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Masterpiece: Nighthawks

24/05/2021
Studio
London, UK
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Credits
Agency / Creative
Production

Award winning “Masterpiece: Beyond the Painted Surface” places British art historian, BBC presenter and BAFTA nominated broadcaster, Dr James Fox inside the virtual 3D representation of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks - his famous 1942 oil on canvas painting that portrays four people in a downtown diner late at night as viewed through the diner’s window.


The production and engineering team  from Bild Studios worked closely with Dr James Fox and the creative team at The Experience Machine (TEM) to re-imagine how a painting could exist as a three-dimensional world which allowed us to reveal insights into the painting that have never been considered before.

The 3D representation of Hopper’s painting was created as carefully extracted 3D geometry with detailed layers of texturing added; partly handmade, partly AI-generated, to resemble the brush strokes and fine crafting of Hopper’s unique painting style. Using xR workflows powered by disguise and camera tracking by Mo-sys, the 3D scene was then imported into the game engine Unreal Engine and rendered in real-time based on the position of the physical film camera on MARS, our xR and virtual production studio in London.

The integration of real-world effects such as time of day, virtual depth of field, environmental lighting and other properties were configured to be controlled via a mobile tablet - directly controlled by the director on set.

We were delighted to be recognised by Columbia University's School of the Arts Digital Storytelling Lab and selected for the lab's 2021 Digital Dozen: Breakthroughs in Storytelling Awards!

About Bild Studios
Blending technology and creative direction, Bild specialises in visual engineering and creative design for live productions.

Bild is the joint venture of experienced industry professionals Rowan Pitts and David Bajt.
With their combined experience they have worked with some of the the biggest acts, production houses and shows around the world, including concerts and tours for Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jay Z and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, shows for major brands such as Nike, Samsung, Adobe, Mercedes, Cartier, Heineken, o2, and large-scale productions for Cirque de Soleil, Eurovision, Paris & London Opera Houses, Coachella, Glastonbury, and many more. 

MARS by Bild. London's premier virtual production facility dedicated to technical precision, designed and run by experienced workflow professionals.

After a successful pilot in summer 2020, we are now ready to launch our new MARS virtual production facility in London, this June. MARS is backed by decades of experience with proven workflows for real-time VFX pipelines and advanced video systems for some of the largest video installations in the world. It is the culmination of this highly niche expertise, precise approach and degree of experience that sets MARS apart.

Bild, the creators of MARS, have a reputation for being the ‘watchmakers’ in their field. Their world-class expertise in Unreal Engine, Notch, disguise and specialised industry tools in combination with bespoke engineering for tracking solutions, server hardware, display technologies and AV infrastructure has earnt them this prestige position.

MARS is the unique combination of this highly trusted experience with a physical virtual production stage. Innovation and R&D are central to the ‘MARS by Bild’ ethos and we seek to utilise MARS to continually develop leading innovation within the Virtual Production workflow.