LONDON — Project Dreamspace, a three-year European Commission-funded project, seeks to explore new ways of integrating real and virtual environments, and is showcasing the results of its work as part of the IBC Future Zone. Central to the project is high precision camera tracking combined with realtime depth capture, provided by Ncam (www.ncam-tech.com), together with virtual production tools from The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk).
The Dreamspace project – which brings together researchers from Germany and Belgium as well as Ncam and The Foundry – is developing new virtual production tools for use in television, film and other media, including art installations. The project’s paper on its initial work has been selected by IBC as one of the eight most important papers of the year to be included in the prestigious Best of IBC and IET publication.
The EU collaborative project brings together some of the best minds from the education, research and commercial sectors, including Stargate, CreW, Saarland University, iMinds and Filmakademie. The aim of the project is to create a new set of tools for creative professionals, and a production pipeline, combining live performances, video and computer-generated imagery.
The partners have developed virtual production tools that allow the on-set manipulation of 3D digital assets to give a hands-on, dynamic integration of video feeds from tracked cameras. It also allows the use of 360-degree VR cameras and multi-camera rigs for background plates: together with the complete freedom of movement empowered by Ncam’s unique camera tracking technology, Dreamspace users can move freely through any virtual environment they can imagine.
“Ncam’s camera tracking technology is a core part of Dreamspace, as two approaches to live depth capture have been developed using the Ncam camera bar as the only hardware,” says Nic Hatch of Ncam. “We are delighted to be working with some of the industry’s best talent and showcasing with them, state of the art technology at IBC, that will provide the immersive user experience of the future.”
“We are focused on the final render and composite during post production,” says Jon Starck of The Foundry. “In essence, on how to get compositing working live on set as part of production.”