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The Virtual Production Academy by Aptech, India’s first comprehensive virtual production training center, is transforming filmmaking education with its cutting-edge campus in Mumbai. Offering end-to-end instruction in virtual production techniques, the academy teaches students skills like motion capture, hybrid green screen and LED Wall workflows, and Real-time camera tracking. With programs developed by industry veterans such as Abir Aich, Umesh Patel, and Ashish Ranjan, the academy provides students with real-world expertise and a strong foundation for their careers. A cornerstone of the curriculum is the focus on in-camera VFX (ICVFX) and the integration of tools like VIVE MARS CamTrack. This technology has revolutionized the academy’s workflows, enabling precise real-time camera tracking and seamless blending of live-action footage with virtual environments.
“The VIVE Mars CamTrack has been a gamechanger for our virtual production processes at the academy. Its ability to deliver precise real-time camera tracking ensures seamless integration between live-action footage and virtual environments, drastically improving our workflows.” - Abir Aich, Academic Lead and Executive Vice President
One of the academy’s notable achievements is The Gift Box, a collaborative short film that won second place in MSI AI Award for the VIVE Mars Best Shot! Competition. This project showcased the students’ ability to combine LED wall technology, real-time rendering, and manual character animation. Through practical projects like this, the academy prepares students for real-world industry demands while encouraging innovation and creativity.
Looking ahead, the academy is exploring emerging technologies such as Gaussian Splatting and AI scene generation to stay at the forefront of virtual production. “These advancements will reduce pre-production time while expanding creative possibilities, unlocking new opportunities for storytelling,” says Aich. With its commitment to cutting-edge tools, industry guidance, and immersive learning, The Virtual Production Academy is redefining the future of filmmaking in India.
🚀 VIVE Mars: Could you provide a brief introduction to the Virtual Production Academy?
The Virtual Production Academy: The Virtual Production Academy by Aptech is India’s first end-to-end virtual production academy located in Mumbai, intended to create a talent pool of skilled professionals by harnessing the power of new-age virtual production techniques and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The academy teaches all the stages of virtual production to its students, namely: visualization, Motion/Performance Capture, Hybrid Green Screen, LED Wall-ICVFX and much more. It offers professional programs that have the potential to transform a novice into a pro; introducing students to an array of software technologies such as Reality Capture, Motion & Performance Capture with Rokoko, Aximmetry Technologies, Ultimatte, Unreal Engine, Adobe Substance Painter and Quixel Mixer. Through collaborative projects, students get an opportunity to put their skills to use in real-world scenarios, working on their own virtual production projects.
The Virtual Production Academy’s team includes Abir Aich, Academic Lead and Executive Vice President at Aptech, alongside a team of experienced industry professionals comprising of Umesh Patel, Ashish Ranjan, Tusharkanta Patel who have been instrumental in defining the academic curriculum and mentoring of learners at The Virtual Production Academy.
🚀 VIVE Mars: Is virtual production suitable for India’s filmmaking and content creation industry?
The Virtual Production Academy: In India, where the virtual production landscape is rapidly growing, the programs of The Virtual Production Academy are designed to equip students with advanced skills and insights required to get a kick-start as a creative professional in Virtual Production workflow.
Today, the visual effects industry is at an inflection point, and its use cases are across the board. It is not confined to filmmaking anymore. We are seeing virtual production being used in television commercials, broadcast shows, virtual events, concerts, educational materials and so on. Furthermore, with the advent and penetration of OTT, content requirements have risen exponentially. We only see the sector growing from here on out and that is very exciting.
🚀 VIVE Mars: What is the academy’s mission for advancing virtual production education in India?
The Virtual Production Academy: Our programs at The Virtual Production Academy are expertly crafted to focus on real-world applications, equipping aspiring filmmakers with advanced skills in virtual set creation, in-camera VFX, motion capture, real-time CGI and much more. Through immersive training with our experienced personnel, students master the various nuances of processes involved in Virtual Production including MOCAP, working with and beyond green screens, LED walls, real-time rendering. This places our students at the forefront of this burgeoning industry. We are optimistic that virtual production and its training are set to unlock a vast array of exciting career opportunities for our students and filmmaking professionals in India and around the world.
Our focus at Aptech and The Virtual Production Academy has been to give students a holistic learning experience with a blend of technology, hands-on learning and creative development. This ensures our students are prepared to face the challenges of the professional world. With The Virtual Production Academy, we are committed to training our students with top-notch technology, industry veterans, and the right environment for learning to make them successful media & entertainment professionals.
🚀 VIVE Mars: How has the VIVE Mars CamTrack contributed to your productions?
The Virtual Production Academy: The VIVE Mars CamTrack has been a game-changer for our virtual production processes at the Academy. Its ability to deliver precise real-time camera tracking ensures seamless integration between live-action footage and virtual environments, drastically improving our workflows.
The most valuable aspects are its compact size and user-friendly setup, which make it ideal for both large-scale projects and smaller pop-up setups. Additionally, its compatibility with Unreal Engine, Aximmetry and other industry-standard tools allows our students to explore cutting-edge technologies, enhancing their learning experience while maintaining production-level efficiency.
🚀 VIVE Mars: What was the creative vision behind your Best Horror Shot submission?
The Virtual Production Academy: The creative vision behind our short film was to evoke an unsettling sense of dread and suspense while maintaining cinematic quality. We focused on creating an immersive environment where lighting and shadows played pivotal roles. The virtual set was crafted using Unreal Engine, ensuring an eerie ambiance with flickering lights using Blueprints in Unreal, fog, and high-detail textures. Manual character animation techniques were employed to bring characters to life, allowing for precise control over their movements and interactions.
Achieving this required meticulous planning, encompassing storyboard development, pre-visualization of the complete film before the shoot, and post-production polishing. Our students leveraged their expertise to combine technology and artistry, ensuring the final shot was both visually compelling and narratively gripping.
🚀 VIVE Mars: What was your most challenging shot in the film?
The Virtual Production Academy: There are two shots that were pivotal in the film. The first is the ghost’s appearance in front of the actor at the end of the film, and the second was the dolly zoom effect.
The ghost’s appearance in the film, combined with the flickering of lights in Unreal Engine and DMX- controlled lights, was particularly challenging. This was achieved using Unreal Engine’s Blueprints and MagicQ PC software to control the DMX lights, ensuring a seamless and eerie synchronization.
The most challenging shot, however, was the in-dolly zoom effect. We used Unreal Engine Blueprints to create the dolly zoom effect, combining physical dolly camera movement with a Blueprint-driven zoom-out effect. This technique added a chilling horror feel to the scene.
Overall, synchronizing the manually animated character movements with the virtual environment and ensuring the apparition’s ethereal glow blended perfectly with the real-world lighting was a challenge which we all worked towards. Additionally, creating a realistic interaction between the live actor and the virtual ghost required precise camera tracking and compositing.
This short film became a favorite among our students at The Virtual Production Academy because of the collaborative effort it demanded, showcasing the best of what virtual production technology and creative ingenuity can achieve.
🚀 VIVE Mars: What emerging technologies do you find exciting to explore in the future?
The Virtual Production Academy: Emerging technologies like AI Scene Creation and Gaussian Splatting hold immense potential for revolutionizing the virtual production landscape. This offers the possibility of generating highly detailed and dynamic environments, concept art, storyboards, and enhancing stories with screenplay development in minutes, drastically reducing pre-production time while expanding creative possibilities.
The use of Gaussian Splatting to create photorealistic 3D environments and assets using minimal computational resources excites us, especially for real-time rendering and gaming applications. We have also integrated the lessons and use case applications into our curriculum.
Exploring these technologies will not only enhance the efficiency of our processes but also open new avenues for storytelling in virtual production. We are actively researching their integration into our curriculum to prepare students for the next generation of filmmaking.
🚀 VIVE Mars: Are there any notable films, the Virtual Production Academy is proud to talk about?
The Virtual Production Academy: We are immensely proud of our recent collaborative project, The Gift Box, a short film that utilized all aspects of virtual production taught at the academy. From LED Wall technology to manual character animation and real-time rendering, the project served as a testament to our students’ skills and the efficacy of our training programs. We have been conducting various Bootcamps for Industry professionals and Film school graduates for Virtual Production workflow.
Additionally, our specialized courses in Virtual Production have garnered significant attention within the industry. Alumni from these programs have gone on to work with production houses, contributing to films and TVC projects. These accomplishments reflect our commitment to excellence and innovation in virtual production education.
🔗 Official Website, LinkedIn, Instagram
🔗 Email: info@thevirtualproductionacademy.com
Film schools and universities are already making Mars CamTrack part of their virtual production curriculum with our ready-to-teach software package.
Contact us directly at VIVE MARS or email mars-partnership@vive.com to see what’s possible.
🔗 Official Website, Instagram, FB Community (Group), Linkedin, YouTube
🔗 Email: mars-partnership@vive.com
• VIVE MARS CamTrack for precise real-time camera tracking
• LED Wall for dynamic virtual backgrounds
• DMX lights for the live actors and props lighting
• Reality Capture for the Photogrammetry process
• Adobe Substance Painter and Quixel Mixer for texturing and asset detailing
• DaVinci Resolve
#MarsInsights #UniversitySpotlight #VIVEMars #VirtualProduction #Education #ICVFX #DMXLights #Photogrammetry #GreenScreen #LEDWall #PostVFX #UnrealEngine
