An ICVFX Studio featuring Roe Visual LED products has been built in Helsinki, Finland, by Fireframe, a virtual production company.
Fireframe, based in Helsinki, wants to reimagine the way films are made. Fascinated and inspired by the creative possibilities of real-time technologies, it set out to bring this solution to Finland, facilitating the film community in its home region. Fireframe started exploring the possibilities of virtual production a year ago, conducting real-time engine tests in a green screen environment. Concurrently, the firm examined how to build an LED volume.
“After a comprehensive study with industry experts, we ended up choosing Roe Visual as our provider for their reliability and overall technical quality,” said Mikko Kodisoja, Fireframe founder and CEO. “One of the factors that determined our choice for the combination of Roe Visual LED panels in combination with Helios LED processing is the fact that it also gives us access to the GhostFrame technology. We’re very much interested in the GhostFrame Chroma feature. We can’t wait to see what magic we can create using this.”
The LED volume in the ICVFX studio consists of a Roe Visual Ruby RB2.3 LED wall. This curved wall is 18.5m (60.7ft) wide and 5m (16.4ft) high and is built from 370 Ruby panels, bringing the total pixel count to more than 17 million. The LED ceiling is constructed of 120 Roe Visual Black Quartz BQ4.6 LED panels, using the integrated wind-bracing system to give the ceiling its required structural integrity.
Another batch of Black Quartz LED panels is placed on three dollies, creating flexible side fills for additional lighting. The capacity of the Black Quartz LED panels goes up to 5000 nit brightness.
“Using the dollies, we can adapt the placement of the side fills in the set to any requirements,” said Kodisoja. “The lighting dollies are synced with a 3D engine which gives a wow effect when the virtual world within the walls reacts when you move the wall.”
“We were eager to learn everything about LED technology before we started to build the volume,” Kodisoja continued. “Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we couldn’t get Roe Visual’s technicians to fly over to Finland. Still, with the help of local Roe Visual experts appointed to us by Roe Visual, we managed to get the volume up and running in a couple of days. One of the individuals who has been instrumental in the process is Johan West. Without his help and expertise, this whole thing wouldn’t have been possible given the short timeframe. We had our entire team building the LED volume, from engineers to VFX artists to cinematographers, as we wanted everyone to learn how the system works. And we learned a lot along the way.”
Images: Fireframe Oy
