Gaussian Splats
Real locations captured as drivable 3D: full 3D, or 3.5D with motion added where the shot needs it.
Real locations captured as drivable 3D: full 3D, or 3.5D with motion added where the shot needs it.
3D Reality
Like our 2D plate capture, Gaussian splats are constructed from real-world photography. With splats, all the benefits of photographing real locations (real lighting, textures, reflections and translucency) are enhanced by real-time dynamic perspective and parallax when the 3D environment is rendered through Unreal Engine. We capture a real location photographically and reconstruct it as a photoreal 3D environment. No artist rebuilding the world by hand, no uncanny approximation: the actual place, with its real depth and light.
Parallax is Key
With 3D Gaussian splats, photoreal backgrounds on the LED volume behave as they would if you were standing at the actual location. With tracked on-set cameras, real-time parallax sells the depth into the screen and holds the illusion. It's the best of tracked 3D environments rendered in real time through Unreal Engine, with the photorealism of location photography: the best of both VP approaches.
See For Yourself.
A real location, captured as drivable 3D and running on the wall. Watch the parallax hold as the tracked camera moves through it.
Photoreal 3D environments reconstructed from real-location photography, with real parallax on the LED wall.
Gaussian splats,3D & 3.5D,Photoreal 3D,Digital backlot
3D & 3.5D splat capture.
Multi-dimensional, like you're really there
The camera, unencumbered
On the wall
Book a Gaussian splat capture
Send us the location. We capture it and deliver a drivable, relightable 3D environment for the volume.
Book a Gaussian splat capture
Gaussian splats are 3D environments reconstructed from photography of a real location. Splatting captures all of the benefits of a real place photographically (real lighting, textures, reflections and translucency) and reconstructs it as a detailed, photoreal 3D environment that can be rendered dynamically in real time through Unreal Engine. Gaussian splats provide the same photorealism as fixed 2D plates, but also bring the benefits of real-time tracked cameras, rendering the environment with the proper tracked-camera perspective and parallax.
Photography, not modeling: how a Gaussian splat is made
A modeled 3D environment is somebody's interpretation of a place. A splat is the place. Because the reconstruction comes from actual location photography, it inherits the real geometry, the real materials and textures, as well as the light that was falling on and reflecting off those geometries, including the anomalous details an artist would simplify away. With splats, there is no uncanny approximation to fight and no lengthy modeling schedule to carry.
Splats are built from the actual place: its real depth, textures and light.
Real parallax on the LED wall
The difference between a splat and a 2D photographic plate is 3D depth. Because a splatted environment creates true 3D data, when it plays back in Unreal Engine it produces genuine parallax and dynamic reflections. The on-set camera can push, track and reframe, and the environment on the LED responds the way the location would. Foreground separates from background, creating true 3D depth and perspective into the screens.
What a Gaussian splat capture delivers
- Photoreal reconstruction: captured from the real location, not modeled
- 12K resolution playback: real environments, in stunning detail
- True 3D real-time rendering: splats run live, rendering the proper perspective, depth and parallax the camera would experience in the real location
- Multi-camera tracking: more than one tracked camera on the same environment
- 3.5D option: select 4D Gaussian splat elements added where the shot needs motion
Gaussian splats vs. 2D plates
Gaussian splats and 2D plates solve different problems. A video plate is unbeatable when the camera is largely static or the environment is far away, or, as with driving plates, when the environment is whisking past and generating its own parallax from the taking camera's movement.
A Gaussian splat becomes the better fit when the environment features geometry closer to the staged scene and the camera on the volume moves dynamically, where a real environment would show a corresponding shift in 3D perspective and parallax. Our virtual production team can break down your plate needs and recommend the best approach for each scenario.
Gaussian splat capture, start to finish
Synapse's Gaussian splat capture team can quickly and effectively photograph your environment, process the splat data and deliver the resulting 3D asset to the stage, ready for the LED volume, in full 3D, or in 3.5D when a shot needs specific elements to move in time. Splatted environments are relightable and reusable across setups, times of day and shows.
Driving plates, 2D environments or Gaussian splats?
The deliverable follows the scene.