What does AI actually do on an AI-assisted virtual production?

It generates and refines the virtual sets: drafting environments from a brief, producing variants, relighting a set for a different time of day, and cleaning up CastleVision captures. That work happens during prep and pre-vis. The shoot day is unchanged: your talent performs inside the set live, in camera, and you see the finished shot on the monitor while you film.

Does AI replace actors or crew?

No. Your principal performers act for real, under real direction. AI steps in only for background performers in AI-generated scenes and for stand-ins on shots that would otherwise put a person in danger. We never recreate a specific performer with AI without explicit permission, and AI does not write screenplays, dialogue or creative decisions.

Where can we shoot AI-generated virtual sets, and what does it cost?

At both studios, Burbank in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the same pipeline. Every production is quoted individually; there is no rack rate. Shoot days, crew size, set complexity, custom environment work and which studio you use drive the number. Studio days in Albuquerque put a production on New Mexico’s 30% refundable film tax credit.

A man in a coat at the rail of an ocean liner deck at night, a frame from the AI-assisted virtual set demo

AI integrationBurbank & Albuquerque

AI-Generated Virtual Sets, Human-Led and Optional

AI builds the world, humans tell the story: AI drafts the virtual set in prep, and your cast and crew shoot it live, in camera, in Burbank or Albuquerque.

Optional on every production
Your cast and crew stay human
Finished shot on the monitor
250+ ready sets, AI optional

Check Availability Book a Studio Tour

Or call 818-934-3775 Burbank 818-861-7317 Albuquerque

Productions that have trusted us

The networks, the streamers and the studios have all shot here.

Hart to Heart, Aquaman 2, Inventing Anna, Bosch, The Mummy, Greenland, Deadliest Catch and national spots for T-Mobile, Amazon and Domino's. Full credit list

Our position on AI

We build with AI. We do not replace people with it.

Humans still tell the stories. What AI can do is create the sets and locations: AI-generated virtual sets, drafted and refined faster than a traditional art-department pipeline, then shot live, in camera, at our studios in Burbank and Albuquerque. If virtual production is new to you: the location is a photoreal virtual set that appears around your talent live, in camera, on our stage. You see the finished shot on the monitor while you film.

The film industry has a complicated relationship with AI right now, and we take it seriously. Our position is simple: AI is a tool, not a replacement. It does not replace your actors, your director, your DP, your crew, or any of the storytellers on your call sheet. It runs in service of the people making the film.

AI integration is optional. Productions that want every frame hand-built by humans get exactly that: the 250+ ready-to-load virtual sets, our patented CastleVision capture and our standard Unreal Engine virtual production pipeline, with no generative AI in the workflow. Productions that want the speed and budget savings can dial it in selectively, deliberately, where it actually helps.

AI generation happens off the floor, during prep and pre-vis. The shoot day stays what shoot days have always been: human actors performing inside environments that were ready sooner and cost less to make.

Real furniture on the Burbank green screen with the virtual talk set shown live on the monitor — Real furniture, virtual room, one picture

Watch the demo

The AI-assisted virtual production demo

A period night scene on an ocean liner deck from the AI-assisted set demo, next to a CastleVision capture of a real place and a walk through the Burbank studio. Hover to preview; click to play with sound. Tap to play with sound.

AI-Assisted Virtual Production

AI-assisted set, ocean liner deck

CastleVision: Real-Time Capture

Old Town Albuquerque, composited live

Studio Tour

The Burbank studio floor

See the Full Video Gallery →

Where AI helps

Faster virtual sets. Bigger creative range. Lower budgets.

Everything below happens before the camera rolls, and our artists stay in charge of every result that reaches your set.

Set generation from a brief: Describe the location, "1950s diner, neon-lit, rain on the window", and we generate candidates in hours, not weeks.
Iteration at the speed of a note: Director wants the alley warmer? The skyline taller? The streetlights brighter? Variants generate in minutes.
CastleVision capture enhancement: AI upscales, cleans and refines real-world CastleVision captures so they hold up at film resolution and color depth.
Relighting and look development: Same set, different time of day. Same shot, different weather. AI relights existing environments to match the script.
Locations that don’t exist: A specific period, a fictional planet, a city from a novel. AI generates environments no scout would ever find.
Lower budget, same fidelity: An AI-drafted environment takes less artist time than one built from scratch, and that shows up in the custom-environment line of the quote.

AI is one route to a set. The others are the virtual set library, a custom build by our artists, or a capture of the real place: three ways to get any location. A real place can also be scanned in 3D with CastleVision 3D, and many fictional worlds already exist among the sci-fi and space virtual sets.

No AI required

Prefer no AI? Start from a ready virtual set

Prefer to skip generative AI? The diner and the alley from the examples above are already built in the library, along with period streets, a western town and worlds no scout could find, ready to load at both studios.

Browse All 250+ Sets →

Where AI doesn’t show up

Your actors, your crew, your creative.

We don’t replace your cast with AI. Your principal performers act for real: in real time, under real direction. Where AI does step in is the background of AI-generated scenes, and shots that would otherwise put a person in danger. It can fill a crowd or stand in for a dangerous stunt, so your leads stay human and your set stays safe. We never recreate a specific performer with AI without explicit permission.

We do not replace crew. The people behind the camera are yours, or ours through the optional crew package, and the operator who runs the virtual sets is included in every rental.

We do not generate screenplays, dialogue or creative decisions. Those stay with the writers, directors and producers on the call sheet. We do not run AI on captured footage of real talent without permission, and we do not retain training data from any production we work on.

AI works upstream of the shoot, not during it.

Check availability

Tell us the world you need. We’ll show you the fastest way to build it.

Send a brief or the script pages and your dates. A producer replies with availability in Burbank and Albuquerque, whether AI would help your sets, and a quote.

AI is optional: library sets, custom builds by our artists and CastleVision captures all work without it
Two studios: Burbank, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the state’s 30% refundable credit
Quoted against your actual shoot, never a rack rate. See what drives the cost

Rather talk it through? 818-934-3775 · Burbank
818-861-7317 · Albuquerque

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Target shoot dates

What sets do you need, and do you want AI in the workflow?

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The math

Productions that use AI selectively finish faster and for less.

Virtual production already takes company moves, set strike, location fees and travel out of the budget, and no set construction is required. AI integration removes a chunk of the remaining custom-environment line items. Same look. Same fidelity. Less time and less money.

For productions shooting in New Mexico, the AI workflow stacks with the state’s 30% refundable film tax credit at our Albuquerque studio. See what virtual production costs, and what it doesn’t.

AI virtual sets: what producers ask first

Do we have to use AI to shoot at your studios?: No. AI integration is optional and human-led. Productions that want every frame hand-built get the 250+ ready-to-load virtual sets, our patented CastleVision capture and our standard Unreal Engine pipeline with no generative AI in the workflow.
What does AI actually do on an AI-assisted virtual production?: It generates and refines the virtual sets: drafting environments from a brief, producing variants, relighting a set for a different time of day, and cleaning up CastleVision captures. That work happens during prep and pre-vis. The shoot day is unchanged: your talent performs inside the set live, in camera, and you see the finished shot on the monitor while you film.
Does AI replace actors or crew?: No. Your principal performers act for real, under real direction. AI steps in only for background performers in AI-generated scenes and for stand-ins on shots that would otherwise put a person in danger. We never recreate a specific performer with AI without explicit permission, and AI does not write screenplays, dialogue or creative decisions.
What happens to our footage and data?: We do not run AI on captured footage of real talent without permission, and we do not retain training data from any production we work on.
Where can we shoot AI-generated virtual sets, and what does it cost?: At both studios, Burbank in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the same pipeline. Every production is quoted individually; there is no rack rate. Shoot days, crew size, set complexity, custom environment work and which studio you use drive the number. Studio days in Albuquerque put a production on New Mexico’s 30% refundable film tax credit.

Where AI fits in a virtual production

Want AI in your workflow? Want it nowhere near your workflow? Both are fine. These are the pieces either way.

The CastleVision method the patented method for bringing a real place onto the stage
CastleVision 3D Gaussian Splatting a real place scanned into a 3D set
Any location, real or imagined library sets, custom builds and captures of real places
Virtual set library 250+ sets ready to load today
Space and sci-fi virtual sets worlds no scout could find, already built
Alley sets city alleys from the library, no generation needed
Virtual standing sets reload the exact set for pickups months later
Virtual production in Los Angeles how a live, in-camera virtual set works
Unreal Engine virtual production the engine every set renders in
Virtual production technology the tracking, keyers and render systems on the floor
Virtual production beyond LED walls why we composite on green instead of a volume
Film studio rental features and series finished in camera
The Burbank studio 20-ft ceiling, 15 ft to grid, three tracked cameras
The Albuquerque studio the feature-film studio on the 30% refundable credit
Rates and what drives the cost how a production is quoted