‘Europe’s most ambitious XR studio’ launched
MARS Studios has been created by live event technology company Bild Studios, with a launch project involving broadcaster James Fox examining Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks painting.
MARS Studios, described as Europe’s most ambitious purpose-built mixed augmented reality studio, opens its doors this month. MARS is the creation of live event technology company Bild Studios, delivered in partnership with LED supplier Creative Technology UK and camera supplier Focus24.
MARS combines the use of video game engines, camera-tracking technology, xR workflows powered by disguise, and LED screens. Virtual 3D environments are mapped onto an LED stage, enabling performers and products to be blended into a photo-real or imaginary virtual environment in real time. Natural lighting provided by the LED and the director’s ability to update any scene on the fly give performers the means to orient themselves easily, in contrast to a traditional green screen, where visual elements are added in post-production.
Bild Studios co-founder, David Bajt commented: “Over the last two decades, the Bild team has collectively worked on live experiences and high-end productions for some of the world’s leading artists and brands, including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Cirque du Soleil, Dubai Expo 2020, Ralph Lauren, Ferrari, Volvo, Samsung, BMW, Ed Sheeran, Nokia, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and many more. Since then we have been working hard behind the scenes to develop the world’s leading xR production technologies and know-how, working with globally renowned musicians, entertainers and presenters to break beyond the physical dimensions of the traditional film location, event venue or broadcast studio, through realising the full potential of xR”.
MARS is ideally suited to the Covid-19 era as visual content can be produced without the need to travel to exotic locations and our work can be carried out while maintaining the social distancing practices that have become so important in recent months. In addition, it provides environmental benefits by reducing the need for power which large-scale on-site productions consume.
To provide a taster of the immersive art events that will be shot on MARS, British art historian and broadcaster James Fox worked with the creative team at The Experience Machine and technical teams at Bild Studios on a production entitled “Masterpiece: Nighthawks”. This places Fox within Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, a 1942 oil painting that portrays four people in a downtown diner late at night as viewed through the diner’s window.
Commenting on “Masterpiece”, Christopher Pearson, founder and director of The Experience Machine (TEM) said: “Access to high-end xR platforms such as MARS alongside advances in game engine software has opened the opportunity to craft narrative journeys from an entirely new perspective; the inside of an artwork. Considering the painted canvas as an environment that a viewer can walk into has never been more possible. Working closely with Dr James Fox we have been able to reimagine how a painting could exist as a three-dimensional world. This process has allowed the technology to reveal insights into the painting that have never been considered before.”
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Posted: 30th September 2020