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

2022年，市政厅音乐戏剧学院制作艺术系成功申请了AHRC的创意能力与研究基金(CResCa)，获得了超过90万GB的资金，用于购买尖端数字设备，即SmartStage Pro XR Stage、Holosys Volumeter Capture Suite和BlackTrax实时跟踪。该设备使新闻部能够开发一个可靠的XR(扩展现实)演播室，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，以允许在“六自由度”(6DoF)中对人和物体进行运动捕获，准备用于增强和虚拟现实(AR和VR)和虚拟制作。因此，新闻部在商业和研究部门以技术为导向和以协作实践为基础的工作中变得越来越积极。由CResca推动的正在进行的工作包括调查莎士比亚经典中人工智能场景绘制潜力的项目《中途夜之梦》，该项目利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，这些舞台和服装都建立在物理和数字过程中，以创造身临其境的XR制作。虽然数字技术的好处是显而易见的，这些技术允许广泛和快速的想法，分享想法，以及为我们这些在制作艺术中工作的人准备和可视化工作的能力，但目前，数字工具在服装设计中的使用是有限的。例如，在我们的《中途之夜之梦》的工作中，学校的服装讲师一直在努力适应数字化的工作流程，因为缺乏能够充分反映服装设计的物理需求的数字工具，例如面料的触觉性质、与人体合作的重要性、照明的影响等。在存在舞台服装或传统实体服装档案的在线目录中，它们往往是基本的和摄影的，不能捕捉原始作品的3D本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(用于为电影创建数字服装的软件工具)和Stylitics(个人使用的数字服装组织者)的ClosetSpace，但似乎没有工具专门满足服装公司在简化服装选择过程和提供合作和实验的数字平台方面的需求。因此，商业上需要一种数字工具，能够成功地将服装设计师既定的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奇观的娱乐活动了。该项目旨在支持由市政厅音乐与戏剧学院资助的成功申请AHRC创意研究能力链1(CResCa)的工作，从而增强对英国服装设计行业的自我维持的商业影响力。市政厅学院的研究人员利用尖端技术在6DoF中捕捉人和物体的运动，准备用于AR和VR，市政厅学院的研究人员将与天使服装(一家总部位于英国的领先服装设计公司，号称拥有世界上最大的戏剧、电视和电影服装收藏)合作，开发一个基于订阅的原型数字服装库，最初有100件。这个数字图书馆将使服装设计师能够虚拟地查看和操纵服装，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的一个重大缺口--目前没有同等的资源--并将增强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.