RE@CT - Immersive Production and Delivery of Interactive 3D Content

International audienceThis paper describes the aims and concepts of the FP7 RE@CT project. Building upon the latest advances in 3D capture and free-viewpoint video RE@CT aims to revolutionise the production of realistic characters and significantly reduce costs by developing an automated process to extract and represent animated characters from actor performance capture in a multiple camera studio. The key innovation is the development of methods for analysis and representation of 3D video to allow reuse for real-time interactive animation. This will enable efficient authoring of interactive characters with video quality appearance and motion

Moveable worlds/digital scenographies

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Intellect Ltd 2010.The mixed reality choreographic installation UKIYO explored in this article reflects an interest in scenographic practices that connect physical space to virtual worlds and explore how performers can move between material and immaterial spaces. The spatial design for UKIYO is inspired by Japanese hanamichi and western fashion runways, emphasizing the research production company's commitment to various creative crossovers between movement languages, innovative wearable design for interactive performance, acoustic and electronic sound processing and digital image objects that have a plastic as well as an immaterial/virtual dimension. The work integrates various forms of making art in order to visualize things that are not in themselves visual, or which connect visual and kinaesthetic/tactile/auditory experiences. The ‘Moveable Worlds’ in this essay are also reflections of the narrative spaces, subtexts and auditory relationships in the mutating matrix of an installation-space inviting the audience to move around and follow its sensorial experiences, drawn near to the bodies of the dancers.Brunel University, the British Council, and the Japan Foundation

Volumetric intelligence: A framework for the creation of interactive volumetric captured characters

Virtual simulation of human faces and facial movements has challenged media artists and computer scientists since the first realistic 3D renderings of a human face by Fred Parke in 1972. Today, a range of software and techniques are available for modelling virtual characters and their facial behavior in immersive environments, such as computer games or storyworlds. However, applying these techniques often requires large teams with multidisciplinary expertise, extensive amount of manual labor, as well as financial conditions that are not typically available for individual media artists. This thesis work demonstrates how an individual artist may create humanlike virtual characters – specifically their facial behavior – in a relatively fast and automated manner. The method is based on volumetric capturing, or photogrammetry, of a set of facial expressions from a real person using a multi-camera setup, and further applying open source and accessible 3D reconstruction and re-topology techniques and software. Furthermore, the study discusses possibilities of utilizing contemporary game engines and applications for building settings that allow real-time interaction between the user and virtual characters. The thesis documents an innovative framework for the creation of a virtual character captured from a real person, that can be presented and driven in real-time, without the need of a specialized team, high budget or intensive manual labor. This workflow is suitable for research groups, independent teams and individuals seeking for the creation of immersive and real-time experiences and experiments using virtual humanlike characters

RE@CT - Immersive Production and Delivery of Interactive 3D Content

International audienceThis paper describes the aims and concepts of the FP7 RE@CT project. Building upon the latest advances in 3D capture and free-viewpoint video RE@CT aims to revolutionise the production of realistic characters and significantly reduce costs by developing an automated process to extract and represent animated characters from actor performance capture in a multiple camera studio. The key innovation is the development of methods for analysis and representation of 3D video to allow reuse for real-time interactive animation. This will enable efficient authoring of interactive characters with video quality appearance and motion

Design methodology for 360-degree immersive video applications

360-degree immersive video applications for Head Mounted Display (HMD) devices offer great potential in providing engaging forms of experiential media solutions. Design challenges emerge though by this new kind of immersive media due to the 2D form of resources used for their construction, the lack of depth, the limited interaction, and the need to address the sense of presence. In addition, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) is related to cybersickness effects imposing further implications in moderate motion design tasks. This research project provides a systematic methodological approach in addressing those challenges and implications in 360-degree immersive video applications design. By studying and analysing methods and techniques efficiently used in the area of VR and Games design, a rigorous methodological design process is proposed. This process is introduced by the specification of the iVID (Immersive Video Interaction Design) framework. The efficiency of the iVID framework and the design methods and techniques it proposes is evaluated through two phases of user studies. Two different 360-degree immersive video prototypes have been created to serve the studies purposes. The analysis of the purposes of the studies ed to the definition of a set of design guidelines to be followed along with the iVID framework for designing 360-degree video-based experiences that are engaging and immersive

Virtual reality application for automotive design reviews

During this work the objective is to create a visualization application in Unreal Engine 5 that is able to improve the current issues that are faced every day by artists that perform design reviews in Virtual Reality. The scope of this project is limited to the context of the Spanish car company called SEAT where the practical project has been developed. The target user for the program that will be developed is the professional artists that create the different parts of the car. They would ideally use it whenever there is a review to be made. The opportunity to access the car design facilities and work with the technology they implement has come from a 6 months internship at the company. The project has been developed in 3 stages: preproduction, where the major part of the research takes place and the program’s interface will be designed; production, the stage where the program is implemented; and postproduction, where the validation with industry professionals takes place. After completing the project, the feedback has been great but there are still some steps to take to get to the point of having a complete product that could be used professionally for design reviews. The application works as expected with stable performance that does not induce any sickness and an intuitive interaction system that is easy to learn. When car models are complete, they have millions of polygons and complex materials applied to them so it is difficult to find a balance between quality and performance for the design review sessions. Moreover, natural interfaces are still being researched and are not commonly integrated into the widespread VR applications so there is still a lot of work to be done in that regard

The specification and design of an interactive virtual environment for use in teacher training

In this paper, we examine the rationale behind the specification and design of an interactive, virtual environment, optimized for particular task-based learning activities and the dissemination of information. The software we describe represents a typical British primary school, for use in training Information and Communications Technology (ICT)co-ordinators at primary level. By documenting our ongoing evaluation of both this resource and the technologies used in its implementation, we provide a detailed description of the production process of a prototype piece of software. This highlights the importance of pedagogy, new technologies and project management, and should be of particular interest to multimedia designers and academics preparing to develop innovative learning applications

Futureproofing Visual Effects

Digital visual effects (VFX), including computer animation, have become a commonplace feature of contemporary episodic and film production projects. Using various commercial applications and bespoke tools, VFX artists craft digital objects (known as “assets”) to create visual elements such as characters and environments, which are composited together and output as shots. While the shots that make up the finished film or television (TV) episode are maintained and preserved within purpose-built digital asset management systems and repositories by the studios commissioning the projects; the wider VFX network currently has no consistent guidelines nor requirements around the digital curation of VFX digital assets and records. This includes a lack of guidance about how to effectively futureproof digital VFX and preserve it for the long-term. In this paper I provide a case study – a single shot from a 3D animation short film – to illustrate the complexities of digital VFX assets and records and the pipeline environments whence they are generated. I also draw from data collected from interviews with over 20 professional VFX practitioners from award-winning VFX companies, and I undertake socio-technical analysis of VFX using actor-network theory. I explain how high data volumes of digital information, rapid technology progression and dependencies on software pose significant preservation challenges. In addition, I outline that by conducting holistic appraisal, selection and disposal activities across their entire digital collections, and by continuing to develop and adopt open formats; the VFX industry has improved capability to preserve first-hand evidence of their work in years to come