03 LED volumes

Learn about grey boxing, scene preparation, background & foreground plates, light baking and more.

00:00 - Introduction to LED stages and LED volumes
01:35 - Technical preparation
03:40 - Start with Greyboxing
06:06 - Introduction to design preparation
06:23 - Scene Preparation
08:40 - Splitting background and AR foreground
22:41 - Light Baking
40:44 - Introduction to optimisation techniques
41:00 - Freeze Geometry
52:29 - Material Cache
57:38 - Performance panel
01:00:41 - Profiler panel
01:02:15 - Nodegraph clean up
01:11:07 - Extra tips
01:12:12 - Pre-On-location Short tips
01:12:53 - Test Block export
01:16:18 - Introduction to working on-location
01:17:14 - Network editing
01:25:19 - Light Baking while Network Editing
01:29:31 - Practical tips

Download Course Resource Pack Download Chapter Resource Pack

In this chapter, we will be using the LED stage project made by the Notch team as an example. It’s available for you to download in the Chapter Resouce button above.

Technical Checklist #

How big is the room?
What lens will be mounted on the camera(s)?
Is there anything obstructing movement of the camera, such as other equipment, pillars/trusses?
What is the distance from the edge of your LED stage to the walls of the room?
What lenses will be used?
What is the scale/resolution of the scene?
What are the physical dimensions of the stage?

Extra Tips #

Keep your node graph tidy!
Frequently monitor performance
Move your camera around as you design your scene
Ground your talent
The ‘rug’ or ‘stool’ trick

Pre-On-location Short tips #

Check that light is baked
Exposable camera
Preview exposed parameters
Test your blocks

On Location Tips #

Make sure virtual lighting is aligned
Delete props that are no longer needed
On location optimisation:
Cache all static materials
Reduce the number of dynamic lights
Reduce the number of objects affected by reflections