R&D project aims to develop a totally immersive virtual production environment delivering high-quality real-time scenes in Unreal Engine.
UK-based technology platform disguise has received research and development funding from Innovate UK to expand its work in virtual production. Part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation organization, Innovate UK purpose is to accelerate UK economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation. It invests in the best game-changing and commercially viable disruptive ideas through the investigation and prototyping phases.
With the grant, disguise will focus on pure research, outside its usual engineering innovation work, while maintaining a development timeline that is competitive within the technology sector.
The disguiseVP R&D project focuses on scalability and flexibility as key improvements to the current workflow enabling it to deliver the high-quality real-time scenes in Unreal Engine. Addressing mainly virtual production, the project is targeted to a totally immersive virtual production environment where extensive control and fast calibration can lead to more informed decisions on set, improved collaboration, and uncompromising results.
“The funding from InnovateUK enables us to have a team focused on our long-term R&D roadmap which maintains our ability to push beyond the boundaries of the present state of the art,” commented disguise chief of staff Abi Bowman. “disguiseVP is specifically focused on making improvements to the calibration, rendering efficiency and image quality of the disguise virtual production solution. When integrated into our product, these advancements will be game changing.”
Virtual production is increasingly being adopted by film and episodic TV crews due to a demand for incredibly high-quality and VFX-heavy productions. This new wave of production, accelerated by the increasing accessibility and popularity of games engines like Unreal Engine in film, has led to a strong competition between streaming platforms and film studios to deliver content to an audience that is spoiled for choice. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 on physical production has only heightened producers strive to avoid a “content desert.” Offering time and cost efficiencies, virtual production allows for more products to reach the market sooner and at a reduced cost.
The disguiseVP project is designed to deliver an integrated, comprehensive workflow for virtual production that is scalable to any production size and technical needs; flexible for fast changes, creative exploration, and last-minute decision-making; and robust and reliable as it builds on established disguise technology. The project aims to make virtual production even more accessible, allowing teams to bring technically demanding projects to life with confidence.
Once productized, disguiseVP will further extend the company’s virtual production with unrivalled quality and expedited workflows.
The company recently launched disguise r18 software, their most advanced integration of Unreal Engine to date - unlocking extended reality and virtual production for the public.
Visit the disguise website for additional information.
Source: disguise
