ARray - An augmented reality and pre-visualisation tool for the costume industry

2022年，伦敦市政厅音乐与戏剧学院的制作艺术系成功申请了英国皇家艺术委员会的创意能力与研究基金（CResCa），获得了超过90万英镑的资金，用于购买先进的数字设备，即SmartStage Pro XR Stage、Holosys Volumetric Capture Suite和BlackTrax实时跟踪。该设备使该部门能够开发一个可靠的XR（扩展现实）工作室，其中包括一个高质量的体积捕获系统，该系统具有完全集成的硬件和软件，可以在“六自由度”（6DoF）中捕捉人和物体的动作，准备用于增强和虚拟现实（AR和VR）和虚拟生产。因此，该部门在商业和研究部门的技术驱动和协作实践工作中变得越来越活跃。CResCa正在推动的工作包括“A Mid-journey Night’s Dream”，这是一个研究莎士比亚经典中人工智能场景设计潜力的项目，使用现有的主流平台和定制的机器学习系统来设计舞台和服装，这些舞台和服装是在物理和数字过程中构建的，以创建身临其境的XR制作。虽然数字技术的好处是允许广泛和快速的创意，分享想法以及为我们这些在生产艺术的现场工作的人准备和可视化工作的能力是显而易见的，但目前在服装设计中使用数字工具是有限的。例如，在我们的“半程夜之梦”的工作中，由于缺乏能够充分反映服装设计物理需求的数字工具，学校的服装讲师一直在努力适应数字工作流程，例如织物的触感性质，与人体合作的重要性，灯光的影响等等。在线编目的舞台服装或传统的实体服装档案往往是基本的和摄影的，没有捕捉到原作的3D性质或它们移动时的动态质量。此外，虽然市场上有一些类似的工具为服装设计提供数字解决方案，如Weta digital的“虚拟衣柜”（用于为电影制作数字服装的软件工具）和Stylitics的“ClosetSpace”（个人使用的数字衣柜整理工具），但似乎没有工具专门解决服装公司在简化服装选择过程方面的需求，并为合作和实验提供数字平台。因此，商业上需要一种数字工具，它可以成功地将服装设计师的既定工作实践与表演艺术领域其他地方越来越多的数字工作流程结合起来，更不用说其他基于数字景观的娱乐了。该项目旨在支持在英国服装设计行业增强自我维持商业影响的活动，该活动由市政厅音乐与戏剧学院成功应用于AHRC的创意研究能力链1 （CResCa）。伦敦市政厅学院的研究人员将与Angels Costumes（一家英国领先的服装设计公司，拥有世界上最大的戏剧、电视和电影服装收藏）合作，利用可以在AR和VR中使用的6DoF的人物和物体的动作捕捉的尖端技术，开发一个基于订阅的原型数字服装库，最初有100个项目。这个数字图书馆将使服装设计师能够虚拟地查看操纵服装，而不需要服装设计行业目前所依赖的物理原型。这个数字图书馆的发展将解决商业市场上的一个重大缺口——目前还没有类似的资源——并将提高英国服装设计行业的竞争力。

In 2022, the Production Arts Department at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama successfully applied to the AHRC's Creative Capabilities & Research Fund (CResCa), securing over £900,000 to purchase cutting-edge digital equipment, namely SmartStage Pro XR Stage, Holosys Volumetric Capture Suite, and BlackTrax Realtime tracking. This equipment has enabled the Department to develop a credible XR (Extended Reality) studio that includes a high-quality volumetric capture system with fully integrated hardware and software necessary to allow for motion capture of people and objects in 'six degrees of freedom' (6DoF) ready for use in augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) and virtual production. As a result, the Department has become increasingly active in technology-driven and collaborative practice-based work across the commercial and research sectors. Ongoing work facilitated by CResCa includes 'A Mid-journey Night's Dream', a project that investigates the potential for AI scenography in the Shakespearian canon, using existing mainstream platforms and bespoke machine learning systems to design stages and costumes that are built in both physical and digital processes to create an immersive XR production. Whilst the benefits of digital technologies that allow broad and rapid ideation, sharing of ideas and the ability to prepare and visualise work for those of us working at the mise en scène end of production arts is clear, the use of digital tools for costume design is, at present, limited. During our work on 'A Mid-journey Night's Dream', for example, the School's costume lecturers have struggled to adapt to digital workflows due to a paucity of digital tools that can adequately reflect the physical demands of costume design e.g. the tactile nature of fabric, the importance of working with human bodies, the influence of lighting, and so on. Where online cataloguing of stage costumes or traditional physical costume archives exist, they tend to be basic and photographic, not capturing the 3D nature of the originals or their dynamic quality when they move. Moreover, whilst there are some similar tools on the market that provide digital solutions for costume design, such as 'Virtual Wardrobe' by Weta Digital (a software tool used to create digital costumes for films) and 'ClosetSpace' by Stylitics (a digital wardrobe organiser for personal use), there is it seems no tool that specifically addresses the needs of costume houses in streamlining the costume selection process and providing a digital platform for collaboration and experimentation. There is, therefore, a commercial need for a digital tool that can successfully integrate established working practices of costume designers with the digital workflows increasingly found elsewhere in the performing arts sector, not to mention other digital spectacle-based entertainments. This project has been conceived to support activities enhancing self-sustaining commercial impact on the UK's costume design industry arising from work funded by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama's successful application to the AHRC's Creative Research Capabilities Strand 1 (CResCa). Using cutting-edge technologies that enable motion capture of people and objects in 6DoF ready for use in AR and VR, Guildhall School researchers will collaborate with Angels Costumes (a leading UK-based costume design house that boasts the largest collection of theatre, television and film costumes in the world) to develop a prototype subscription-based digital costume library, initially of 100 items. This digital library will enable costume designers to view manipulate costumes virtually , without the need for the physical prototypes on which the costume design industry currently relies. The development of this digital library will address a significant gap in the commercial market - no equivalent resource currently exists - and will enhance the competitiveness of the UK's costume design industry.