Clwstwr is a partner in a new research network commissioned to set the agenda for future innovation in virtual production (VP) technology, content creation and consumption, which launched during the BEYOND 2022 conference.
Producer Greg Mothersdale is Co-Investigator on the emergent XR Network+ Virtual Production in the Digital Economy, which is one of five UK awards (£3.5m + £3m co-investment, 2022-27) funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).
The network convenes five AHRC Creative Industries Cluster Programme project partners, led by the University of York (XR Stories), with Cardiff University (Clwstwr); the University of Edinburgh (Creative Informatics); Ulster University (Future Screens Northern Ireland) and UAL’s Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology.
"The UK creative sector is globally renowned for high quality creative and technical talent and skills in the fields of virtual production and extended reality. XR Network + is a well-timed opportunity to underpin these inspiring methods of production and storytelling by establishing a future research agenda which will converge academia and industry to support progress and growth in this emergent area. It will be founded on research collaboration, co creation and challenge led innovation. Guided by a fantastic UK wide team of partners, it will explore and enhance the immense potential of this exciting and rapidly growing area of the digital creative economy."
— Producer Greg Mothersdale
The UK screen industries sector is investing heavily in studio infrastructure to meet the demand for the significant growth in VP / XR production. Alongside this, researchers in the XR Network+ will operate across 20+ connected universities from across the four nations of the UK. XR Network+ will explore ideas, technologies, and creative practice in VP/XR to unlock its fullest potential across the whole of the digital economy and related spill-over sectors.
Research challenges co-created with project partners encompass: integration of virtual game worlds and physical content; sound design; building VP environments, characters and objects; issues of ethics and IP in the use of digital assets and data; AI and data-driven automation; translation and impact in the digital economy.
Virtual production technologies are evolving the landscape of technology-driven storytelling, from film and television content production to live and immersive experiences, with productions such as HBO’s Game of Thrones at Warners UK Leavesden studios. These technologies are already having an immense impact on the screen industries with significant potential to transform live and performance sectors too - exemplified by ground breaking projects such as The Royal Shakespeare Company’s DREAM to recent applications on Abba Voyage.
In Wales, advances in virtual production within the screen industries have furthered opportunities for growth in related products, services, and experiences. Clwstwr funding supported several projects focused on virtual production. Through their R&D Clwstwr cohort members’ Painting Practice developed Plan V Suite, a set of tools that help the transition from traditional to virtual production and facilitate the use of a games engine in film and TV; Good Gate Media used the real-time rendering CGI technology to develop a demo for Deathtrap Dungeon: The Golden Room, the first interactive film based on the hugely successful, Fighting Fantasy gamebook franchise; On Set facilities work resulted in a virtual production system which reduces gaps between the real and virtual world, GODBOX, based on the OSFX specification, and Small and Clever Productions used virtual production to improve TV production techniques for a BBC Wales TV programme.
In other developments, Wales Millennium Centre has launched an impressive new venue, Bocs, dedicated solely to a programme of Immersive experiences. Virtual production converges technology and real time content capture, immersive technology plays an integral part in this, not only technologically, but also by pushing new possibilities for storytelling. Many companies and individuals are intrigued by and can see clear benefits in this future thinking opportunity for new ways of telling stories.
If you would like to make connections with XR Network+ Virtual production, please do email: enquires@xrstories.co.uk or visit: https://xrstories.co.uk/about/contact/
