From "Black Technology" to "Mass Production", iQIYI's Evolution of Virtual Production

Author: Zheng Xuan

Virtual shooting, a technological concept that has been popular in the country for several years, is entering a new stage of industrial development.

Since Disney's "The Mandalorian" sparked industry attention in 2020, domestic long video platforms such as iQIYI, Youku, and Tencent Video have continued to invest in virtual production technology. Films like "The Wandering Earth 2" and "The King of the Sky", as well as popular series such as "Big Dream Returns", "Fox Spirit Matchmaker", and "The Secret of the Qingming Riverside" have all incorporated some scenes produced in virtual filming studios.

At the recently concluded iQIYI World Conference, Zhu Liang, Vice President of iQIYI and head of the Intelligent Production Department, stated that virtual production has entered the "mass production phase" in the past year: the number of projects has increased by 50%, the 2400㎡ virtual filming flagship studio in Hengdian has achieved regular operation, and both sci-fi and reality-themed dramas have begun to adopt this technology. Not only iQIYI, but Tencent Video also announced this year that it has started investing in virtual production to promote the implementation of virtual filming for dramas.

Why has this technology, which was questioned as a "pseudo-demand" last year, suddenly run smoothly? Is it a breakthrough in technology, or is it the platform investing resources to strongly promote it? What is the ultimate direction of virtual production? At the iQIYI World Conference, I exchanged ideas with the iQIYI team and some friends from the film and television industry, and found part of the answer to this question.

01 Technology does not chase gimmicks, but seeks to adapt to the crew

Let’s first popularize what virtual production is. Its basic principle is to combine LED virtual studios with Unreal Engine to generate dynamic digital scenes directly during filming, thereby replacing traditional green screens and post-production compositing, achieving real-time visualization and more realistic visual effects.

In simple terms, it means replacing the traditional offline set with a digital scene and allowing actors to shoot in a special studio with LED screens. One moment the actors are in a snowy winter landscape, and the next moment they can switch to a scorching desert.

This technology can significantly simplify the scene setup and post-production of films and TV shows, especially suitable for fantasy and science fiction genres—whether it is the mythological world of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in "The Great Dream Return", or the interstellar travel in "The Mandalorian" or the post-nuclear explosion Mandalore, traditional setups or purely post-production integration face huge challenges.

Although virtual production is booming domestically, practical teams often encounter bottlenecks: the technology is cool, but the crew can't utilize it. For example, engineers think their "real-time rendering is impressive," but directors only care about whether "actors can get into character in front of the LED screen"; and there are so many system parameters that the script supervisor has to spend half a day just learning how to upload materials.

iQIYI's solution is also very pragmatic - allowing those who understand film and television to lead the technology, creating a complete system that truly meets the needs of filmmakers. For example, the following points of innovation in hardware and software may not be the most dazzling or the most expensive technological capabilities, but they can effectively address the pain points of creative teams using virtual production.

1. Self-developed IQ Stage system does not pursue the maximum LED screen as such "hardware maximization", but optimizes the "real-time preview" and "light and shadow matching" that directors care about most, allowing for a perfect integration of virtual and real scenes, thereby solving the panoramic overhead shooting problem that Hollywood is trying to avoid, breaking through creative limitations.

2. The studio is equipped with the country's first electric rotating platform for scenic placement, which solved the issues of shooting and scene changes discovered during the filming of "Cloud Feather" in a straightforward manner during the filming of "Great Dream Returning Home."

3. QClip Cloud Collaboration reduces the time to upload sample clips from "days" to "minutes", allowing producers to no longer have to carry hard drives around. The main creators of the crew can instantly see the shooting samples remotely, and with the characteristics of virtual production that allow for "what you see is what you get", there will be less waste footage and a higher ratio of usable virtual shots.

It seems that every innovation in hardware and software is not about developing a "large AI model" or creating the next generation of a "game engine" as a groundbreaking breakthrough, but rather about genuinely addressing the real pain points of the creative team, transforming this virtual production system from a concept into something usable, even enjoyable. This lays the foundation for this year's explosive mass production of iQIYI's virtual production.

02 Mass Production Password: Ecological Coordination

In 2023, iQIYI will launch the drama "Cloud Feather" using virtual production technology for the first time in China; A year later, "The Return of Big Dreams" produced by the same team used virtual production in seven major scenes, ranking first in the industry in terms of usage and number of scenes, with a film entry rate of 16%. By 2025, it will further promote the batch implementation of virtual production and enter the mass production period. At the World Congress, iQIYI released the virtual shooting pictures of many new dramas such as "Tang Dynasty Legends: Chang'an", "Yunxiang Biography: The General Enters the Wine", "Fox Demon Little Red Lady King's Power Chapter", "A Pillow of Chunhua", "and Jin Chang'an" and many other new dramas.

Currently, most platforms can only produce one or two virtual production demos, while iQIYI is able to achieve this not only because the virtual production solutions are closer to the actual needs of filmmakers but also due to the platform-level technological collaboration.

At this year's World Conference, iQIYI released the AI creative tool Script Workshop. During the media briefing, Liu Wenfeng, President of iQIYI's Infrastructure and Intelligent Distribution Business Group, introduced that the use of virtual production projects has increased by 50% this year, and the Script Workshop has played a role.

Zhu Liang, Vice President of iQIYI and head of the Intelligent Production Department, stated that uploading the script to the Script Workshop allows for multi-dimensional analysis, breaking down how many scenes and how many acts the drama will have.

iQIYI's Script Workshop can analyze scripts with potential for virtual shooting, and at the script stage, it can use AI to assist in determining which scenes are suitable for virtual shooting and what proportion of virtual shooting is more appropriate. This greatly enhances the efficiency of virtual shooting assessment; in the past, an experienced scene analyst might take a week to read through a script, but now, with the help of the Script Workshop, the assessment speed can be increased several times, while the accuracy of scene selection and the ability to design scenes for the creative team to reference using the Image Workshop have also improved.

In addition, virtual production is not just about pre-production studio shooting and post-production editing. To achieve the best results, a set of intelligent production technology systems is needed. For example, the QClip dedicated hardware and software can automatically record and upload the shooting footage from the virtual shooting site, allowing the creators to see multiple camera angles in real-time on the director's monitor; at the same time, these materials will be uploaded to iQIYI's "Production Management System" within minutes and will be synchronized and merged with the electronic cue and metadata of the original footage in the cloud.

With QClip, group editing can directly retrieve side recording files from the QClip server, allowing for quick assessment of material availability based on real-time multi-camera playback footage. The retrieval and review of scenes on set are also more convenient and smooth. The numerous high-standard action scenes in the drama "Dream Return to Departure" were completed on this basis with the collaboration of martial arts directors and editors.

Finally, the大量数字素材 created by virtual shooting, in addition to being reused for multiple scene shooting and post-editing, can also be used for further IP development, achieving diverse business models. For example, the virtual scenes built for "大梦归离" can be directly used for the series, VR experiences, and even offline theme parks, allowing digital assets stored on computers to continuously create commercial value. At the world conference site, many attendees experienced the "观象台" from the play using Apple Vision Pro in the external exhibition area, with high-precision scenes combined with gesture interaction maximizing the immersive experience.

Virtual production is not a "single-point technology", but an "upgrade of the film industry" — today's iQIYI is no longer just a content company, but more like an "infrastructure provider" for the film and television industry.

03 Future Vision: Technology Liberates Creation

As virtual production enters the mass production phase, its ultimate value becomes increasingly clear.

The cross-modal reuse of digital assets is beginning to take shape: film scenes can be reproduced in theme parks, transformed into VR interactive experiences, or derived into game skins... This "one-time production, multiple applications" model not only reduces development costs but also ensures a high degree of fidelity to the IP elements.

For creators, technological breakthroughs mean the dissolution of physical limitations and the release of imagination. Zhu Liang admitted that there are still some creative teams that are skeptical about new technologies, worrying about the presentation of effects and the adaptability of actors. However, he firmly believes that virtual production is not a replacement for traditional filming, but rather opens up new dimensions for creation.

For grand fantasy and sci-fi IPs like "Game of Thrones", "Star Wars", and "The Wandering Earth", there have been few "small productions" in the past because they require the creation of a large number of scenes that do not exist in the real world. In the past, only CGI could achieve this, but with production costs reaching hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per minute, small teams were deterred, and many excellent sci-fi IPs lost the opportunity for adaptation into film and television.

Today, the technology of AI + virtual production allows low-budget dramas to achieve a cinematic quality, which provides more opportunities for the vast array of high-quality IP accumulated from China's rapid development of online literature over the past one to two decades to be adapted into film and television series.

It is worth noting that the application of technology is breaking through thematic boundaries. Today, virtual filming is still more used to replace scenes that are difficult to achieve with real shooting, so the usage rate in science fiction and fantasy series is higher. However, the potential of this technology goes far beyond that and can become a powerful tool for directors who pursue quality, allowing them to realize creativity in any film or television work.

According to reports, iQIYI's virtual production has started to be used for realistic themes, such as recreating an old place that has disappeared for decades in a reality-themed piece called "Memory Kill." In the past, shooting scenes that could achieve realistic effects could only be realized with high costs for construction, but with the help of virtual production technology, high-quality filming can now be completed at a low cost.

04 Conclusion: Bringing Technology Back to Its Tool Essence

When virtual production first emerged, some questioned: "Is this just for wealthy film crews?" However, iQIYI's practice has proven that technology ultimately returns to its essence as a tool — allowing creators to worry less about "how to shoot" and focus more on "what to shoot."

The third episode of the seventh season of "Black Mirror" has recently become popular. It envisions future film production without cameras and studios, instead equipping actors with brain-machine devices and placing them in a computer-simulated world for rehearsals. This seems like the ultimate form of virtual production.

Perhaps one day, virtual production can replace today's film and television production system. In the future, we won't need a physical studio or on-location shooting; we will only need a few thousand square meters of LED and an all-powerful AI, along with digital software, to complete the shooting of all films and TV dramas.

But interestingly, when posed with this question, Zhu Liang, who is responsible for the virtual production business at iQIYI, is less concerned about what percentage of virtual production was used by the crew or when a fully virtual movie or TV series might appear. Instead, he focuses on how technology can better support imagination and expression, enabling creativity to be realized more efficiently and at a lower cost, allowing directors to create better-looking works—this is also a prerequisite for a high proportion of virtual shooting.

While peers are still struggling with whether to adopt virtual production, iQIYI is already thinking: how to use this technology to make the next ""The Crazy Speed"" come to life a bit faster?