The Virtual Art Department, Explained

The virtual art department (VAD) is a major game changer in the application of virtual production. The VAD is a transitional team that merges the work of traditional art and previs departments with real-time animation.

The primary role of a VAD is to develop real-time models and environments that are “production-ready.” The VAD also guarantees consistently high-quality real-time models across all assets. It is the official connection between creatives and artists that assures all feedback gets fully integrated into the assets.

Like a traditional art department, the VAD is focused on visual development and pre-production. The most impactful difference is that the VAD delivers camera-ready assets for production that make it through to post-production and final pixel, creating a lossless pipeline. There is no need to hand off the assets to the set building team or the visual effects department. While this is more work upfront, it does allows more freedom as the film progresses.

In his interview with Epic Games for The Virtual Production Field Guide, Ben Grossmann commented on the effect a quality VAD has on a production once filming commences. He said,

“The better you make something look, the more seriously everybody takes it. There is a difference on the set when we’re shooting virtual assets that look good. Everybody gets excited, and people take it more seriously and put more work into every single shot.”

To clarify what the VAD is responsible for, the VAD takes art department designs and digital renderings and transforms them into virtual 3D assets that match the original designs as closely as physically possible. They are optimized, organized and assembled for production and give the best real-time performance during production.

With the accuracy of the virtual 3D assets, most blockbuster films are being executed in virtual environments instead of real-life locations. For example, Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book & The Lion King didn’t use a single shot from a real-life location. They were all location scouted and then built in Unreal Engine.