One of the interesting stories from NAB 2023 was the introduction of Virtual Studio by Vū, a suite of cloud-based, generative virtual production software tools powered by AWS.
While Vū has been busy constructing over 20 virtual production studios around North America and the UK (and still growing), it has also been developing tools to help studios, filmmakers, and others with virtual production. Working with partners and its own software team, at NAB it unveiled their cloud-based suite of software tools.
Dubbed Virtual Studio by Vū, the suite of tools is powered by AWS and includes:
- Project Management: Manages all virtual production files, such as project creation, call sheets, file sharing, storyboards, and digital asset management. This is an important software tool for any virtual production team.
- Vū Remote: Work with clients virtually (Vū Unreal Artists and stage operators) while filming, and includes ICVFX artist machine instance, multi-user cloud connection, file sync and version control, and more.
- Vū.ai Tool: Create custom AI workflows with this node-based AI tool via multi-AI languages being linked together.
- Scene Forge: Pre-viz filming on a Vū LED stage with Stage 3D models, pre-built film tools, outer and inner frustum simulation, third-party asset libraries, etc.
Plus Vū worked with some partners to develop generative software tools:
- Cuebric: Developed with Seyhan Lee (a virtual studio), can create virtual environments and segments them automatically into 2.5D, and fairly quickly. Plus changes can be made easily and helps with filming on an LED volume or working on pre-viz.
- SHOWRUNNER: Control physical and virtual lighting, virtual backgrounds, and scene selection from a smartphone. The user interface is easy to use with device snapshotting and digital twin controls.
All in all, this looks to be an excellent move by Vū: Not only does it already build virtual production studios, some of the largest in the world, but it also now has the cloud-based software to help with virtual production. And teams can work on it from anywhere in the world, thanks to AWS. It looks to be a popular move as well as there's already a waitlist up and running.