The term Virtual Set may be blurred somewhat with time, originally meaning to employ a computer and a camera tracker to develop a background in realtime to chromakey talent into, Virtual Sets now encompass both live and post, tracking and trackless solutions, which is even used to talk about simple blue/greenscreen work where talent is keyed right into a studio. There are many different forms of virtual sets; I'll explain how these are commonly used:



Standard Definition, Hi-def, and 4K are used with Post Production programs like editors and compositors. They are presented as layers allowing you to create the illusion the talent is standing behind a desk knowning that video is playing inside monitors.



NewTek's Tricaster SD and Tricaster XD versions run using their proprietary hardware, but make operating a live virtual set a breeze, scaling the talent into the set, placing the B Source to the screens and adding reflections. The main difference between the two is resolution, the XD being able to produce in High Definition and that the XD can perform virtual camera moves like zooms.



The 3D Studio MAX version is optimized for realtime rendering, it's a 3D version uniquely situated for usage with realtime rendering platforms but with it's lighting baked into the textures, it's not very editable.



NewTek's Lightwave 3D version is easily the most powerful and flexible, but also the most technically demanding to use giving you full control of every aspect of the set plus a true 3D environment for use tracking markers.



Virtual Set Production falls into two main categories, Live and Post. The previous giving you feedback in realtime in regards to what your greenscreen composite seems like, the later supplying you with more flexibility and control to generate decisions at your leisure. The opposite main difference being price, you will get into virtual set post production for 100's of dollars vs. thousands of dollars for live productions.



Live Production

Long the domain from the six figure budgets virtual sets took an unexpected turn in the late nineties with all the release of Play’s Trinity. With a built in chroma keyer plus some unusual virtual set features it turned the industry’s understanding of what a virtual set was on it’s ear. Years later NewTek released it’s Video Toaster system which in version 5 had similar functionality, allowing for realtime keying, scaling, and reflections of talent along with a B source. That technology followed onto their Tricaster line and matured with their XD products; an HD switcher with virtual set abilities such as a trackless zoom. The Tricaster products have been very popular due to their comparatively low pricing, multiple functionalities, and different virtual set abilities not found in other products at any cost.



Post Production

Any program using a chroma keyer can create the illusion of a virtual set at a far lower cost than live production. These incorporate a few better editors for example Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, and other alike. These can be as simple as keying your talent over the background, or as complex as tracking markers and layering together a complex scene with camera motion. www.videovirtualsets.com also offers virtual set design services to change any of their existing library of virtual sets as well as to create a virtual set custom over completely from scratch, examples and pricing are available on their website. Some productions require changes for the set, or the client would rather have a unique identity, no matter the need the ability to modify sets for your client’s designs is available.

With amazing network quality productions coming out of garages and classrooms thanks to modern computing power, innovative software, and inexpensive virtual set backgrounds it’s hard to imagine what will come next. Now in beta testing, intensiKey's post production virtual set software offers to offer the power of the true 3D program with no complexity.

Virtual Set