The Power of Virtual Location Scouting

Location scouting in film production is often a time-consuming and costly process, involving extensive travel and logistical planning.

Unlocking the perfect location no longer requires dedicating full days of travel and taking hundreds of pictures with detailed notes. With virtual location scouting, you can explore, refine, or create your ideal location from anywhere in the world and in the comforts of your home studio – or office.

Learn more about the power of virtual location scouting below.

Understanding Virtual Location Scouting

Virtual location scouting is the process of exploring and evaluating potential filming sites, as well as within the 3D environment, using digital tools. Typically, these environments are viewed on a computer screen, allowing you to navigate through the location in real-time, similar to a video game. You can, however, also explore the locations using a VR headset, giving you an even more immersive experience by letting you “walk” through the location as if you were physically there.

Virtual locations are created using a combination of advanced 3D modeling, photogrammetry, and geographic data. Artists and technicians craft these environments by either building them from scratch in software like Unreal Engine or by capturing real-world locations using high-resolution photography and LiDAR scanning. These digital replicas are then fine-tuned to accurately reflect the physical environment, including textures, lighting, and scale. The result is a fully realized virtual location created by a film’s key creatives that can be explored, modified, and used for planning without ever setting foot on-site.

You can also experiment with lighting, camera angles, physical set piece needs, and other elements in real-time, giving you a comprehensive tech-vis of your environments, leading into your shoot day on the LED volume. Whether you’re working on a traditional shoot or a virtual production, this approach allows you to visualize locations, assess logistics, and plan your shots together, remotely.

As you preview these locations, the Virtual Art Department team is right there with you, tweaking and adjusting things in real time based on your feedback. It’s a collaborative process that ensures the virtual locations aren’t just visually spot-on but also practical and ready for whatever the shoot demands.

Virtual location scouting isn’t limited to virtual production. While it’s highly valuable in virtual production, it’s also used in traditional film, TV, and commercial shoots. Production teams can use virtual location scouting to evaluate real-world locations remotely, create digital replicas for pre-visualization, and make informed decisions before ever setting foot on-site. 

The Benefits of Virtual Location Scouting

Virtual location scouting eliminates creative waste, as each iteration moves to create a world that ultimately ends up on the volume during your shoot days. 

Real-world locations and not yet conceived locations can now be explored or created without burning time or budget on travel. 

The Power of the Tech Vis

Think of this as a digital blueprint, or “receipt” that gets printed with the sum of the creative efforts of a director, production designer, DP, art director, and VFX Supervisor. All the hard work, the lensing, the camera movements, the technocrane, lighting, and physical set pieces that need to be purchased, are all documented and agreed upon during the tech vis, weeks before the shopping deadlines for the art department., G&E gear lists are created, and camera packages are rented.

Ultimately, it’s all about efficiency and creative momentum with real-time decision-making in virtual location scouting. Each environment is created utilizing the expertise of each key creative simultaneously. What you build is what you shoot, no surprises on the day. You and your team are able to fully immerse yourself into the virtual environment, enabling the ability to plan your shoot just as you would in a physical location.

In short, it’s smarter, faster, and gives you the control to plan with confidence.

How to Implement Virtual Location Scouting in Your Production Process

Meptik will begin in the early stages of pre-production, right after the concept is locked down but before final decisions on locations are made. Key creatives involved typically include the director, production designer, director of photography, and VFX supervisor, who collaborate closely with the Virtual Art Department (VAD).

As the filmmakers outline the creative vision and location requirements, the VAD team starts building or sourcing those locations digitally, ensuring they align with the project’s aesthetic and practical needs. Once the virtual environments are ready, the director and other key players review them, walking through the space virtually to check angles, lighting, and possible shots.

Feedback loops are quick—the VAD team makes adjustments,  refining the digital locations during and after each session. This process not only solidifies the creative plan but also allows the team to spot and solve potential challenges well before shoot day, so when it’s time to shoot, you’re ready to roll with confidence.

Our Virtual Art Department takes this process a step further and implements the content directly to one of our R&D stages to test what the content would look like on an LED volume. Adding this process allows the film crew as well as the VAD and VFX supervisors to catch and eliminate potential issues on set early on and save valuable time and money on shoot day.

Embracing virtual location scouting isn’t just about keeping up with the times—it’s about taking control of your production from the very start. By integrating this process, you’re setting your project up for success, minimizing surprises, and maximizing creativity. With the right team and tools, you can turn any location—real or imagined—into the perfect backdrop for your story. It’s a smarter way to work, and it’s here to stay.

To get started, contact our team!