Mexico’s XR Tales uses Ultimatte 12 and Unreal Engine in its virtual productions with AR

The Mexican immersive technology company XR Tales has incorporated its Ultimatte 12 compositing processor for virtual production on numerous projects, including Mexican pop band Jotdog’s Catástrofes Perfumadas music video.

XR Tales coupled virtual elements created with Unreal Engine with Ultimatte 12’s real time compositing capability for the high energy and visually stunning video, which portrays a colorful alien invasion.

Based in the city of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, XR Tales specializes in real time VFX, virtual production and virtual and augmented reality.

The music video, directed by Ian Martin and produced by XR Tales in collaboration with Guanamor Music and CM Films, is based on the popular science fiction novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. Throughout the video, lead singer María Barracuda and guitarist Jorge ‘La Chiquis’ Amaro perform the song while a vibrant city in the midst of destruction serves as the backdrop.

Used in conjunction with Ultimatte Smart Remote 4, DeckLink 8K Pro capture and playback cards and HyperDeck Studio Pro disk recorders, Ultimatte 12 allowed the team to handle complex virtual production scenes composed of graphics, live action and animations.

Compositing in real time

“With Ultimatte 12, we were able to handle compositing in real time. The talent performed the song in front of a green screen in our studio, while at the same time we brought in virtual elements created using Unreal Engine to complete the scenes,” said XR Tales’ Director of Technology Adler Alonso Zamora Ruiz.

Zamora Ruiz noted that Ultimatte 12 enabled him to manage various environmental layers in front of and behind the artists in real time. He explained, “Because there was so much movement with the lead singer running away from zombies, being carried around by a huge gorilla and floating in the sky while aliens took her away, we needed to have full control to ensure it all came together and that the colors were not affected. With Ultimatte 12, we were able to see the split images in two screens, one with the artists against the green screen and the other with the artists and all the virtual elements. This definitely made direction easier.”

“One of the main challenges when working on virtual productions is that you need to have perfect lighting on your green screens,” he added. “Even though the music video had very complex scenes rich in color and graphics, we didn’t have to worry about areas that were not perfectly illuminated thanks to Ultimatte 12’s chroma key. It allowed us to correct dark spots and shadows in real time, and we were able to see what areas needed our immediate attention for retouching or additional work. This was advantageous because we could adjust things on the spot, eliminating tedious post work.”

“We’re extremely proud of how the video came out. It was months of hard work to bring it to life and really make our vision a reality. It’s amazing to see what we created, all thanks to the Blackmagic Design gear. I hope Jotdog fans enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it,” Zamora Ruiz concluded.