Remote collaborative animation tool Animotive Belfast launch a success!

Future Screens NI support-funding recipient RETìníZE have launched Animotive, a ground-breaking real-time animation tool which will revolutionise remote 3d production. The Animotive Launch Event took place at Ormeau Baths Innovation Hub on Thursday, Sep 21st 2023 at 17:00 and was a huge success. Animotive offers to transform the way creatives work together by enabling remote collaboration in a virtual space with VR. Users can embody characters, light, shoot and export content seamlessly. The result is a streamlined animation production process that offers unprecedented creative freedom and efficiency and can generate cost savings of up to 80% when compared to traditional workflows.

Belfast-based RETìníZE Ltd, one of Europe’s fastest-growing creative technology companies, has announced that Animotive, an immersive real-time animation tool, will launch in July.

Recently awarded the ‘Best Innovation in Animation’ award at the Irish Animation Awards 2023 for their collaboration with Flickerpix Animations, Animotive will transform the way creatives work together by enabling remote collaboration in a virtual space with VR. Users can embody characters, light, shoot and export content seamlessly. The result is a streamlined animation production process that offers unprecedented creative freedom and efficiency and can generate cost savings of up to 80% when compared to traditional workflows.

The flexible platform allows users to import custom-built characters, props, and sets, and when the scene is ready, users can embody the characters and perform, light, shoot, and export in just a few clicks.

Animotive offers 3D animation creators a user-friendly turn-key VR solution, an efficient and affordable option compared to traditional workflows. Users with a PC VR headset and a VR-ready PC can download the software for free. Creative enthusiasts and professionals can download the software and experience the future of animation production by signing up in advance at animotive.com.

“We are thrilled to introduce Animotive to the world with this closed beta launch,” said Phil Morrow, CEO of Retinize. “Anyone who’s tried to create 3D animated content knows that it’s complex, costly and time-consuming. Our goal is to make it fast, fun and affordable for creators from all backgrounds.”

Livestream Link for Sold-Out Zoom Time Collaboration

Zoom Time – Over and Out is a collaborative work co-created and performed by musicians of two inclusive music ensembles: Acoustronic, led by Prof Frank Lyons and based at Ulster University in Derry and Queen’s University Belfast based “Performance without Barriers” (PwB) Research Group, led by Prof Franziska Schroeder alongside Belfast International Arts Festival Featured Artist 2023 Nicholas McCarthy that celebrates inclusivity in classical music.

The work features voice recordings of the musicians, portraying the constantly changing emotions that they experienced during the pandemic, with newly recorded voices that portray life as the musicians experience it now. Layered onto an orchestral score, composed by Prof Frank Lyons, are musical components by the Acoustronic and Performance without Barriers musicians. These materials were created in online Zoom sessions, during the pandemic and in recent collaborative physical workshops during September and October 2023.

Musicians are using specifically designed new, inclusive, digital musical instruments, including instruments that have been created as Accessible Virtual Reality Musical Instruments (AVRMI) by Damian Mills (PwB); With Feel VR Instruments by Dr Lewis Smith (UU), an Accessible Long Cane Instrument (ALCI), created by PwB researchers James Cunningham and Dr Alex Lucas, as well as specifically created virtual environments, rendered in UnrealEngine 5 by PwB researcher Leonid Kuzmenko.

Prof Paul Moore has worked with the musicians to create a visual accompaniment to Zoom Time – Over and Out. The film will be shown with additional footage made during our 2023 workshops.

DATE: Friday, 27 October 2023

TIME: 6:00pm

VENUE: Ulster University, York Street

For more information and Livestream follow the link here.

Ulster Touring Opera Announces Release of AR Opera App

R&D Funding recipient Ulster Touring Opera (UTO) are announcing the launch of their newest AR app. Launched on 26th of September 2023, UTO offers an  experience of opera like never before!

Following on a project developed through a Future Screens NI Proof of Concept funding award, UTO offers an experience drawing from Don Giovanni as the protagonist lives his final spine-tingling moments or enjoy a fresh take on Mozart’s enigmatic character Papagena in a brand-new opera by award-winning composer Brian Irvine. Ulster Touring Opera presents the AR Opera app, using the latest technology to transform your home into the set of the opera – simply by using a smartphone or tablet. UTO’s aim is to ignite a passion for opera in people who may not have ever considered attending a live performance, helping to inspire the audiences and artists of the future.

Using augmented reality technology and volumetric capture techniques, UTO have filmed opera singers in 3D so that their intimate performances can be enjoyed time and time again in any location. As the world moves from 2D to 3D entertainment content, they are on the cutting-edge of what opera can achieve, and these three operas open the door to what is possible for the artform in the future.

At the heart of their work is the same ethos that has sustained opera for centuries: excellent performers telling immortal stories. They work with world-leading singers and musicians to bring the highest quality musical experience to the realm of immersive opera-making. Join UTO on this journey as they peek into the future of 3D opera.

For more information on Ulster Touring Opera visit here.

https://ulstertouringopera.com/shows/ar-opera/

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ar-opera/id1613182685

The Metaverse & Me selected for FIVARS XR Festival

Former Future Screens NI R&D awardees Deepa Mann-Kler and Aura Studios have been officially selected for FIVARS XR Festival in Canada and nominated for an European XR Award with Stereopsia in Brussels for their project The Metaverse & Me.

FIVARS Interview

https://fivars.net/spotlight/fivars-2023-spotlight-on-the-metaverse-me/

FIVARS Selection

https://fivars.net/category/stories/official-selections-2023/

TMAM Trailer

https://youtu.be/ejtprc41zts

Game Launch Announcement from Belfast-based Accessibility Game Developers

Soft Leaf Studio’s are launching their game Stories of Blossom, funded in part by Future Screens NI Proof of Concept and Pre-Commercialisation R&D awards.

Discover the magic of Stories of Blossom, a whimsical point-and-click adventure.

Uncover the secrets of three short tales told by Clara's nurturing grandfather.

Explore imaginative illustrations, befriend adorable creatures, and solve puzzles in this delightfully accessible game.

For more information follow the links below:

Website

Steam Page

Awards include:

• Official Selection, Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2023

• Best Indie Game Outdoing the AAA Competition, Access-Ability Game of the Year Accessibility Awards 2023

• Official Selection, London Games Festival 2023

Soft Leaf Studios is a Belfast-based company founded in 2019. From the very beginning game accessibility has been their main goal. They have work closely with those from the disabled and neurodiverse communities to help them remove barriers from their game.

A lot of this work has been baked into the experience itself such as the readability of each dialogue line, the design of the puzzles, and information and menu layout.

There is a large array of accessibility options, that you can use to tweak the experience to your liking.

Stories of Blossom has been funded with the help of Future Screens NI, Northern Ireland Screen, and the UK Games Fund.