VIRTUAL PRODUCTION - 2026/7

Module Overview

This module is designed to provide final-year undergraduates students with an understanding of virtual production techniques, focusing on the integration of Unreal Engine with real-time 3D environments, motion capture, and LED walls. Students will explore the latest technologies and methodologies used in the film, broadcast, and games industries, including AI and machine learning in virtual production.

By the end of the module, students will have the skills to design, manage, and execute virtual production projects, integrating real-time rendering with traditional film and animation techniques. Undergraduate students will work alongside postgraduate students in the course's sister module at Masters level cohort to collaborate on virtual production projects. Virtual Production, along with other digital arts and technical modules in the final year, will connect to specialised and more broad modules in these areas across the programme. It also contributes to the acquisition of technical and specialist software skills in the final year of the degree, including specialist skills in virtual production including, for example, advanced applications of tools such as Unreal Engine in virtual production, LED Walls and In-Camera VFX.

Module provider

Music & Media

Module Leader

WEINBREN Jon (Music & Med)

Number of Credits: 30

ECTS Credits: 15

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

DMA2015 - Animation Practice

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Introduction to Virtual Production


• Unreal Engine in Virtual Production


• Motion Capture and Performance Capture


• Virtual Cameras and Cinematography


• LED Walls and In-Camera VFX


• Set Design and Virtual Environments


• Asset Integration and Pipeline Management


• Collaboration and Workflow in Virtual Production


• Project Planning and Management


• Advanced Techniques in Virtual Production


• Case Studies and Industry Insights


• Project Work

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

• their informed understanding of virtual production techniques, compositional, management and collaborative skills including planning, production, execution and presentation of a virtual production, and how these are used in digital media arts industries


• their knowledge of, and skills with, virtual production technologies


• applied subject knowledge relating to the close analysis of form, meaning and context


• advanced cognitive/analytical skills in critical thinking


• highly developed professional/practical skills in communicating ideas in virtual visual form that will feed forward into their future careers in the games and creative industries and beyond


• sophisticated creative engagement with the opportunities and limitations of virtual production, skills that will feed forward into their major project in their final year and beyond into employment


• acute creative engagement with the themes discussed on the module, which may include sustainability and global cultural awareness matters


• an advanced ability to locate their own creative work fruitfully and articulately in relation to existing digital and virtual production and art traditions and the contemporary field of visual production as part of their journey to hone their contextualising skills through their degree

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

Group Project with Reflective Critical Commentary (2000 words) 

This summative assessment represents a culmination of the module's output with students presenting a comprehensive group project including planning, production, execution and presentation of a virtual production. Each student will also submit a reflective critical commentary on the project (2000 words)

Formative Assessment & Feedback:

• The module includes weekly exercises covering the virtual production skills required for each of the briefs


• Continuous formative assessment is given through timetabled group critiques in workshop and laboratory sessions. Work-in-progress presented will be given direct feedback regarding its quality and standard at these times


• Students are given individualised technical support and immediate feedback on their works in progress at key points in the collaborative project production process. There is the option of a range of other feedback mechanisms agreed between tutor and students in week 1 of the module, such as workshop or scheduled critique contribution and writing exercises.

Module aims

• provide an understanding of the virtual production pipeline
• develop proficiency in using Unreal Engine for virtual production
• explore motion capture technologies and their integration with virtual environments
• provide for the gaining hands-on experience with LED walls and real-time compositing
• enable students to learn about the collaboration between different departments in a virtual production environment
• prepare students to manage and execute a virtual production project

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• develop advanced technical and composition skills in ways that facilitate creative independence as well as collaborative knowhow and an ability to continue learning processes outside the classroom through the use of online tutorials, books, etc., providing an overview of digital, virtual and media arts production techniques and pipelines


• allow students to understand how 3D Modeling and animation, digital media production, visual effects (VFX), compositing, scripting and motion capture skills gained at levels 4 and 5 of the degree are combined and used in the virtual production and its industry applications. The students will build on these skills using professional virtual production software and advanced techniques


• facilitate students' higher level productive reflection on their creative work and connect this to critical approaches encountered on the module


• further hone and develop students' writing skills in academic writing by developing the application of their creative practice to critical thinking, and vice versa, and in further developing workshopping and editing skills through in-class discussion and sharing of experience alongside study of critical and source materials


• continuing development of students' resourcefulness and resilience skills as digital artists by giving them the freedom to experiment with form and style in response to form-based exercises, and by providing them with the supportive and encouraging safe space of the workshop and laboratory spaces within which they can develop further their skills in receiving and giving constructive critical and creative responses to their own work and those of other students and to develop a significantly developed awareness of their creative process in relation to the technology, virtual production and game design


• enhance further students' visual communication and production skills that are so valuable in the games industries and related creative industries (and beyond) through the editing and feedback process engendered though the exercises and the workshopping process in tandem with an emphasis on seeing alongside designing as a critical tool in developing artistic skills

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures and demonstrations


• Seminars and laboratory sessions


• Workshopping and open-ended tasks


• Critiques and individual feedback

Sessions are taught in small groups in bespoke labs. Equipment is supplied by the university; lab computers are equipped with suitable virtual production and editing software. Students may also use their own equipment as desired.

Students will also engage with preparatory reading. Designed to help students reflect on and apply their learning to creative and critical outputs, the workshop and laboratory environments act as safe spaces for developing and exchanging ideas, support and observational and virtual production skills.

Varied learning materials such as lexical texts, visual materials, sculptural objects and other physical material prompts, video and sound objects, games and gamified texts are designed to increase student accessibility and will present them with a range of interpretive materials and approaches with which to work and develop their own thinking and creative responses.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: DMA3019

Other information

The School of Arts, Humanities & Creative Industries is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Employability: This module boosts employability, raises the level at which students can gain positions and roles within the industry on graduation, and addresses well documented industry skills gaps. It is delivered by tutors and specialists with significant industry experience and contacts, and the notion of ‘professional practice’ within a creative studio environment is a core attribute of the whole course and its components. The module develops a range of proficencies appropriate to virtual production in games, action films, animation and other associated areas of the media industries, by providing up-to-the-minute knowledge and understanding of tools and techniques used everyday in these fields at professional level, such as advanced applications of tools such as Unreal Engine in virtual production, LED Walls and In-Camera VFX.

Equally important for employability within these areas (and often overlooked) is the development of ‘personability’: so that employers, collaborators, funders and commissioners want to work with you.

Digital Capabilities: This module draws on the very latest techniques and technologies in virtual production, thus ‘digital capabilities’ very much comes with the territory. Digital technical skill used in virtual production such as the integration of Unreal Engine with real-time 3D environments, motion capture, and LED walls are core to the Virtual Production module. As part of the module workshops, you will also be encouraged to communicate with one another and to work on some exercises using SurreyLearn, Microsoft Teams, and other digital and file and output sharing platforms, skills will be carried forward to other modules across your degree and beyond.

Global and Cultural Capabilities: Visual arts and virtual production are fields that reach out to all parts of the human experience and all parts of our global cultures, facilitating exchange of ideas and experiences and helping to foster creative and cultural empathy in players and viewers of all kinds. As with other technical and arts applications, virtual production play a important recording and preservation role in narrativising and keeping alive and vibrant different identities, cultures and experiences, especially those that might otherwise be silenced or endangered. You will be asked to respond to forms and modes of visual production from more than one perspective and potentially in relation to different cultures and times. You are encouraged to share and visually construct your experiences and knowledge, and those from your own cultures and backgrounds, and to respect and value differences in experience.

Resourcefulness and Resilience: This module provides students with a number of challenges which reflect the current state of the art. Students need to respond to these with inventiveness and flexibility and are often required to research their own solutions to given problems. The greatest resource for students on this module is each other, and we encourage students to pool their knowledge and experiences as they work together to come up with innovative methods to achieve creative or technical goals in virtual production. The studio environment and unfettered access to facilities and software facilitates this.

Sustainability: Students are made aware of sustainable production practices around the production and presentation of virtual production, such as sustainable production practices both on-set and behind the computer Students are shown best practices such as LED-based lighting, best practice in virtual production technology use to minimise crew and talent travel, recycling of sets and other materials, better transport choices, minimising of waste, and awareness of environmental and social effects on local communities and landscapes. These are embedded in various current industry initiatives such as BAFTA Albert, the ‘Screen New Deal’ production sustainability plan, and others. Furthermore, from a content viewpoint, some of the creative work developed by students on the course may address environmental and sustainability issues as part of their subject matter. We also work closely with the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability to explore and promote the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2026/7 academic year.