When the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 pre-order trailer for Nintendo Switch 2 came together, the production called for a mix of practical sets, LED virtual production, Unreal Engine and motion control.

We worked alongside Cinedept at our partner studio in Van Nuys to bring those pieces together and create several different environments without moving the production from location to location.

Building a Bus Inside the Studio

One of the main setups was the interior of a bus. The production design team built the practical bus interior directly in front of our 26' x 10' LED wall, including the seats, walls, windows and other physical elements the talent would interact with.

Everything outside the windows came from the LED wall.

This let the production create the feeling of a moving bus while keeping the talent, camera and practical set completely controlled inside the studio. Background plates playing across the LED wall provided the exterior environment while also naturally contributing light, reflections and color back into the practical set.

The result was a shot that combined a physical foreground with a completely digital world outside the windows.

Practical bus interior built in front of the LED wall, with a moving street exterior playing across the volume and the Bolt Jr. robot lined up on the shot — The practical bus interior built in front of the 26' x 10' LED volume. Everything past the windows is playing on the wall.

Extending Practical Sets with LED

The bus wasn't the only environment we created this way.

For several interior scenes, the production team built only the practical elements that mattered most to the camera and talent. A couch, table and other foreground pieces established the physical space, while the LED wall completed the rest of the room.

Instead of constructing an entire location, we could build just enough practically and use the LED wall to extend the environment beyond it.

Some scenes used background plates while others took the workflow further with environments running in Unreal Engine.

Practical couch, coffee table and lamp dressed in front of the LED wall, with the wall completing the rest of the room behind the talent — Only the foreground was built. The LED wall carried the rest of the room, along with the light and colour falling on the set.

Connecting Motion Control to Unreal Engine

For the motion control work, Ben Sledge brought in an MRMC Bolt Jr. camera robot.

The robot wasn't only being used to create repeatable camera moves. We also sent tracking data from the Bolt Jr. into Unreal Engine so the virtual camera could follow the movement of the physical camera in real time.

As the robot moved through a shot, Unreal Engine updated the perspective of the environment on the LED wall to match.

That combination gave the production the precision and repeatability of motion control while maintaining the perspective and parallax needed for an in-camera virtual production shot.

Monitors on set showing the bus shot as captured in camera, with the practical set and LED wall visible behind — The shot as it came out of the camera — practical foreground, LED exterior, no compositing.

Practical Production, Virtual Environments

What we liked about this project was that there wasn't one workflow being forced onto every shot.

Some shots made sense with background plates. Others benefited from Unreal Engine and real-time camera tracking. Practical set pieces were built wherever physical interaction or foreground detail mattered, and the LED wall handled the parts of the environment that didn't need to physically exist.

Motion control became another piece of that same system.

That's where virtual production becomes especially useful. It isn't necessarily about replacing practical production. It's about having more options for deciding what needs to be physically built, what can live on the LED wall and how those two worlds can work together in-camera.

Form Studios + Cinedept Los Angeles

The project was shot at our Form Studios and Cinedept partner studio in Van Nuys, California.

The studio features a 26' x 10' LED volume with an Unreal Engine render system and camera tracking, giving productions access to the same virtual production workflows we use across Form Studios projects around the country.

For this production, that meant bringing together LED, Unreal Engine, motion control and practical production under one roof for the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 trailer for Nintendo Switch 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — pre-order trailer for Nintendo Switch 2.

Project Credits

Director: David M. Gil

Director of Photography: Manuel Caballero

Motion Control Operator: Ben Sledge

Production Designer: Phillip Salick

VP Supervisors: David Stapp and Shawn Herold

Unreal Engine Operator: Macario Alvarez

Agency: Aspect

Production Company: Cinedept