Aura FX Studios

Aura FX Studios is an American visual effects and reality capture studio based in New York City, with operations in Atlanta. Branded as Aura FX, the independent studio provides physical-to-digital capture and environment data for feature films, episodic television, video games and commercial advertising. Its work connects practical production sets with the digital environments used in visual effects and real-time production.

The studio captures environments, props and practical locations through terrestrial LiDAR scanning, structured light scanning, high-dynamic-range photogrammetry and aerial drone photography. These complementary methods record spatial geometry and surface detail, providing source material for digital reconstruction. Its services extend from on-set acquisition to point cloud registration, cleanup, mesh extraction and preparation of assets for downstream production teams.

From captured sets to digital environments

Aura FX produces detailed polygonal meshes and simplified, game-ready environment assets for real-time engines, including Unreal Engine. Its datasets support virtual art departments, previsualization, postvisualization and camera matchmove workflows. By placing captured sets and camera tracking in a shared three-dimensional coordinate system, the studio helps visual effects teams align practical photography with digital set extensions and computer-generated elements across multiple shots.

The resulting environment data can support effects involving set destruction, shattered glass and continuity between photographed and digital action. Ground-based scans can also be combined with aerial photogrammetry to capture locations at different scales.

Selected production work

The studio’s credits include The Penguin, The Instigators, Highest 2 Lowest, Joker and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. On Joker, its scanning work covered Arthur Fleck’s apartment, subway carriages and the Murray Franklin talk show set. For John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, it scanned sets including the multi-floor Continental interior at One Hanson Place in Brooklyn.

Aura FX’s environment team also completed a virtual reconstruction of the physical Sesame Street studio sets from terrestrial LiDAR scans for real-time virtual production.