Virtual Production at Model Scale

The Virtual Production at Model Scale (VPaMS) research and development project at Aardman Animations was formed with the goal of exploring how virtual production (VP) technologies can fit within a stop-motion context.

The emerging industry of VP is best known for its fancy LED volumes and motion capture suits, but at VPaMS we expanded our horizons to engage with anywhere where the physical and digital worlds blend on a film set.

VPaMS consisted of multiple projects, each tackling a different problem-set faced in the stop-motion world. Each project begun with identifying key stakeholders within Aardman, and then conducting research to understand the approach we should take. All the projects were designed to be adaptive, and so testing with stakeholders throughout and adjusting to their feedback was essential.

Whilst many of the projects are still under NDA, results and findings will be published by MyWorld (the project's partner and match-funder) in due course.