Barriers to XR Adoption in Virtual Production — Part 2
And how to get past them — A guide for users
This series is an extension of an article by Nils Porrmann, Thomas Kother and myself posted at dandelion + burdock
You can read the full article at the frame:work website
Skills Acquisition
How to build your skills and prepare to use XR
Much like projection mapping inspired learning 3D software, XR has a host of knowledge challenges that face the community. One does not need to be an expert in all aspects of XR Production, but it is beneficial to be able to speak to the various technologies and issues that come with each one. XR requires a number of unique skills and at first it will seem overwhelming. There are new tools to learn on the servers that drive XR as well as the complimentary real-time software applications we’ve discussed. There are third party systems for camera tracking that require specialized skills. And then there are the detailed intricacies of understanding the cameras themselves.
Skills acquisition in any one of these areas can be managed with self study and time commitment. The trick is building expertise when you are learning about a process that requires access to specialized gear. This gear is expensive to set up and requires its own expertise to operate. While you might have access to the media server or software of your choice, you may not have access to the screen, studio or camera equipment necessary to see all these elements work together. And if you can get access to a full testing environment, you may not be able to simulate or anticipate full show conditions to see the stress points to the XR workflow and prepare for them.
You are in good company. There are only a handful of teams working that are able to fund a fully operational studio for testing and workflow development. Don’t let that intimidate you. You have to start somewhere if you intend to start at all. Yes, there is more to learn than when you first started out with your current expertise. Yes, there is risk involved. It’s not the cutting edge because it’s easy, or even consistently functional. But the path forward means you have to start somewhere.
Focus on a natural progression of your current expertise. If you are a media server programmer, start learning the new features that drive XR for that system. Build test projects. Get in touch with a rental house and see if they have built a studio that you can work in when it’s idle. If you are 3D software savvy, but don’t build content, learn enough Unity/Notch/Unreal to have intelligent conversations with content creators. You will need to advise them on how the visuals will be used in a production environment and therefore, how to optimize the content team’s process. You will also need to understand what an experienced content team is telling you about how to use their content file as designed. This is a two-way conversation.
If you are a system engineer, you will want to learn about the different camera tracking protocols. There are a variety of systems in use, each with different approaches to tracking. Depending on the market you are working in, one might be favored over another. Also, the gear you currently use to build a media server system, some switchers and networking gear have already been tested by other teams. Talk to people and share your approach when building a system. Others may catch red flags that you don’t expect.
Another important engineering expertise in XR is video over IP protocols. If you are confused about how NDI, Unreal’s nDisplay and disguise’s RenderStream are ‘same, same but different,’ start reading up on the protocols and the hardware that supports them. Knowing the application, advantages and disadvantages of each are valuable skills.
Maybe you are reading all this and thinking, “I didn’t exactly learn any 3D software yet.” Here is the link to download Blender. It’s free and has a huge user community. Both sites have tutorials for beginners. The future of our production work is dependent on 3D skills. More and more of the tools used to build a live event are spatially aware. It is never too late to start learning; you can only put a moment on the calendar from where you built your experience. Mine just happens to be June 2007 when I first learned Cinema 4D. In ten years, you will be advising someone the same.
For those of you who have started down this path and feel stuck, don’t let this stop you. If you have been asking for help and insight from others and feel left behind, it’s a strange time for everyone out there. We are typically a very open and sharing community. We love to discuss how we solved some impossible problem or found a clever workaround. Because work is so scarce these days, the unfortunate side effect is less openness. It’s not personal; it’s business. If you let it stop you from exploring this technology and getting involved, that’s on you. In time, that openness will return.
As you dive into learning, you will quickly find this is a team effort. Sure there are some rocket scientists out there who can build all the parts and get pretty pictures, but this in practice is a bad idea. This isn’t said to denigrate any one person’s amazing skills; it is said as a call to build teams to protect those geniuses to do excellent work as our roles have become far more demanding than work prior to XR.
Coming in Part 3 — We’ll take a look at an ideal XR Production team.
