machine control, support for most tracking vendors with custom lens files, non-destructive video pipeline, an editor with final composite output, OCIO support, best in class AR integration, custom web control panels, all supported by a clean user-friendly front end.
Can you talk us through the minimum requirements needed to run Pixotope?Øystein: From a user perspective, previous Unreal Engine experience is a big plus, but generally the system is very intuitive
Joachim: Technically speaking, a workstation or server with fast CPU, Nvidia GPU and a video i/o card (AJA or BlackMagic), any tracking system, and a video camera with SDI or NDI output.
To get more info, or arrange a demo, just fill out a contact form and one of the team will be in touch.