As we finalize the custom structure for a brand new immersive dvLED VR Room ('CAVE') for an automotive supplier, we heard from one of our university customers about a creative use of their VR System for a virtual production project showing how users are still finding ways to utilize this amazing tech!
The University of Michigan recently posted
The M.I.D.E.N. Transports You into Nova’s Reality about a cool project in their CAVE that we had updated with new projectors providing much higher resolution and refresh rate that allowed them to take on projects that would have not worked with the old system.
"The Michigan Immersive Digital Experience Nexus (MIDEN) doesn’t seem very large at first, as it is a 10 x 10 x 10 foot space and a blank canvas ready for its next project like “Nova’s Reality.” For this special performance, though, the MIDEN transformed into an expansive galactic environment, placing electronic jazz musician Nova Zaii in the middle of a long subway car traveling through space. "
The project involved using the "space as a "virtual production" stage for a professional music video, optimized for a monoscopic video-camera POV. Mounting mocap markers to the camera and panning it (versus rotating it) creates motion parallax for depth illusion. To avoid flicker in the video recording, we left the projectors at their 240 Hz refresh rate (much faster than the video camera) and set up the 4 virtual Windows displays at each wall to "mirror" rather than extend, so that we rendered only 1 perspective for all 4 projector inputs. The virtual environment was a subway car rendered in Unreal Engine with audio-reactive graphic effects."
The performance is inside of a virtual reality ‘CAVE’, with a custom-designed 3D audio-reactive environment using Unreal Engine and Ableton Live. This immersive experience is meant to provide the viewer with a synesthetic listening experience as Nova Zaii improvises live on drums and his patented ‘Nova Portals’, his invention that generates sound in reaction to hand motion. No CGI was used in post-production — only color-grading.
About IGI:
Immersion Graphics, Inc. (IGI) provides audio visual design, engineering, consulting, product sales, control system programming, custom fabrication, installation, preventative maintenance, and extended support services out of its headquarters location in Detroit and west coast operation in Los Angeles. Additional offices are located in Indianapolis, and Grand Rapids.
Founded in 1998, IGI has installed numerous large-scale, ultra-high resolution systems throughout the U.S. in the automotive, higher education, medical, financial, and energy transmission markets, and for the United States military and other government agencies. Applications include industrial design, engineering, data visualization, mission-critical command & control room environments, presentation systems, video conferencing, digital signage, and a variety of commercial AV solutions. To get an in depth look at what we do, see our website at www.werigi.com, we are IGI.
IGI is minority owned, veteran owned, and a small business and SBA 8(a) program graduate.
