Vive Studios takes on-set virtual production to the next level

GONJIAM, Gyeonggi — A T-Rex in a mountain valley roars at the audience. The next minute, an astronaut sits alone on a rock on Mars, staring into a quiet landscape. With the blink of an eye, the audience is taken to a view of the Seoul skyline at ..

A dinosaur is shown on the screen during a press tour of Vive Studio's virtual production studio in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi, on Friday. [YOON SO-YEON]

GONJIAM, Gyeonggi — A T-Rex in a mountain valley roars at the audience. The next minute, an astronaut sits alone on a rock on Mars, staring into a quiet landscape. With the blink of an eye, the audience is taken to a view of the Seoul skyline at night.

Time and space are no longer constraints for filmmakers at a virtual production studio established by Vive Studios, a local special visual effects (VFX) company founded in 2003 and specializing in virtual reality (VR) and computer-generated image (CGI) content.

Previously known for a television documentary featuring a grieving mom meeting a digital version of her dead daughter recreated via VR in 2020, Vive Studios now aims to become an all-round player in content production using the latest computer graphics technology.

The company provided its VR and CGI capabilities for a concert by BTS's Suga during the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards, for the 3-D modeling of presidential candidates on JTBC news during the elections in March and for VR film "Volt."

It received 9.5 billion won ($7.1 million) from NPX Capital, a local investment firm, last May. Vive Studios reported annual revenue of 9.2 billion won in 2021, up 10.1 percent.

The Gonjiam virtual production set in Gyeonggi is a part of that effort. The 1,157-square-meter (12,454-square-feet) site is an on-set virtual production set where producers and actors can see the computer-generated background in real-time.

Virtual production has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially during the pandemic, because it cuts the time and cost of shooting compared to the green-screen process, where images are added later. Because directors can instantly see how the scene is being filmed, the time needed to reshoot or modify is reduced.

A scene of Mars is shown on the screen during a press tour of Vive Studio's virtual production studio in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi, on Friday. [YOON SO-YEON]

A scene of nighttime Seoul is shown on the screen during a press tour of Vive Studio's virtual production studio in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi, on Friday. [YOON SO-YEON]

"We believe this is one of the technologies that will lead us into the future," said Stanley Kim, CEO of Vive Studios, during a press tour of the studio on Friday.

"Major players such as Disney and Netflix are infiltrating the Korean market, because this is the Asian hub of the content market. I believe all Asian content will revolve around Korea, and that's where private production sets like us come in."

On the day of the demonstration, reporters were taken to an empty production set with a few rocks and soil against a round-shaped screen panel displaying a rocky valley. The landscape changed in accordance with the camera movement, which was shown on a television screen next to the set.

Soon, a T-Rex appeared on the TV screen while the real-life set remained empty.

Vive Studios presented an integrated control system that enables filming and graphics modification to take place at the same time. Named the Vive Studios Immersive Technology (VIT), producers can control the lighting and camera to instantly match the change in graphics, such as the time and location of the background.

"We plan to make VIT commercially available for other companies by early next year," said Lee Kwang-hee, chief technology officer of Vive Studios and chief of Viv Lab, a research center within the company.

Stanley Kim, CEO of Vive Studios, answers questions from reporters during a press tour of the virtual production studio in Gonjiam, Gyeonggi, on Friday. [YOON SO-YEON]

"Viv Lab was founded in January this year with around 20 researchers working on not only VFX, CGI but also other forms of tech art and virtual production to maximize the efficiency and quality of content."

Vive Studio's next focus is with virtual humans. The company debuted JZ, its virtual celebrity, in April using a high-resolution face-swap technology, where the company shoots various videos using a real actor and replaces the face with CGI technology.

The company plans to develop a technology that reduces the time needed to make a 3-D human model, which is usually about three weeks, down to just five minutes. In addition to technology, CEO Kim has his mind set on a large theme park filled with all things tech and metaverse.

"Ultimately, we plan to become a paradigm-shifting company that can fill a metaverse platform made using our technology," Kim said.

"I hope to one day build a theme park filled with the technology that we'll see in the next 30 to 50 years, like humanoids, drones and holograms. It will be more like a blueprint of the future city rather than an amusement park like Disney Land or the Universal Studio."

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]