Compared

vs green screens

Doesn't need a specially treated or equipped studio

Doesn't ruin your lighting and color

Realtime preview and edit of the virtual set lets you see, control and compose the frame

Camera track, defocus, distortion are automated, further cutting post production expenses

No time and budget gap between set and post production - results in days vs the traditional months

vs light stages

Half the cost, or less

Freely change the virtual set after the shoot

Makes available all the capacity of contemporary post production

Track record

Out of a dream

'Out of a dream' is an experimental short film that we shot as a testbed for the latest iteration of the CLAROS technology.

Director: Biser Jonev

DOP: Nenad Boroevich
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Starring Irmena Chichikova and Peter Dochev

Check out the teaser here.

Dailies, Full Film edit

An edit of all the dailies versions.

Comparison of dailies, realtime, camera stages

Realtime AI roto representative of capability by the time of the shoot. Latest developments always improve.

Comandante

'Comandante' (imdb) is an Italian WW2 film that saw the first application of the CLAROS technology.

Director: Edoardo De Angelis
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Producer: Pierpaolo Verga
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VFX Supervisor: Kevin Haug
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How it works

Shoot anywhere - no green screen or LED stage required

Automated camera tracking and AI assisted compositing enables shooting anywhere.

Traditional process uses chroma or luma keying that rely on the background being green/blue, or dark.

The monocular depth estimation and human segmentation AI models employed by CLAROS can matte talent and physical sets without relying on any particular background treatment - break free from green screens and light stages!

Filmic render and realtime edit of the virtual set

Filmic realtime render instead of a game engine, powered by Chaos Vantage.

Recompose instantly with realtime feedback.

Replacing the traditional game engine erases the gap to post production. Game engines and offline renderers use a different scene description which requires long and expensive rebuilds for use in post production. Instead, the filmic realtime renderer and offline renderers use the same scene description, in the industry standard and open source USD format.

Faithfully preserved camera expression

Automated camera tracking saves on matchmove costs and delays.

Lens performance capture recreates the cinematographer's expression with focus, iris and distortion faithfully and per frame, in both realtime and post production.

Virtual sets breathe and defocus correctly, without the traditional destructive 'eyeballing' that also costs time and money.

Compact on set footprint

On set footprint has a few components:

A workstation that is similar in size to a video operator's.

For a handheld camera - tracking sensors which encompass a 10 sq m area around the camera, and a sensor on top of the camera.

Technodolly and Technocrane supported.

For old school lenses - lens encoder ring, 5cm on the side of the lens. Not needed for Cooke i lenses that provide full metadata.

Metadata aggregator boxes cabled to the sensors, palm sized.

Setup time in a new location is between half and one day.
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Dailies with full featured post production. Finish with any vendor

For dailies, you get a first version post production. It features full resolution camera plates, high quality offline virtual set render, better quality AI roto, lens effects modeling.

Ask for any adjustments, and the post process can run while you're still on set, and let you adjust shooting plans.

When wrapped, you can ship a package to any vendor. The package contains open source and industry standard formats - EXR, Nuke, USD - that are compatible across pipelines.

Benefits

Producers

Faster

Removes the long wait between shoot and post. Instantly go to post instead

Cheaper

Filmic rendering in realtime eliminates the game-to-film gap that sinks time and money
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Avoid the double whammy of expensive post on top of expensive LED stage virtual production shoot
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Skip some of the traditional post production expenses like camera tracking

Anywhere

Shoot anywhere you like, regardless of LED stage or even green screen studio availability

Reduced carbon footprint

Maximized incentives

Directors

See

See a composite of the physical and virtual sets in your monitor

Control

Realtime adjustment of the virtual set for a great composition in frame

Full cycle

Utilize virtual production to frame your shots - no surprises

Retain all the capabilities of state of the art post production

DOPs

See

See a composite of the physical and virtual sets in your monitor

Lighting

Use your trusted cinema lights

No more green screens!

Iris/focus/zoom

See a realtime exposure, distortion, defocus preview of the virtual set

Do beautiful focus racks without the limitations of a LED stage

Focus/aperture performance is preserved in post with a per frame clarity, compared to the traditional lackluster 'eyeballing'

Team

Hristo Velev

Tech lead
Point of contact - Global

Kevin Haug

VFX supervisor
Original realtime concept
Point of contact - Los Angeles

Ivo Kalyonski

On set technical director

Timothee de Goussencourt

Camera and lens performance capture

David Stump, ASC

Original metadata concept

Zornitsa Rangelova

Broadcast specialist
Point of contact - UK

The story

Behind the scenes of ‘Comandante’ - the early days

‘Comandante’ saw the first application of the technology.

Shot on a navy pier location in Italy in 2022, with oceans background replacement.

37 shots were delivered while the shoot was still ongoing - a great proving grounds for the technology, but still early stage.

Video courtesy of EZTrack and Timothee de Goussencourt

Behind the scenes of ‘Out of a dream’ - evolving the tech

‘Out of a dream’ is an experimental short film that was triggered by advances in technology that pushed CLAROS forward.

Shot in one day, with minimal budget and skeleton crew, it served as a platform to experiment with the current state of the technology and plot the roadmap forward.

'Out of a dream' podcast, episode 1

The story so far - with Kevin Haug and Hristo Velev

Kevin and Hristo tell the overarching story of CLAROS - from the early concepts by Kevin Doug Stump, through the proving ground of the first feature film in ‘Comandante’ to the latest evolution in ‘Out of a dream’, and some exciting ideas about where we could go next.

'Out of a dream' podcast, episode 2

CLAROS from director’s perspective - with Biser Djonev

Biser gives us his perspective from directing ‘Out of a dream’ using CLAROS.

As most directors, he doesn’t have much prior experience with virtual production or sophisticated post production.

We finish with getting his wishlist for the next iteration.

'Out of a dream' podcast, episode 3

Virtual production’s present and future - with Vlado Koylazov and Dan Ring

Needing little introduction, Vlado is a founder of Chaos and the father of V-Ray, and Dan is the senior machine learning team lead at Chaos.

We talk about the future of virtual production, CLAROS, film and animation.

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