Sustainability

Sustainability has become a critical issue in the technology and media production industries. The shift towards using sustainable tools and working in more environmentally friendly environments is reshaping workflows not only across industry sectors but also for our daily lives and the work of our students.

The R&D department of the Animationsinstitut has been dedicated to exploring and implementing sustainable practices for several years, working on various projects and research initiatives aimed at making the production processes not only on our campus but throughout the industry more sustainable.

Here, you will find examples of our projects, research findings and scientific papers that showcase our efforts to foster a greener future in film and media production.

Sustainable VFX

VFX and animated movie production are constantly evolving and film schools must adapt their education accordingly. Today, nearly any visual demand can be met with the right resources. Close to real-time rendering technologies can speed up production and increase possible iterations, leading to cost and energy savings, though they involve unconventional workflows and quality limitations. Raising awareness of CO2 reduction through innovative technology is vital in academic education.

Our paper Sustainable VFX: An Educational Challenge compares a typical offline production pipeline for VFX creature shots with a near to real-time workflow using a rasterisation engine as commonly used in game engines (real-time), focusing on starting a "quality in demand" discussion rather than on brand and feature set comparisons. We discuss optimisations, limitations as well as the increased iteration potential, supported by a quantitative study on quality and visual differences.


The paper was first presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2024, Educator's Forum.

 

Visual comparison of the traditional and the alternative VFX workflow:

 

BEEING - VR journey

As climate change and sustainability gain global attention, the push for public transport over cars is clear. Within the Application Center V/AR, Filmakademie’s R&D team created BEEING, a VR journey designed to raise awareness about nature preservation while showcasing immersive entertainment in public transport.

BEEING highlights human impact on ecosystems, with a story set in a macro world of endangered wildlife. Starting on a train, users find themselves on the back of an insect, traveling through a dissolving forest and ending in a beautiful flower meadow, emphasising the importance of preserving nature for future generations.

Learn more about BEEING and its technical concept in the blog post.

 

Dive into BEEING and don’t forget to move your cursor to have a look around:

 

GREEN SHOOTING

In early 2022, little was known about the sustainability of Virtual Production compared to traditional offline VFX productions. The Animationsinstitut's R&D team studied two productions: one using traditional offline rendering and post-production, the other utilising an LED wall and ICVFX (in-camera VFX). Energy requirements, creative opportunities and scalability were subjects of investigation and discussion.

The research indicated that Virtual Production can be considered a sustainable and environmentally-friendly shooting solution, especially when powered by renewable energy, as practiced at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Additionally, travel costs can be reduced as physical sets can be digitised into virtual environments for LED volumes. In the example, the LED wall production generated more footage (frames) in the same amount of time on set compared to the offline production.

While this conclusion may seem like a strong vote for Virtual Production, we believe that it is not a universal solution for all aspects of film production. Instead, it should be seen as a valuable opportunity in the context of the growing need for green and sustainable practices.

 

Explore the full paper and read more about the scientific approach, detailed results and the scalability of these findings:

Green Screens, Green Pixels and Green Shooting:
A report on Virtual Production and its opportunities for sustainable film productions.

 

Publications