Industrial light and Magic and Lucasfilm Developing Star Wars Virtual Reality "Experiential Entertainment"

The most interesting news of the day is coming from Industrial Light & Magic, the legendary special & visual effects company created by George Lucas which has always  been on the forefront of technology since Lucas founded it, and we learn they're developing some Virtual Reality-based "experiential entertainment" that will allow to interact with characters and settings from the Star Wars universe. THR points out that Lucasfilm and ILM have formed the ILM Experience Lab (ILMxLAB) to develop and create "virtual reality, augmented reality, real-time cinema, theme park entertainment and narrative-based experiences for future platforms."

From a THR article: "Industrial Light & Magic and parent company Lucasfilm have formed the ILM Experience Lab (ILMxLAB) to create immersive content — notably, experiences based on its Star Wars franchise. This will include virtual reality, augmented reality, real-time cinema, theme park entertainment and future platforms.

"Anything and everything is what you can expect," said Lucasfilm executive vp and ILM president Lynwen Brennan, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter. “The wonderful thing about the Star Wars universe is that there are so many stories that have yet to been explored. We are not restricting that universe [to the stories in the existing films]. All will be telling stories — that’s one of our core principles — with a point of view and emotion.”

She noted that this Star Wars content will be available for mass-market VR goggles, specialized VR and AR, and immersive cinema. “And the initial, most high-end experiences will be in the [Disney] parks.”

Brennan emphasized that the new unit isn’t just about Star Wars. While she declined to name specifics, she confirmed that the new unit will produce both live action and animated content and is working on other Disney-owned IP — which of course includes the Marvel universe as well as Pixar films — in addition to IP from other filmmakers and studios, and new original characters and stories. Some are already in production; the first such project, a Jurassic Park experience, is being demoed with Oculus Rift prototype VR goggles.

Creating these projects will be ILM artists — the same that are working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and other such ILM VFX work. Brennan said the unit will also be adding staff, particularly on the technology side."

More details will be unveiled later this year, and in the meantime have a look at the video below.




Pictures and video: copyright Lucasfilm

Industrial Light & Magic Will Open a New London Facility for Star Wars 7 and Avengers 2

You all know that Star Wars Episode 7 will be filmed at London Pinewood Studios. Now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, ILM - Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects division created by Georges Lucas - will open a new SFX facility in London specially for Star Wars 7 and Avengers 2, but not only :

With Star Wars: Episode VII casting underway and production expected to begin in the spring in the U.K., Industrial Light & Magic -- the VFX division of Lucasfilm, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company -- is getting ready to launch a new feature visual effects facility in central London. The target is to bring the London operation to about 200 employees initially and Marvel's   Avengers: Age of Ultron will be ILM London’s first project. 

ILM is set to sign a lease for space just outside of Soho -- a neighborhood already populated with numerous VFX houses -- and north of Tottenham Court Road, ILM president and general manager Lynwen Brennan told The Hollywood Reporter. An extensive remodel of the space is planned, and the target to move-in is late March or early April. “It will be a full service studio,” she said. “We’ll have an art department, previsualization, and an entire end-to-end visual effects and computer graphics pipeline.”

She also revealed that since production of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars is planned at London’s Pinewood Studios, “we’ll certainly have some art department and previs there, but we’re not currently planning on having a large ILM presence at Pinewood. We did consider splitting the facility in two, but we are now focusing on our London facility and having an as-needed facility at Pinewood to be near the production.”

ILM’s Roger Guyett (who earned his third Oscar nomination this year for Star Trek Into Darkness) will be the VFX supervisor on Star Wars Episode VII. The plan is for the ILM facilities to handle all of the work for the film, not just in the U.K., but also in ILM’s San Francisco headquarters, and Singapore and Vancouver locations, as well as at its strategic partner, Base FX in Beijing. The London facility will have a pipeline allowing it to share work with the other ILM offices.

The U.K. base is part of an overall global expansion plan -- and it is not opening just to accomodate Star Wars. “ILM will be working on not only Lucasfilm projects, Disney projects and Marvel projects but [productions] for other studios as well,“

You can read the full THR article HERE.

Talking about Star Wars, here is a fun Darth Vader "Look Back" Facebook video - a fake one, of course, but really fun.

Transformers Ride Visual Effects : The Challenges of Industrial Light and Magic

On December 3rd, Universal Studios Singapore will launch the highly awaited Transformers ride and Universal promise that this motion thrill ride will showcase "the most advanced evolution of immersive theme park entertainment". Universal Studios Singapore will celebrate the Transformers world premiere at an exclusive evening event on December 2 and Michael Bay, director and executive producer of the blockbuster movies who also served as the attraction’s creative consultant, will be there to help commemorate the opening.

Now, more about the ride itself: The Transformers ride will feature 12 scenes, comprising sets blended seamlessly with hyper-realistic 3-D digital media and special effects to bring tactile realism to every moment. Guests will be unable to discern illusion from reality as they get transported onboard advanced motion-based ride vehicles into the Transformers universe, and partake in the ultimate 3D battle against the Decepticons right alongside the Autobots.

Enlisted as NEST recruits, guests are tasked to help the Autobots protect a remaining shard of the ALLSPARK – a powerful energy cube that gives life to the Transformers. As the Decepticons attack the facility in a bid to obtain the shard, guests will be introduced to a new Autobot – EVAC – created exclusively for the ride.



New to the Autobots family, EVAC is a stealth transportation Autobot stationed on Earth designed to transport personnel and classified materials at hyper speeds. For the ride, park guests will board EVAC and begin the ride of their lives, zipping through subway tunnels, down city streets and across rooftops, with the Decepticons hot on their heels. "Park guests, especially fans of Transformers, will be thrilled as they come face-to-face – and be transported – by an Autobot. This epic ride experience will allow guests the opportunity to truly “Ride The Movies".




And it's no one else than Industrial Light & Magic, the famous Lucasfilm division, which produced the ground-breaking visionary special effects and 3-D images exclusively for the ride. Artists that had worked on the Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie and understood its style also contributed to the ride. Jeff White, visual effects supervisor at ILM says:

"In many ways, creating the media for TRANSFORMERS The Ride built upon the pipeline we have developed for the film’s visual effects but for this project there were a few added twists and challenges. The screens on this project were so large and immersive they required us to render at 8k, four times the resolution that we normally render at.

The process began with a lengthy pre-visualization phase where we collaborated with Universal Creative and creative consultant to work out the main beats of the story that would take us through the ride, all with a focus on making it the best interactive guest experience possible".



"We then used a combination of photography from Chicago and completely digital environments to create the backdrops for the action and seamlessly integrated it into the practical sets. Following which was a lengthy and complicated animation process where we worked out the timing of the characters actions and how they interacted with the cameras to make sure it provided the best experience on the motion simulator. Finally, we added lighting and fx simulation for all the dust, papers, explosions and debris to make sure it felt the films.

The Singapore division of ILM did almost all of the work on the pre-show media as the guests enter the facility. They are an extension of our facility and were able to use the same assets, rendering and compositing tools we do in the US. Additionally, since they are where the ride was being installed, they were an invaluable resource to interface with the Universal Studios Singapore to get any information and data that we needed as it was being built.

There were many unique challenges in the making. For instance, instead of a flat screen we have in the ride 12 different screens in various shapes and sizes. The most complicated were the torus screens which were completely immersive and required rendering a 180-degree field of view. Also, each shot on the ride had to take the viewers angle on the screen into account so that as they approached the screen the perspective feels natural.

This required complicated camera blending from the moving ride into our virtual world and we worked very closely with the motion programmer at Universal to make sure it was a seamless blend."

The ride which open December 3 in Singapore will open next year at Universal Hollywood and i have the feeling that the ride should be as memorable as the Spiderman ride at IOA. In less than a month this should be confirmed.

Pictures and video: copyright Universal Studios Singapore or Lucasfilm Ltd.

New Star Tours 2 rendering shows Boba Fett chase scene

A new Star Tours 2 rendering was released recently, apparently included in an email sent to WDW annual passholders. Interesting rendering showing what might be another "destination" near planet Geonosis. You can see on the rendering the Starspeeder being chased by Boba Fett vessel and also - in the background - the first Death Star under construction. Star Tours 2 open in a bit more than two months at DHS and it's going to be a very exciting moment!

Picture: copyright Disney-Lucas Film