We featured Taos Whittaker (Class of 2014) in the summer 2016 issue of Journeys. Since then, he has worked on multiple projects and continues to explore the world of virtual production. The pandemic may have shifted his plans, but that never stopped him from working on projects with some big names in the music industry! Check out some of the projects he worked on last year:

I am currently working in Hollywood at Ingenuity Studios where I have been promoted as the Real-time Lead. Since my last update, our company has delved deeper into the realm of real-time, which is a brand new development happening in the film industry. Essentially, it uses video game software for visual effects, and my job is to ensure our company can offer this to our clients. Since video game technology has now become so realistic, studios are trying to use it as an alternative to traditional methods, which can take thousands of hours and computer power to create the CG content, meaning that you are unable to see the final product until after "rendering" the film.

Summer of 2019
We started doing our first virtual production venture on the set of Marvel's runaways. I got to go to Paramount Studios on huge/blue stages and put the actors in conceptual virtual environments. It was a really incredible experience to work in such a legendary studio where many Hollywood productions are shot.

We also went on the set of "Fresh of the Boat" to do some virtual production work, where I go to talk with some of the cast and see the film sets at the Fox Studio Lot, another legendary movie studio.

November 2019
I worked on a project that incorporated iPhone face tracking and photoreal characters in Unreal Engine. The goal for this project was to track the facial expression of three high school students live on set and transform it to show an aged 3D representation of themselves on a projector screen. 

I was also invited to co-direct Taylor Swift's "The Man" lyric video, where I had the opportunity to manage different artists and communicate directly with Swift's team for the first time. We had about a week to do the entire video, which was quite the challenge especially since it was a small team, but thankfully, we were able to complete it on time.

February 2020
Prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, I had the opportunity to go on set to do some virtual production work for Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's music video "Rain on Me". We used virtual production to put them in virtual sets so that they could visually see themselves in the CG environment concepts. We showed the director Robert Rodriguez and Ariana Grande what we were working on and discussed the process of moving forward with Lady Gaga's art team. I actually got to have a nice chat with Ariana Grande and showed her the footage of the combined dance in our environments once we had finished shooting. Unreal Engine was used both on set and in post-production for all the city backgrounds (some of which were inspired by some Singapore architecture!).

The COVID lockdown hit during this part of the production, which meant a large chunk of the project had to be completed from home. This was definitely a project highlight for me, especially since it was new grounds for the company to incorporate real-time for the majority of the video and for it being such a high-profile project.
 
June 2020
I was able to go on set for Taylor Swift's "Cardigan" to do some virtual production previz for the forest and the ocean scenes. The layout of the environment I created for the visualization on-set was used in the final version. This project was particularly interesting because it was my first time going on-set with COVID-19 restrictions. Everyone had to be tested beforehand and were required to wear masks as well as sanitize every 15 minutes. Though we were able to work with the new measures, it was definitely difficult to work in such tight spaces whilst maintaining social distance. Definitely, something new to get used to.
 
Summer of 2020
I was tasked to set up an LED wall virtual production system for my company. This new technology is meant to replace the need for greenscreens entirely by placing LED walls behind the actors to project an environment behind them while also lighting them properly. We track the camera so that the environment then shifts perspective to follow the camera, creating the "window to another world" illusion—imagine a parallax graffiti drawing on the streets, but following you. 

The latest project I worked on was the Shawn Mendes music video for "Wonder". I was tasked to design the layout for the mountain environments to help visualize what the backgrounds would look like, which was then passed on and rendered in RenderMan, a tool used by Pixar. I worked on the shots of the train going into the tunnel and passing lights—these were made in "Unreal" and were real-time renders.

Demand for Real-Time has increased exponentially in the last few years, but especially so due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, I am specializing more in that area and becoming more involved in how the industry evolves to these new techniques. The software we use is called Unreal Engine, the same software used for the production of the popular video game "Fortnight". For our projects, this software has a wide scope of utility, ranging from pre-production and production (planning and filming) for visualization purposes, to using it in post-production (visual effects) for the final product.
 
It's been really strange to be able to work in the industry I've always wanted to, and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I also have to give a lot of thanks to Singapore American School for being so supportive with my passion and giving me the ability and outlet to explore it more prior to my move to college. It was really one of the key periods for me when developing my skills!