Powering the
Creative Industries

Fast-tracking development in XR technologies

Support and investment from XR Stories is helping a Sheffield-based interactive content studio push the boundaries of creativity in virtual and augmented reality, and drive innovation across this fast-growing sector.

XR technologies – augmented, virtual and mixed realities – allow the world to be experienced in new ways. The UK is at the forefront of these fast-developing technologies, which offer huge opportunities for the screen industries and wider cultural landscape.

Sheffield-based Megaverse is an interactive content studio pushing the creative potential of XR technologies by merging digital innovation with theatre, film, gaming and the visual arts. With the support of XR Stories, the start-up has been able to develop new technology and grow the business, doubling in size each year since launch in 2018.

Through the XR Stories-funded project Block, Megaverse developed an app that enables theatre practitioners to visualise and edit 3D set designs using augmented reality. In Flood, the company worked with XR Stories to create an innovative adaptation of British playwright Rory Mullarkey’s production, which combined theatre with virtual reality, where live actors used motion capture technology to drive the narrative and the audience was able to participate in real time.

“The project enabled us to create a high-quality demonstrator for Flood that proved the technical pipeline and the creative side,” explains Ben Carlin, Director of Megaverse. This led on to the award-winning experience Surge, which premiered at Sage Gateshead and featured in the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Australia.

“Immersive technology is still in its infancy and changing rapidly all the time,” says Ben. “Having the funding and support of projects like these not only legitimises our work to investors, but also helps drive innovation across the industry.”

Giving robots a sense of touch

With the support of Creative Informatics, a robotics start-up is exploring how cutting-edge sensing technology can be relayed to human operators, enabling people to ‘feel’ what a robot touches.

One of the biggest barriers in robotics is a robot’s inability to feel the world around it. Edinburgh-based start-up Touchlab is changing this with the development of electronic ‘skin’ that gives robots a human-like sense of touch. When combined with teleoperated robot avatars, the technology has the potential to transport a person’s senses, actions and presence to another location – such as a medical setting or disaster zone – in real time.

Support and funding from Creative Informatics (CI) has played a key role in driving innovation at Touchlab. An initial small grant enabled the team to focus full time on the technology, and work with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experts to develop the user experience of controlling a robot avatar.

“Alongside the sensor technology, the project allowed us to develop integration methods and explore how the human can feel what the robot feels in real time – how data from the sensors can be processed and interpreted creatively,” explains Touchlab co-founder Laura Garcia-Caberol. “It’s bringing human-centered design into real-time data and robotics.”

The company has grown from two to seven employees, secured more than £3.5 million in investment, and is also a finalist in the prestigious XPrize Avatar Competition in California. “CI has been important to Touchlab, connecting us with creatives and innovators in Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond,” says Laura. “It shows how R&D from the creative industries is important to other sectors; that creative people and human-centered design can be at the forefront of innovation.”

Bringing art history to life with virtual reality

StoryFutures co-created The National Gallery’s first virtual reality experience. Virtual Veronese enabled visitors to step back in time and experience a Renaissance masterpiece in its original 16^th century setting – and demonstrated how the UK can position itself at the forefront of immersive storytelling innovation.

Many of The National Gallery’s paintings once hung in spaces that are very different to the gallery setting they are in today. Using the latest in virtual reality (VR) technology, Virtual Veronese enabled visitors to experience a Renaissance masterpiece as it would have originally been seen, gaining new insight into the context and meaning behind artwork.

Paolo Veronese’s ‘The Consecration of Saint Nicholas’ was commissioned in 1561 as an altarpiece in the church of San Benedetto al Po, Italy. At a time when the inquisition was at the height of its powers, the painting was a powerful act of loyalty to Rome.

In a first-of-its-kind R&D prototype, Virtual Veronese was developed by StoryFutures, creative technology company Focal Point VR and The National Gallery. It used virtual reality headsets and a digital reconstruction of the church, allowing visitors to ‘see’ the painting in its original 16^th century setting. A choice of audio guide – story-led, told by the monks of San Benedetto al Po; or curator-led, told by curator Dr Rebecca Gill – provided a creative exploration of its political and religious significance.

The success of the prototype led the gallery to commission further development of Virtual Veronese by Focal Point VR, and then roll out a public exhibition in Spring 2022.

“We wanted visitors to connect this amazing painting on the gallery wall with the dramatic developments in European history that it symbolises from 400 years and 2000 miles away,” explains Focal Point VR’s Ian Baverstock. “VR is a great way to make that connection in a short, intense experience.”

Exploring the benefits of micro factories for UK fashion

The ability to manufacture garments in house and on a small scale could revolutionise the UK fashion industry. Future Fashion Factory worked with an industrial cutting-machine specialist to investigate how machinery and technology from automotive and aerospace industries could be adapted for SMEs.

With high-tech automated processes and miniaturised production equipment, micro factories use less space, energy, material and labour. The micro-factory model has the potential to transform the UK fashion industry, particularly for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who could benefit from the increased agility offered by small-scale, in-house manufacturing.

Future Fashion Factory (FFF) collaborated with Assyst Bullmer, the UK’s foremost provider of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) cutting machines, to explore how the latest technological innovations from the automotive and aerospace sectors could be applied in UK fashion manufacturing.

The machinery and technology used in large-scale industries is out of reach for most fashion SMEs – both financially and in terms of space. Working alongside micro-fashion designer/fabricator business Roberts|Wood, the FFF project investigated the scaling down of robotics and machinery – particularly in-house cutting equipment – and the transfer of digital technologies for use by UK fashion designers.

“There is move in UK fashion SMEs towards on-demand manufacturing, and the project revealed the potential for innovation when small-scale, accessible cutting solutions are embedded within design studios,” explains Susan Postlethwaite, Professor of Fashion Technologies at Manchester Fashion Institute.

The study suggests that the development of affordable and accessible tooling could act as a first step to enabling micro factory networks in the UK. The model also offers potential benefits to other micro-industries that would profit from increased agility.

Developing a plant-based alternative to leather

The innovation of new materials is helping the fashion industry address sustainability challenges. Future Fashion Factory worked with bio-designers to explore commercial production of a leather alternative made from mushrooms.

There is a fast-growing market for vegan clothing but many commercial alternatives to leather use oil-based synthetic materials, making them difficult to recycle or biodegrade and contributing to global oil demand. Eco-design company Osmose Studio has developed a sustainable alternative made from the ‘roots’ of mushrooms, mycelium.

“Growing mycelium uses less water than many other materials on the market, and because we grow it on an organic substrate – hemp sourced in nearby Yorkshire – it’s completely renewable,” explains Osmose Studio co-founder Aurélie Fontan.

An R&D project funded by Future Fashion Factory explored the potential for scaling production of the plant-based innovation, called Mykkö, to make it commercially accessible to global markets. The team investigated the development a full production line for Mykkö, including a prototype machine that can ensure the consistency demanded by the fashion industry across high volumes of material.

Future Fashion Factory also helped the company identify new routes to market, and Osmose Studio is growing relationships with materials science and footwear companies. “The project enabled the kind of R&D that start-ups don’t normally have, and it’s prepared us to work with bigger industry partners,” says Aurélie. “High-tech bio-fabrication like this can help re-shore the textiles and fashion industry in the UK, as well as reduce the environmental impact of these industries.”

Unlocking the social potential of Scotland’s videogame sector

InGAME is harnessing the skills and creativity of Scotland’s world-leading games industry to help tackle the UK’s obesity epidemic.

Like many of society’s most-pressing challenges, the UK’s obesity crisis is a complex, systemic problem. A collaboration between InGAME and Nesta – the UK’s innovation agency for social good – is applying game design and technologies to explore how virtual simulations can help find new solutions.

The Nesta Virtual Healthy Neighbourhood Challenge asked game-makers in Scotland to develop a ‘PlayBox’ where radical solutions can be imagined, played with and tested in a virtual environment.

Five teams won £5000 to pitch their vision for the Nesta PlayBox, of which two – Dundee-based Konglomerate Games and Biome Collective – were awarded £45,000 each to develop a proof of concept. Both companies applied elements of popular simulation and resource-management games, such as Minecraft and SimCity, and challenged players to design or redesign neighbourhoods to improve health outcomes for a range of virtual citizens.

Nesta has invested follow-on funding for Konglomerate Games to create a prototype Playbox. Aimed at policymakers and relevant stakeholders, the tool will enable a better understanding of food environments and demonstrate the benefits of improved access to healthy and affordable food.

“The power of a game engine is that it can simulate systemic problems at multiple layers. It de-risks policy decisions because ideas can be tested and played out, avoiding unintended negative consequences,” explains Dr Chris Lowthorpe, InGAME Senior Fellow for Collaborative R&D.

“Scotland has a rich heritage in game design, such as the pioneering Lemmings back in the 1980s, but this project shows how we can harness our skills, talent and creativity to tackle real-world problems, too.”

Upskilling the UK screen industries in virtual production

Virtual production is transforming the screen industries but there is currently a shortage of creatives trained in these technologies within the UK. StoryFutures and Future Screens NI are addressing the skills gap with VP Futures, a ground-breaking training and development programme designed to meet the need for highly creative and technical artists, driving innovation across the sector.

Virtual production (VP) is a game-changing development for the UK screen industries. Using the latest technologies – including augmented and virtual reality, game engine software and motion capture – it fuses the digital with the physical world in real-time, offering greater flexibility and creativity for film, television and media productions.

“To maintain the UK games and screen sector’s position at the forefront of innovation and creative excellence, it is vital to have a cutting-edge VP infrastructure as well as people with the ability to use it,” explains Peter Richardson, Head of Virtual Production, StoryFutures. “However, our 2021 VP Skills Report revealed a significant skills shortage, with demand for talent and training in VP far outstripping supply.”

To address the skills gap, StoryFutures and Future Screens NI created VP Futures. The UK-wide programme delivered a package of targeted virtual production training, development and production support for SMEs, with support from industry experts at Industrial Light & Magic and Epic Games.

Eight SMEs from across the UK took part in an intensive two-month programme, which provided them access and hands-on training with the latest virtual technologies to develop skills and new intellectual property. Of those, two were shortlisted to go into production on a VP shoot in Northern Ireland and London.

“VP will soon become mainstream across film, television, broadcast and advertising. If we don’t train and develop people in this space, there’s a real risk the UK screen industries will be left behind,” says Professor Paul Moore, Director, Future Screens NI. “VP Futures is sowing the seeds for industry; a new generation of artists, designers, filmmakers highly-skilled in the mechanisms that go into VP.”