Live Design Online: Virtual stages aren’t new, but people still mix up what they really are. When people say “virtual stage,” they often mean LED panels or a 3D background that simply decorates a physical set. That can work, but for me as a stage director, the key point is different: the line between the physical and the virtual stage should be invisible.
2 comments:
I LOVE this take. The line between the physical and the virtual stage should be invisible. I think a lot of times virtual additions to physical stages feel more like powerpoint presentations than they do scenery. We know that we’re in a city, the scenery and dialogue suggests that, we don’t need to project a cartoonish city scape onto the already existing city scape set to convey that to the audience. VMD is so often just super obvious visual cues, when in my opinion, it works better when adding ambience. This is why projection mapping is such an important skill. The video should not just be slapped on the flat, clash with the existing paint treatment and highlight every corner and screw. It should line up with the curves and corners of the set instead of trying to cover it up or overpower it for select moments. VMD should exist within space, not on top of it.
It is such an interesting read about the virtual stage set as an environment that is as close to reality as possible. I remember seeing people doing motion capture for games and animations. It is always interesting to see virtual characters in performance spaces that belong to real-life audiences and spaces. I just realized that I have only seen a virtual performance played on TV screens, and they always feel special effects that are later edited for the stage. Seeing how the virtual character blends into the real world is something that I often rejected when I was younger. However, living with more virtual reality products and AI-generated works nowadays, I feel like this is part of the new trend of creative work that designers must know about. Still, I think under these starting periods of virtual and reality blend, there are still many things to be accommodated in virtual stage designs. Designers have to make sure they feel real enough to allow most audiences to accept them instead of building real sets, painting drops, or hiring real performers.
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