The ZEUS:Scout app for iPad, a virtual location scouting tool, is now available in the iTunes store. Used extensively in productions including ABC‘s Once Upon a Time, CBS‘ Intelligence, as well as Pan Am and V, ZEUS:Scout enables users to travel through a “virtual set” while on location, providing a powerful suite of navigation, creative and technical tools.
The app is designed to support production before, during and after principal photography by putting virtual location backlot assets at the fingertips of the user. By providing production a mobile platform for virtual production, users are able to bridge communication on set with cinematographers, directors, visual effects supervisors and art and script departments.
Using ZEUS:Scout’s features users can explore 3D sets using intuitive controls, test a wide variety of camera lenses, create and share storyboard frames, save and replay animated camera moves, measure distances using a simple touch interface and place characters and edit objects to set the scene.
The app includes seven primary modes. The view mode allows the user to move the camera around and save camera positions for shock blocking purposes; The measurements mode allows users to bring real world measurements into a virtual world; The characters mode can be used to insert character cards into the virtual location; The props mode lets users add, move, rotate and scale set props that are available for in-app purchase; The previs animation mode provides users the freedom to explore camera moves for previsualization and rehearsal purposes. Recently added modes include a tracking mode that allows users to use the tablet as a virtual camera with the CG view matching the angle of the device and the video mode that can integrate live video into a CG set by keying actors or objects on a greenscreen.
Users can access pre-made assets in the app and/or purchase additional assets as in-app purchases. Professional users can prepare assets for ZEUS:Scout using Unity3D Pro and custom transcoding tools provided on the website. Additional, ZEUS production clients can access assets through a custom ad hock build with secure backend cloud storage services for secure and remote asset deployments.
“Virtual environments can exist vividly in the creative visions of many filmmakers, but it is nearly impossible to have the entire team visualize the same concept. ZEUS:Scout advances the collaboration to a higher level, allowing everyone from the set designer to the director of photography to be on board with the concept being created virtually,” said VFX supervisor Andrew Orloff.
ZEUS:Scout can also serve as a tool to create storyboards that allow for key creative decisions to be made in pre-production.
“The result is cost savings in post. So much unexpected time is spent solving issues in postproduction that could have been avoided with detailed previsualization. With filmmakers having a tool to generate virtual environments on set, they can collaborate with their creative team not only in real-time, but before even beginning to capture an image,” said ZEUS:Scout CTO Mike Romey.
