Virtual Production: Global Collaboration and Challenges

Virtual Production (VP) is a novel approach to filmmaking that blends real-time computer graphics, live-action footage, and cutting-edge technologies (such as LED volumes and game engines like Unreal Engine). As China’s higher education (HE) landscape continues to grow and diversify, Sino- foreign higher education institutions (SfHEIs) — partnerships between local Chinese universities and international institutions — have become increasingly prominent: They were created as an innovative solution to challenges such as insufficient domestic capacity, outdated curricula, regional imbalances, limited global engagement, and quality-assurance gaps, and have themselves become centers of pedagogical, research, and institutional innovation. This paper examines the experience of a team of students and faculty at an SfHEI who collaborated on a new approach to support VP, using in-camera virtual effects (ICVFX). The paper explores the background to the project, its core technical innovations, and the team dynamics. Parallel to the technical development work, an Open Educational Resource (OER) was also created. This OER contains not only the technical elements of the project, thus helping future VP/ICVFX workers, but also the team-development experiences. The paper will be of interest not only to the VP/ICVFX community, but also to SfHEI students and staff, and to the OER community.