Chaos' New Short Has an Answer for Hollywood VFX Problems
Brie Clayton September 19, 2024
0 Comments
Emerging Virtual Production Tools Get First Major Test; Offer Way for Artists, DPs and Directors to See More In-Camera Without Distractions
Today, Chaos releases Ray Tracing FTW, a new short film that takes aim at the state of VFX and filmmaking - from an artist's point of view. More than an airing of grievances, the comedic short is the first major test for Project Arena, a virtual production toolset that has now been production-proven by vets who've worked on Justified, Avengers: Infinity War and Dune: Part Two.
Inspired by classics like Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and Once Upon a Time in the West, Ray Tracing FTW is an Easter egg-laden commentary about what holds productions back from telling great stories. While a fix-it-in-post mentality can certainly cause problems, the short argues that a return to golden-age filmmaking is only lacking real-time tools that truly let people operate in the moment.
Technology is too often a distraction on set. It crashes, doesn't respond fast enough, or requires too many specialists to make it work right, said Christopher Nichols, director of special projects at the Chaos Innovation Lab and VFX supervisor/producer of Ray Tracing FTW. We've been developing Project Arena to change all that, so everyone from the artist to the DP can stop thinking about the technology, and just get back to the natural rhythms of filmmaking.
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!
This happens because the functionality/content marked as Google Youtube uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
Project Arena is an upcoming virtual production toolset that offers studios a faster, simple alternative to game engines. With Project Arena, artists can move V-Ray assets and select animations to LED walls in around 10 mins, accessing real-time ray tracing with pipelines they know and trust. And because these tools are production-ready, artists can continue to utilize the same assets throughout the process (from pre to post), with no do-overs or drops in quality, mitigating the need for virtual art departments.
A Major Production Watching Ray Tracing FTW,you'd be hard-pressed to pinpoint Project Arena's role on the short. Instead, it worked as intended, bringing over 2 trillion polygons to the screen for three days straight, without any of the expensive crashes that people have come to expect when using game engines in virtual production. Having a consistent, always-on system helped the team forget the tech and even pull off 30 set-up shots during a standard 10-hour shoot day.
Feeding the screen was a massive V-Ray environment of an Old West town, designed by Erick Schiele and built by The Scope with the help of KitBash3D and TurboSquid assets. The production continued to use this environment on everything from all-CG establishing shots and tunnel sequences to the background for a physical train car set, which was able to portray nuanced details by using full ray tracing.
Having detailed CG models blend seamlessly with physical sets meant Director of Photography Richard Crudo (Justified, American Pie) could get nearly every shot in-camera, barring a Bottleship VFX-driven train crash or two. It also meant that when sudden needs came up - like finding a 3D hacienda for the final shot - the crew could just buy one online and get it on-screen in under 15 minutes.
I was shooting predominantly in an LED volume and I was continually blown away by how genuine the results looked - even to the naked eye. It was so clear how much quicker and more efficient Project Arena made the compositing process, which enabled a much more aggressive sense of creativity in the photography, said Richard Crudo, six-term past-president of the American Society of Cinematographers and director of photography on Ray Tracing FTW. By carefully managing the color and density values of the volume with the live foreground action, I was able to bake-in the exact look I wanted. And since there was no guesswork to burden the special effects supervisor, the DI process was equally invigorating. I'm certain my colleagues will embrace this tech as soon as it becomes available.
Although Ray Tracing FTW was designed to be a test project, no one treated it as anything less than a major production. According to Nichols, Everyone understood the assignment, which was to craft a love letter to one of Old Hollywood's most popular genres, using modern tools and opinions.
To achieve an old western look, the team used an ARRI Alexa 35, loaded with Panavision PVintage lenses, which replicate the original Ultra Speed lenses used throughout the 70s. For color, the team relied on Mark Griffith of FotoKem, the renowned post house which also graded V-Ray I.R.L., the Heat-inspired short that got Nichols and crew thinking about industry-focused films in the first place.
Since sounds and music are such an integral part of the genre, the production looked to Nick Cave and INXS super-producer, Nick Launay to make the theme song come to life and evoke the spaghetti westerns of old. Alex Smith and Margarita Mix then came in to handle the overall score and sound design respectively, bringing even more authenticity to the project.
In the 60s, the studios were in trouble. Audiences were tired of the same old stuff, said Daniel Thron, Director and Writer of Ray Tracing FTW. But then you get this wave of young filmmakers coming in with smaller cameras that allow for naturalistic photography and acting, and that revolutionized Hollywood. We have the opportunity to bring that same sentiment to the next
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
14-hour package also includes A Remarkable Place to Die season 2 as well as libr...
Chaos' New Short Has an Answer for Hollywood VFX Problems 
