XR Network+: Virtual Production in the Digital Economy

Lead partner will pay estates and full costs. For this EPSRC Network+ call Ulster will work with 5 university partners across the UK. The core theme is Virtual Production (VP). VP is beginning to change the landscape of technology driven storytelling, media, film and television production workflows, live performance, and immersive experiences, both large and small scale. The UK screen industries sector is investing heavily in traditional studio infrastructure, with demand for production space currently outstripping supply, but more compact, flexible and technology driven virtual production facilities will help to shape the future of these studios, and production practices, in these and other sectors of the digital economy for years to come. This change is based on how a new generation of real-time technologies (motion capture, spatial computing, data, AI, machine learning, real-time rendering) offer, for the first time, the promise of integrating production processes and workflows from initial concept to final product or performance. The virtualisation of production that flows from the fusion of these digital technologies acts as a bridge to, and so is emergent in, other aspects of the creative industries digital economy such as fashion and design (digital design, volumetric capture, haptics), and cultural sectors (museums, libraries, galleries, archives) where the digitalisation, interaction and interpretation of collections and content is even more important post-COVID. Virtual production offers significant productivity gains, efficiencies, and scalable creative opportunities to underpin the next generation of digitally created and connected audience and consumer experiences. This is a timely opportunity for university-led research within the UK and global creative industries. The Arts and Humanities Research Council Creative Industries Cluster Programme (CICP) that has supported Future Screens NI is an unprecedented investment in RandD for the creative sector and is leading to new co-created industry-led research, collaborations, and models of engagement within and across the CICP projects. Now the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, as part of their parallel Digital Economy Research Programme offers an opportunity to further consolidate and leverage this research and activity in the emerging area of virtual production that has become a key area of interest across existing CICPs. XR Network+ will build a network of activity between core CICP RandD Partnerships, each bringing their own regional and sector focused network of projects, and each already experienced in facilitating collaborative, co-created RandD with a focus on impact and industry engagement. XR Network+ will be led by the XR Stories CICP team at the University of York, building a UK-wide ecosystem for new research in virtual production. XR Network+ will be based on existing best practice and learning developed in engaging with and enabling a programme of technology driven RandD innovation about, with and for the creative sector, that will grow research in virtual production as part of the EPSRC Digital Economy portfolio. We are looking to attract key industry partners to work with us to level up UK-wide collaborative RandD in virtual production: to act as project partners, collaborators, challenge-holders, advisors and beneficiaries of this research. XR Network+ will provide access to leading university research in underpinning and convergent technologies to support existing industry activity and provide a networked innovation ecosystem for virtual production in the UK. Virtual production is driving innovation in screen industries workflows, and we are looking to harness this learning for impact in other creative sectors, including XR, fashion and textile technologies and live performance. Our overarching challenge, identified with our partners is, what are the technology gaps in the vision for efficient virtual production workflows at large and small scale, and how will these workflows translate into creative sector domains? Specific challenges already articulated include: real-time graphics engine optimisation; perceptual limitations in real-time visual rendering; production sound in virtual production environments; real-time lighting and movement tracking; reflection modelling; game-to-film production design; workflow optimisation using AI/ML; multi-person volumetric and motion capture in shared spaces; onboarding workflow and design of shared virtual spaces; bandwidth efficiencies and perceptual thresholds for live experiences; future platforms for next generation content makers.