Chasing Dragons in Iceland - How Mobile Virtual Production Conquered the Impossible

Case Studies2025.11.035 min read

When Compositing Academy's founder Alex Henneman decided to film a CGI dragon in a remote Icelandic cave, the project required a complete rethinking of virtual production workflows. Using an iPhone, Sony FX3, and cutting-edge spatial capture technology from XGRIDS, the team achieved cinematic-quality VFX in an uncontrolled environment while facing multiple logistical challenges including conflicting film shoots and delayed schedules due to equipment failures.

Nobody's Tried Making VFX This Way Before (New Tech):

Video thumbnail of a CGI dragon beside a filmmaker holding a gimbal-mounted camera, illustrating mobile virtual production

Link:https://youtu.be/3d9ycMKf65U?si=PGH1Zh2ew5inKf4e

Project Leadership: Industry Veteran Tests New Boundaries

This experiment was led by Alexander Hanneman, Senior Digital Compositor and founder of Compositing Academy, with extensive experience at Sony Pictures, Weta Digital, Industrial Light and Magic, and Framestore. His credits include Avengers: Endgame, The Mandalorian, Avatar 2, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

When a compositor with Marvel and Disney blockbuster experience tests mobile virtual production workflows, the results carry significant weight for industry adoption.

The Virtual Production Challenge

Virtual production has grown to $3.4 billion in 2024, projected to reach $6.79-10.07 billion by 2030-2032. However, most implementations remain studio-bound with expensive LED walls. Smaller studios and independent filmmakers face equipment barriers for virtual production adoption.

This project proved Hollywood-quality VFX works with portable tools.

Before We Dive in, Here's the Final Shot:

Final CGI dragon resting in a rocky Icelandic cave mouth, a cinematic VFX shot composited with live-action footage

Link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/14OPbPLiz5DUfGev3_WZ5iUmP0OrlTs7B/view?usp=drive_link

The Tech Stack

Lightcraft Jetset: Real-Time Compositing

The mobile app synchronized iPhone tracking with the Sony FX3, creating real-time composites that showed the dragon moving through the cave during filming.

Eye Candy XYZ: High-Quality Assets

The dragon asset came from Eye Candy XYZ, featuring hero-level quality with full rigging and animation-ready components suitable for professional productions.

XGRIDS LixelKity K1 Scanner: Precision Capture:

Link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/10JpgjQ3q7v_9mDiaNATlbUF9i-9NFIFD/view?usp=drive_link

Glowing blue figure sweeping a handheld 3D scanner that emits a cone of point-cloud dots, next to the XGRIDS logo

The handheld LiDAR scanner generated centimeter-accurate point clouds and measurable, photorealistic 3D Gaussian Splatts, providing the spatial data necessary for realistic CGI integration with practical environments.

Sony FX3: Cinema Camera

The production camera captured final footage while synchronized with the iPhone's virtual camera through Jetset's tracking system.

Supporting Tools

Photogrammetry software for processing tourist videos into 3D cave models
Nuke for post-production refinement to feature-quality standards

Aspect	Traditional VFX	Virtual Production	Project Implementation
Workflow Sequence	Film → Scan → Animate → Composite	Scan → Animate → Film → Minimal Post	Photogrammetry → Animation → Live Filming
Asset Requirements	Post-production ready models	Camera-ready virtual assets that render instantly in-camera	Real-time optimized dragon model
Location Dependency	Separate location/studio shoots	More front-loaded with asset creation before principal photography	Remote location with mobile setup
Revision Capability	Expensive post-production changes	Real-time adjustments during filming	On-location adjustments via iPhone, full 3D model of environment with XGRIDS

Challenge 1: Workflow Reversal

Traditional VFX follows: film → scan → animate → composite.

Virtual production requires: scan → animate → film.

The team needed animation before arriving at the location.

Solution: Scraped tourist videos from social media and processed them through photogrammetry software. Photogrammetry relies on matching features across images, and the tourist footage provided sufficient spatial information for animator Martin Layes to begin character work.

Challenge 2: Location Conflicts

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey production had reserved the entire park. Combined with a dead car battery from equipment charging, the team faced significant scheduling constraints.

Challenge 3: Mobile Hardware Optimization

Problem:

Hero dragon asset needed real-time iPhone performance.

Solution:

Created lightweight proxy mesh maintaining visual fidelity while enabling smooth mobile playback. Smart optimization eliminated need for additional render farm infrastructure.

Challenge 4: Precision Scanning

Problem:

Photorealistic dragon integration required precise spatial data for accurate lighting, occlusion, and surface interactions.

XGRIDS Solution:

Link:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GW1nR-E3_FzUGW1bLhYCZ-KPza9RWjRp/view?usp=sharing

Lixel CyberColor software displaying a green 3D Gaussian Splatting point cloud of the scanned cave interior

The handheld LiDAR scanner provided:

Complete cave capture: Full walkthrough scanning captured 360-degree interior geometry with no blind spots
Centimeter accuracy: Precise measurements enabled exact dragon positioning and scale matching
Dense point clouds + 3DGS: Millions of spatial points for surface detail analysis, plus optimized Gaussian Splatting for real-time rendering
Measurable digital twin: Every dimension became quantifiable for calculating dragon-environment interactions

Technical Advantage: Unlike photogrammetry's cave limitations (poor lighting, repetitive textures), XGRIDS captured complete spatial data regardless of conditions, delivering production-ready models where conventional methods fail.

Execution in Extreme Conditions

Iceland's midnight sun provided extended blue hour lighting when the team finally accessed the location. The XGRIDS scanner captured complete cave interior geometry with centimeter-level precision, while Jetset provided real-time dragon visualization as the Sony FX3 recorded final footage.

Each camera position was automatically preserved, ensuring perfect element alignment for post-production—a significant workflow advantage over traditional VFX approaches.

Industry Implications

Accessibility Breakthrough

Tighter budgets impose challenges when deciding where to shoot, how to shoot and for how long on location. This project proved virtual production works beyond LED stages and specialized studios, requiring only a small crew and portable equipment.

Workflow Efficiency

Most VFX and color grading happen during pre-production and production phases in virtual production, dramatically reducing post-production time. The project extended this efficiency to remote location work.

Technology Integration

Success came from unified tool integration:

Photogrammetry software converted tourist videos to 3D environments
Eye Candy XYZ provided professional creature assets
XGRIDS scanning delivered precise spatial data via Gaussian Splatting
Jetset unified workflows into real-time operation
Sony FX3 captured cinema-quality footage
Nuke refined final composites

Future Implications

The adoption of real-time technologies like Unreal Engine for virtual production applications is expected to continue into 2024. This project suggests the future involves significantly more portable workflows than currently anticipated.

Cinematic VFX production using backpack-portable tools represents a fundamental shift in content creation accessibility.

XGRIDS LiDAR + 3D Gaussian Splatting - Empowering Individual and Studios

The project demonstrated XGRIDS technology enables:

Location-independent precision scanning - both indoor and outdoor scenes, with centimeter accuracy.
Minimal processing 3D Gaussian Splatting workflows
Mobile-first virtual production pipelines
Seamless integration with emerging production tools
For content creators, this proves cinematic VFX no longer requires studio infrastructure. For XGRIDS, it validates spatial capture technology as an enabler of creative freedom rather than just measurement accuracy.

Conclusion

The project's success under adverse conditions—equipment failures, location conflicts, and weather constraints—validated that advanced VFX production can happen anywhere with appropriate tools and workflows. The dragon was digital, but the production methodology shift is tangible and scalable.

This case study analyzes a groundbreaking virtual production workflow executed by Compositing Academy in Iceland, demonstrating how emerging technologies like Lightcraft Jetset and XGRIDS LiDAR scanning can enable high-quality VFX production in remote, uncontrolled environments. The project successfully integrated 3D Gaussian Splatting, real-time rendering, and mobile virtual production to create a cinematic dragon sequence, overcoming significant logistical and technical challenges.