How Live FX Is Changing The Face Of Virtual Production

By Lou Wallace

Introduction

Virtual production has transformed filmmaking by bridging the gap between physical and digital worlds, allowing directors and crews to see final-pixel visuals in real time. At the forefront of this revolution is Assimilate’s Live FX, a turnkey media server and live compositing solution designed to streamline on-set VFX workflows—from quick previsualization to final in-camera pixel-perfect effects. 

What Is Live FX?

Live FX is a self-contained “media server in a box” that plays back 2D, 2.5D, and 3D content at any resolution or frame rate to LED walls of any size. No additional hardware is required: a single machine handles live compositing, camera tracking, projection mapping, image-based lighting, metadata recording, grading, and more. It’s built for both Windows and macOS, and its intuitive interface puts powerful virtual-production tools in reach of every crew member—no programming skills needed. 

Key Features

• LED Wall Workflows & Projection Mapping
  Live FX projects imagery onto LED volumes using camera-tracking data to ensure perfect perspective, even on curved or multi-panel walls. Its projection-mapping engine compensates for distortions, freeing operators to reposition cameras without re-calibrating setups.
  
• Image-Based Lighting (IBL)
  Beyond controlling LED panels, Live FX pixel-maps live content to DMX- or Art‑Net–enabled fixtures. The result: dynamic stage lighting that mirrors on-screen visuals, creating seamless, immersive environments.
  
• Green‑Screen & Compositing
  Equipped with HSV, RGB, Vector, Chroma, and Luma qualifiers, Live FX delivers fast, high-quality keying. Users can composite 2D plates, equirectangular 360° footage, or full 3D environments (Notch Blocks, USD) in real time, with per-frame metadata driving selective effects like depth‑of‑field blur tied to camera focus.
  
• Game‑Engine Integration
  Native Live Link plugins and GPU texture-sharing (via Unreal Textureshare SDK or Spout) enable low‑latency feeds between Live FX and Unreal Engine or Unity. Camera-tracking metadata flows bidirectionally, powering virtual-set extensions and interactive CG elements in perfect sync.
  
• Camera & Object Tracking
  Supports a wide array of tracking devices and protocols—Mo‑Sys, NCAM, FreeD, Intel RealSense, HTC Vive, even smartphone gyros—so physical and virtual cameras move in lockstep, maintaining photorealistic parallax effects throughout complex choreographies.
  
• Metadata Recording & Post Prep
  Live FX logs every bit of metadata (tracking, lens data, scene/take annotations) alongside recorded footage in sidecar files. Upon wrap, it auto‑generates online/offline composites ready for VFX post in SCRATCH®, ensuring a seamless handoff with rich OpenEXR plates.
  

Virtual Production Workflows

Live FX’s versatility shines across multiple on‑set scenarios:

1. Green‑Screen Studios – Instant keying and plate replacement with live grading and preview, plus real‑time use of OFX plugins and Matchbox shaders.
   
2. LED Volume Stages – Drive LED arrays and stage fixtures in parallel, record final composites, and prep high‑res VFX plates without leaving the set.
   
3. Location Previsualization – Run Live FX on laptops to composite live camera feeds with digital backgrounds during scouting, providing directors immediate sense of framing and lighting.
   
4. Mixed Environments – Combine green‑screen shots with LED walls or integrate Unreal Engine scenes into practical sets, leveraging texture‐sharing and live metadata for flawless in-camera merges.
   

Spotlight on Industry Projects

“Tall Poppy” (Short Film)

Stargate Studios used Live FX on literally every shot of the indie short Tall Poppy to align multi‑layer blue‑screen elements with virtual sets. According to Sam Nicholson (founder/CEO), this approach made their on‑set pre‑comps so accurate that “post VFX compositing became much faster and easier.” 

https://www.cinematography.world/assimilate-announces-new-live-fx-and-live-fx-studio-software

The Helicopter Heist (Netflix Documentary Series)

For Netflix’s one‑take crime thriller The Helicopter Heist, VP Supervisor Theis Emma Berthelsen deployed Live FX to drive a staggering 32K LED wall, enabling real‑time adjustment of shots during production. The result: an immersive, photo‑real backdrop that enhanced actor performances and reduced costly reshoots. 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/assimilate_behind-the-scenes-of-the-helicopter-heist-activity-7272951055791898624-sFhU?

“Boom Boom” (Music Video for Vale! ULB)

In this neon‑fueled rooftop concert video, VP Supervisor Leandro Marini used Live FX as the “central brain” driving a 6‑layer animated LED volume, live compositing, grading, and even audio playback—all from a single RTX 3090 workstation. The system ran the Quasar IBL lights in perfect sync with the LED backdrops, composited the band into a Miami skyline set extension, and handled last‑minute plate inserts when one member couldn’t be on‑location—wrapping the shoot half an hour early. 

Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Files” (Broadcast Documentary)

For this history‑recreation series, S4 Studios deployed Live FX on a purpose‑built LED stage to deliver up to 25 complex shots per day. From Jack the Ripper’s fog‑shrouded alleys to the ruins of ancient Egypt, Live FX handled projection mapping, real‑time keying, and rapid metadata logging. Producers praised its speed—virtual sets could be swapped out between takes without downtime, enabling a breakneck schedule that would’ve been impossible on location. 

NAB 2025
Assimilate’s LiveFX demo at The Studio – B&H booth showed off the beta version, v.9.9, which includes improved tile and wall mapping, and multi-node workflows.

Conclusion

Assimilate’s Live FX empowers filmmakers with an all‑in‑one toolset for live compositing, LED‑wall staging, and real‑time VFX. By unifying camera tracking, projection mapping, lighting control, and recording into a single application, it accelerates creative decisions, slashes turnaround time, and elevates in‑camera storytelling. Whether you’re shooting green‑screen commercials, LED‑volume features, or on‑location previz, Live FX delivers the flexibility and control demanded by modern virtual production.

About Assimilate

As the leading provider of cutting-edge post-production software and tools, Assimilate^® develops and offers advanced, real-time tools for on-set and post-production workflows that deliver groundbreaking features, speed, performance, flexibility, and stability for industry professionals. Their Live FX Studio is a state-of-the-art live compositor, shipping with projection mapping, camera tracking, DMX control for image-based lighting and the latest green-screen keying technology for virtual production. Live Assist is the multi-cam VTR tool for video assist, offering support for any number of cameras, any resolution, with easy green-screen comp and local-clip server functionality. Live Looks is the optimum tool for live grading and direct-look creation with an instant connection to Assimilate’s Scratch software for live streaming and keying capabilities. Used by DITs and post artists worldwide, Scratch VR is known for its advanced on-set and post-production tools that offer stability, speed and metadata support for any camera format, including 2D/3D/VR. Play Pro Studio is the go-to solution for a professional player for VFX-reviews, ProRes RAW QC and genuine ProRes transcoding on Windows.

Learn more at www.assimilateinc.com.