Wenn Virtuelles mit Realem verschmilzt
By Constanze Ebner – Salzburger Nachrichten, Filmzeitung
Salzburg, Austria – Nov 2023
The new master’s program Realtime Art & Visual Effects at FH Salzburg focuses on creating digital visual content through the interplay of creativity and technology.
Visual storytelling has always played a central role in human culture. Visual content shapes both our communication and our forms of entertainment and information consumption. In times of rapidly developing new technologies, the possibilities for distributing visual content have grown exponentially, along with the tools to create it. What was once reserved for the traditional core industries of film and advertising is now expanding into many other media and business sectors.
The creation of digital visual content – especially in 3D – has led to increased usage of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in images, films, and objects, driving significant changes in visual industries and computer graphics. The growing influence of AI technologies and real-time platforms is also transforming workflows in creative industries.
The Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (FH Salzburg) is responding to this shift with a new master’s program launching in the 2024/25 academic year: Realtime Art & Visual Effects. The program creates strong synergy between design and technology, aiming to empower students to enhance their creativity with technical know-how— allowing them to bring high-quality visions to life with maximum flexibility.
The core subject areas include Realtime Workflows, Project- and application-based production workflows and AI and production workflows.
The field of Realtime Workflows deals with the paradigm shift toward real-time capability and its applications across various industries. Advanced knowledge in working with game engines such as Unreal and industry leader Epic Games is just as integral as the use of interactive applications, which play a central role in this area
The second area — productive workflows — addresses increasing technical demands and the complexity of digital media production. It emphasizes system-oriented, data-driven approaches to content creation. Students learn how to efficiently work in complex environments, combining various systems to achieve impactful results like those seen in Marvel and Star Wars blockbusters, as well as Big Data visualizations and complex animation.
AI and Production Workflows form the third core area, teaching students how to apply artificial intelligence in image and film production, minimizing manual steps and supporting traditional workflows. Students gain in-depth knowledge of Virtual Production and Photogrammetry, helping them understand and use modern production techniques.
“The new degree program builds a bridge between the game and film industries.”
– Josef Schinwald, Program Director
Structurally speaking, Realtime Art & Visual Effects is the spin-off of the computer animation training from the MultiMediaArt master’s program into its own independent master’s program. In doing so, Realtime Art & Visual Effects positions itself as a relevant extension to the existing degree programs MultiMediaArt and MultiMediaTechnology, with the new program focusing—both in its project structure and curriculum design—on close collaboration with the two already established degree programs.
“The exciting thing about the new degree program is that it builds a bridge between the gaming and film industries — both through visual language and through the technology used,” says Josef Schinwald, the designated program director of Realtime Art & Visual Effects. The technology referred to is the Unreal Engine from Epic Games, originally a game technology for real-time graphics, which is now also widely used in film — for example, in virtual production.
But real-time graphics are increasingly being applied in completely new industries as well — “whether it’s with companies like KISKA in visualization, companies like Palfinger in crane simulation, or in the automotive industry, for example at Ford, for the displays on dashboards,” Schinwald notes, naming just a few of the countless areas where Unreal technology is used.
In the degree program, students first learn the fundamentals of the technology before specializing in a particular area — for example, visual effects for the film industry or automotive design for the automotive industry. The job prospects for graduates are correspondingly extremely diverse and, according to Schinwald, range from the VR/AR/XR industry, the gaming industry, film, and the VFX sector, all the way to newly emerging future industries.
To apply what they have learned in practice, students of the MultiMediaArt program already completed a short film project last year in collaboration with a Berlin-based virtual production studio, Halo Stage. This year, FH Salzburg has brought on board the newly founded Salzburg XR Studio Take 2 as a partner.
"It’s important to us to make VP technologies more accessible and to share the knowledge”
– Viktoria Brandstetter, Marketing & Design at Take 2 Studios
Viktoria, together with her brother Felix Brandstetter (Head of Virtual Production) and Luiza Madalozzo (Head of Sustainability, Behind the Scenes, Video Editor), launched the virtual production studio in Salzburg. “We want to create a community that creates new things together and grows together,” says Brandstetter.
Currently, Take 2 is the only permanently installed LED volume studio in all of Austria. By combining real-time rendering technologies (Take 2 also works with Unreal Engine) with a high-resolution curved LED screen, real and virtual elements are merged — meaning real actors interact with virtual environments.
“You can project digitally generated scenes onto an LED wall, move and animate them. Reflections and lighting look as if you were really there,” explains Josef Schinwald about the possibilities of Virtual Production.
In addition to independence from location, time of day, and weather, this also eliminates a large part of post-production and significantly reduces the CO₂ footprint compared to traditional film production — just a few of the many advantages of virtual filming.
Double Certified
From the very start of the program, the master’s degree in Realtime Art & Visual Effects at FH Salzburg is recognized as an academic partner of Unreal and as a certified school by SideFX Houdini.
Unreal Academic Partner: Certified partnership with Epic Games – the only partner in all of Austria.
Houdini Certified School: Recognized by SideFX – a leading platform for procedural workflows – as the only certified school in Austria.
Original article in German:
