VR as a Content Creation Tool for Movie Previsualisation

Abstract

Creatives in animation and film productions have forever been exploring the use of new means to prototype their visual sequences before realizing them, by relying on hand-drawn storyboards, physical mockups or more recently 3D modelling and animation tools. However these 3D tools are designed in mind for dedicated animators rather than creatives such as film directors or directors of photography and remain complex to control and master. In this paper we propose a VR authoring system which provides intuitive ways of crafting visual sequences, both for expert animators and expert creatives in the animation and film industry. The proposed system is designed to reflect the traditional process through (i) a storyboarding mode that enables rapid creation of annotated still images, (ii) a previsualisation mode that enables the animation of the characters, objects and cameras, and (iii) a technical mode that enables the placement and animation of complex camera rigs (such as cameras cranes) and light rigs. Our methodology strongly relies on the benefits of VR manipulations to re-think how content creation can be performed in this specific context, typically how to animate contents in space and time. As a result, the proposed system is complimentary to existing tools, and provides a seamless back-and-forth process between all stages of previsualisation. We evaluated the tool with professional users to gather experts' perspectives on the specific benefits of VR in 3D content creation.