What is Volumetric Video and Why It Matters for Brands

The Limitation of Flat Video

Video has been the dominant content format for decades for a simple reason: it works. It captures movement, emotion, and performance in a way that still images can't. But it has one fixed constraint — a flat video is always observed from a single angle. The camera chooses the perspective, and the viewer accepts it.

That's fine for most content. But for XR experiences — augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual environments — a flat video is a poor fit. You can't place a flat video inside a 3D space and have it feel real. The moment a viewer moves around it, the illusion breaks.

Volumetric video solves this at the source. Instead of capturing a scene from one angle, it captures from dozens simultaneously — producing a true 3D representation that holds up from any direction.

How Volumetric Capture Works

The basic idea is a camera rig: multiple cameras positioned around a subject, all recording at the same time. The footage from every angle is processed together to reconstruct the subject as a 3D object — a photorealistic figure that moves, breathes, and performs exactly as it did in the studio.

The result is not a 3D model built by an animator. It's the actual person, captured as they moved. Every detail of clothing, hair, skin tone, and expression is preserved exactly as it was. That fidelity is something traditional 3D animation cannot replicate — not because animation isn't capable, but because animation is always an interpretation, while volumetric capture is a recording.

Once captured, the volumetric asset can be placed into any XR environment. An AR experience, a WebAR activation, a VR scene, a mixed reality installation — the same capture works across all of them.

Where It Makes Sense for Brands

The clearest use case is event activations. A brand ambassador, a performer, a spokesperson — captured volumetrically once, deployed anywhere. We used this approach with WarisanXR at Expo Osaka 2025: a Malaysian Joget dancer captured in our studio, then experienced by thousands of visitors at the Malaysia Pavilion in Japan via WebAR. No repeat performance required. No travel budget for the talent.

Product launches are another natural fit. A volumetric presenter standing next to a product in an AR experience is a fundamentally different interaction from watching a talking-head video. The viewer can walk around the presenter. The experience has presence in a way that a screen can't replicate.

Cultural and heritage institutions are increasingly using volumetric capture to preserve performances, ceremonies, and environments that would otherwise exist only in memory or in flat recordings. This is where we see the technology growing fastest in Malaysia — not just as a marketing tool, but as a documentation tool with long-term value.

The Next Step: 4D Gaussian Splatting

Traditional volumetric capture requires a purpose-built studio rig. That's a real constraint for productions that need to capture outdoors, in complex environments, or at scale. A newer approach — 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS) — extends the spatial capture method we used for Kubang Badak to moving subjects. Instead of a static 3D reconstruction, 4DGS captures motion through space over time.

We're building our 4DGS pipeline at TrueXR precisely because it removes the studio ceiling. The capture setup is lighter, the environments it can handle are broader, and the output integrates directly into XR workflows. It's early, but it's the direction volumetric content is heading — and the brands that understand this now will have a meaningful head start.