Fireframe has finalised the build of a brand new ICVFX Studio in Helsinki, premiering the virtual production technology for Finland.
ROE Visual LED products are at the heart of this high-tech facility. The studio has been hosting demo days for local talent. Still, it will kick off a wider campaign in September by hosting private events for the international film industry players to experience the studio’s capabilities.
Fireframe Oy is a Helsinki-based virtual production company that wants to reimagine the way films are made. Fascinated and inspired by the creative possibilities of real-time technologies, they set out to bring this solution to Nordics, facilitating the film community in their home region.
Fireframe started to explore the creative possibilities of virtual production a year ago by doing real-time engine tests in a green screen environment. At the same time, the company looked at how to build a state-of-the-art LED volume. “After a comprehensive study with industry experts, we ended up choosing ROE Visual as our provider for their reliability and overall technical quality,” stated Mikko Kodisoja, Fireframe founder and CEO.
“One of the factors that determined our choice for the combination of ROE Visual LED panels in combination with HELIOS LED processing is the fact that it also gives us access to the GhostFrame technology. We’re very much interested in the GhostFrame Chroma feature. We can’t wait to see what magic we can create using this,” continued Kodisoja.
The LED volume in the ICVFX studio consists of an ROE Visual Ruby RB2.3 LED wall. This curved wall is 18.5m wide and 5m high and is built from 370 Ruby panels, bringing the total pixel count to over 17 million. The LED ceiling is constructed of 120 ROE Visual Black Quartz BQ4.6 LED panels, cleverly using the integrated wind-bracing system to give the ceiling its required structural integrity.
Another batch of Black Quartz LED panels is placed on three dollies, creating flexible side fills for additional lighting. The capacity of the Black Quartz LED panels goes up to 5000 nit brightness making them perfect for the job. “Using the dollies, we can adapt the placement of the side fills in the set to any requirements. The lighting dollies are synced with a 3D engine which gives a wow-effect when the virtual world within the walls reacts when you move the wall.”, comments Kodisoja.
“We were eager to learn everything about LED technology before we started to build the volume. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we couldn’t get ROE Visual’s technicians to fly over to Finland. Still, with the help of local ROE Visual experts appointed to us by ROE Visual, we managed to get the volume up and running in a couple of days.
One of the individuals who has been instrumental in the process is Johan West. Without his help and expertise, this whole thing wouldn’t have been possible given the short time frame. We had
our entire team building the LED volume, from engineers to VFX artists to cinematographers, as we wanted everyone to learn how the system works. And we learned a lot along the way,” concluded Kodisoja.
