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
Our paper Sustainable VFX: An Educational Challenge compares a typical offline production pipeline for VFX creature shots with a near to real-time workflow. In this work we focus on initiating a "quality in demand" discussion rather than brand and feature set comparisons. We discuss energy footprints, optimisations and limitations as well as the increased iteration potential. The report is supported by a quantitative study on quality and visual differences.
The paper will be 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 need to promote and enhance public transportation appears as a desired necessity. 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 GPS synchronised immersive entertainment in public transport.
Learn more about BEEING in this blog post or the SIGGRAPH 2021 Talks Abstract.
Dive into BEEING and move your cursor to have a look around:
GREEN SCREENS, GREEN PIXELS & 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.
Explore the full report on Green Screens, Green Pixels & Green Shooting.
Also available a compressed version presented at SIGGRAPH 2022 Talks.
Publications & Presentations
Visit our publications section for a comprehensive list of past and recent work.