For centuries live theatre has honored its origins while embracing new technologies. The 21st century brings many new tools to the stage, with AR being one of the more interesting and challenging to use well.
Nia Witherspoon decided to employ AR in her show at The Shed, “ChronicleX”. Working with many other art forms. The result was something groundbreaking. An entirely new dimension opened up for the audience, who could see phantom star fields dancing around the auditorium as the show proceeded.
The budget was small, and the production was tight. But by using the right tool for the job, ChronicleX became a show like no other.
Solution
When The Shed needed augmented reality, there really was only one choice. Only Blinxel could affordably capture human performers and display them in mobleAR in photo-real 3D using the Blink AR app. Blinxel trained a local video artist in only a couple of days to capture the content they needed, which was then made available for the production to rehearse with.
The production also called for Tile Brush art to be created and displayed in the same AR experience. Fortunately Blink is the only AR app that fully integrates Tile Brush art, allowing a world-famous Tilt Brush artist the ability to have her work displayed in the app just as she created it.
Testimonial
“Integrating augmented reality into performance is no easy feat, especially in a venue the scale of The Shed in New York City. Thanks to Blinxel we were able to make our vision a reality. Their streamlined and simple approach to volumetric capture allowed us to quickly get what we needed and we were even able to live monitor the capture using their amazing live AR solution. No waiting until processing to see the results! Additionally, it was easy to manage our AR scene and make adjustments on the fly, even with our team being spread out around the world. I look forward to partnering with Blinxel again to continue to push the possibilities of live AR for performance.”
Brandon Powers
XR Producer, Musical Theatre Factory
Results
Blink allows theatre production to stage performances across multiple dimensions, both the physical and the digital, and the audience brings all the technology they need to experience it all. What mattered most to The Shed was that the production was ready on time and on budget, and the audience were transported by the resulting AR experience.
Solution
Blinxel created Blink, the world’s most advanced volumetric video AR solution. With this process, and the free app, anyone is able to create Hollywood level 3D AR content in seconds.
We found that this solution was particularly suited to live theatre. The ability to record performers and display them on the devices of the audience is invaluable.