Metastage Canada Turns Up The Volume(metric Capture)

A Q&A with Metastage LA’s Skylar Sweetman about the company’s Vancouver partnership with Departure Lounge

One of the more exciting things over the past few years has been watching how immersive technology has been changing the way that entertainment is made at every level. From the industry changing “volumes” on which The Mandalorian and The Batman were filmed to the performance capture technology that allows for performing artists to show up in games and metaversal experiences in all their glory.

At the heart of it all — from film & TV to games & experiences — is the visual effects industry. This new wave of tech has created new keystone companies, like Metastage, whose launched their volumetric capture studio in LA ahead of the curve on the tech and have gone on to be the go-to solution for projects that range from commercials to festival circuit hits like Breonna’s Garden.

This year Metastage partnered with Vancouver’s Departure Lounge to launch a new venture, Metastage Canada. With an exclusive license to use Microsoft’s volumetric capture tech in Western Canada, the new studio will serve a city that is at the forefront of visual effects, games, film & TV production.

We got some insight into the new venture from Metastage LA’s Head of Production, Skylar Sweetman, who broke down for us what this means for the Vancouver creative scene, and what’s on the horizon for virtual production.

No Proscenium: What does having a Metastage add to the palettes of creatives in Vancouver?

Skylar Sweetman: Metastage presents a premium Volumetric Capture solution that enables unique and powerful storytelling capabilities for virtual platforms. This solution brings live action performances to immersive AR and VR experiences, enabling complex virtual production media through easy integrations with game engine software and VFX workflows.

Metastage is the first and only of its kind in North America. Launching a brand new stage in Vancouver — production sister city of Los Angeles — is the natural next step for our company and for the advancement of these incredible tools. With Metaverse-focused mediums taking shape all around us, there are so many opportunities for groundbreaking storytelling and we are so excited to help pave that path for the creative community in Vancouver.

NP: From the outside looking in, it feels like there’s a new era happening in the special effects industry thanks to the rapid adoption of volumetric tech over the past three years. Are we in a big shift right now?

SS: What’s exciting about the visual effects industry is that it has always been at the nexus of technology and creative storytelling. The creatives push the development of new technology, and new technologies enable new methods of storytelling. Human representation in digital platforms has also been one of the industry’s greatest challenges. Volumetric Capture technology has reached a feature film-level quality bar, which means that we are seeing more and more creators utilizing the tech in virtual production pipelines. Volcap assets open up a level of cinematic freedom for VFX artists, as well as long term savings on cost and time. I would say we are at the beginning of what could become a seismic shift in Film + TV.

NP: I think a fair number of people know that some of their favorite TV shows are filmed in Canada — and Vancouver in particular — but what should a fan or enthusiast know about the Vancouver FX scene to help them get how big a deal this is for Departure Lounge and Metastage?

SS: Vancouver is, without comparison, the world’s leading hub for Visual Effects and Animation. There are over 8,000 VFX and Animation professionals working in Vancouver and over 150 FX and Animation businesses in operation there. These companies and individuals produce an enormous amount of award-winning and groundbreaking content every year. Team Metastage could not be more thrilled to kick off our next phase of development in a city with such a high concentration of talent, innovation, and XR

thought leadership (in both tech and entertainment). This is a huge step in our company’s journey and the best possible launching pad for Departure Lounge to be able to facilitate the next generation of XR content.

NP: Film, Television, and games all take advantage of the kind of volumetric capture you’re doing both in Vancouver and LA. I’m curious as to how much business is coming in from the more nascent “web3” projects or are the stages hopping from the FX pipeline needs?

SS: We are seeing this area of work grow little by little. Volcap offers the unique ability to capture performances from real people in detail, including clothing, audio and any other items or props. The volcap files, though extremely high quality, are very small — small enough to stream on mobile without wifi. Thinking about these 3D performances being mintable just like any other digital file on the blockchain opens up a lot of potential for talent and companies focused on the creation and collection of digital assets. As with anything in this space, there are questions around ownership over one’s likeness, but just as with video and photo, there is also enormous new potential to explore. That is what we are seeing now with volcap and web3, a lot of exploration.

NP: Without breaking any NDAs, obviously, what’s some of the more novel uses of volumetric capture you’ve seen come through your doors?

SS: We are extremely excited to see volcap used in immersive interactive training scenarios. Immersive media is extremely powerful when leveraged for training and education, and the work we are developing in this area is really pushing that boundary even further.

Virtual Production is also an exciting area of growth for us! We love seeing VFX creators utilizing volcap’s distinct capabilities to carve out new, more efficient and cost-effective workflows that can benefit their productions long term.

NP: What’s on the technical horizon that you’re excited about that creators should keep an eye on?

SS: Markerless MoCap integration, advanced lighting capture for relighting in post, and larger capture volumes are all key improvements we are excited to integrate into our current technical pipeline. Keep an eye out for live volumetric capture and streaming as well. It does feel like every project with volcap is unique, because it is such a new technology to work with. We are excited about the upcoming projects coming down the pipe in AR, virtual production, VR, and gaming.

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