The development of an Immersive and Virtual production studio #1, aka Sandbox 2.0
As those who follow me on social media may have noticed, I have been rather busy lately redesigning, building, and developing a new teaching and learning resource within the University of Lincoln, designed to act as a mini additional digital production studio and demonstration/teaching space. This new space is a dedicated studio space for:
Chroma Keying / Greenscreen productions
3D Capture and product showcasing
Virtual Production
Projection Mapping
XR and Mo-Cap space
and more to act as an additional specialised studio space, but multi-purpose. The Digital Aquarium space itself has migrated with a lot of its physical resources now being stored/housed within this immersive and virtual production studio space.
The development of this resource is a multi-stage process, and the hope is to build upon its foundations over the next few years and use cases with me acting as support and trainer for the equipment and space itself. Future digital aquarium workshops will take place within this space and a nearby computer lab, with a longer-term view to create a central in-house production and conceptualisation space that can be beneficial to students, staff and businesses as a self-supporting resource that will adapt to emerging technological innovations and practices in line with various industries.
There is a three-stage plan for this space, and at the time of writing this, we are at stage 1, moving towards 1.5, aiming to be ready for action before October teaching, however awaiting some more materials and equipment to complete before making it fully operational.
Rough 3 stage plan omitting some finer details
This has been in the works for many years now, and its parameters have adapted and changed based on budgets, resources and advancements in requirements. Whilst ultimately the goal is to get a volumetric Virtual Production stage setup, the cost to set one up can be high and not a necessary step in learning and industry progression within these fields. These changes will change how the sandbox bookings will be managed in the future, but will provide the first digital, VP and Chroma dedicated studio space within the campus, alongside acting as a creative space for explorative practice, demonstration and teaching during term time.