Grant: Engage Grants Program

Pre-visualization and prototyping are fundamental to the development of new media. Prototyping allows designers to understand the constraints of the system at an early stage in the production pipeline and allows changes to occur rapidly. The tools currently used to develop pre-visualizations are inflexible, rigid, and require expertise that the creative team may not possess. This leads us to the research question of ""How do you develop an intuitive prototyping interface for filmmakers to explore the pre-production stage in the filmmaking process?"". Specifically, how do we create human-computer interfaces that are natural to use, tangible (using real world objects/toys), and metaphors that intuitively represent object behaviours and actions? In collaboration with Gorilla Productions, we will develop a solution to their pre-production pipeline problems bycreating a tangible interface for pre-production and exploring the appropriate interaction and visual metaphors appropriate for filmmakers. Using computer vision, physical objects, and video game development technology, we will create a framework that enables directors to develop a complete pre-visualization without the need to rely on animators, modelers, and cinematographers.