Advances in augmented and virtual reality promise to revolutionize the workplace and entertainment. These technologies include the use of avatars, holograms, and digital twins to help humanize the experience. Many companies are moving to a hybrid workplace model and collaboration effects in the virtual world are evolving into a new normal.
Foreword By Piotr Uzarowicz from Arcturus Studios
Since I was a kid, I’ve lived under the assumption that the future promised in sci-fi movies and TV shows was always just around the corner. Everything from hoverboards to flying cars were expected rather than hoped for, and it was just a matter of time until Star Trek tech was part of our daily lives. The reality has been a bit more gradual and grounded, but for those of us that work in mixed reality, we know that the future is closer than most realize.
In the next few years, there is going to be a significant and permanent change in the nature of video content. You’ve probably heard that before, but after several false starts and a lot of unrealized potential, technology and ambition are finally catching up to each other. It won’t happen all at once, but we are on the cusp of holograms going mainstream, and volumetric video becoming a common tool for everything from ecommerce to sporting events.
Digital character creation is approaching a new era, and augmented reality will truly enter the mainstream and start living up to its promise. It may not be quite as transformational as a flying car, but it will be close (and significantly safer!).
The global pandemic has caused many companies and creators to rethink how they position themselves to the world, including to potential and returning customers. For instance, having an online presence these days is just a given for companies operating in ecommerce, especially with brick and mortar locations taking a hit (for obvious reasons). But we’ve reached the point where we have to start preparing for what comes next.
How do you stand out when things that used to be seen as an advantage are now requirements? How do you go one step further than everyone else and create new ways to engage with your audience? The future standard-bearers for ecommerce aren’t going to rely on more video, but rather better video.
Customers are constantly looking for new, better options when they shop online. Rather than filming products and models in traditional video formats, retailers will capture them in volumetric video and create holographic models to show a much richer version of what the customer is looking to buy—and that’s not something that is coming in years. It’s happening right now.
The same is true for sports, as broadcasters are seeking new ways to engage audiences. Concert venues are also looking at ways to make people feel like they are actually there, while musicians from around the world are always trying to connect with fans in an entirely new way.
And that’s just a few of the obvious areas where we will see major changes very soon. Behind the scenes, creatives are finding ways to use MR and new video technologies to improve what they are already doing. Virtual production has become a VFX hot topic—and they have barely scratched the surface of what it can, and will, mean for the industry.
Meanwhile, artists working with digital character creation and digi doubles are finding new ways to incorporate mixed reality technologies, including new solutions like volumetric video to create better, photorealistic results. For the general public, the changes in these fields may seem gradual (thanks to the talents and painstaking efforts of today’s artists), but behind the scenes new technologies are giving new creators the ability to experiment, while veterans have better options than ever before.
It won’t all happen at once, but we are on the verge of a significant and permanent shift in the way we create and consume video, and the companies in this report are helping to make that future a reality. We may still be a few years away from a future where our childhood selves feel fully satiated, but the next few years are going to be amazing to see, and even better to be a part of.
Head of Partnerships & Marketing, Arcturus Studios
Foreword By Remington Scott, CEO, Hyperreal Digital Inc.
We have a new home and it’s called the Metaverse.
While we have seen buzzword names come and go, this is clearly something more. It is a big enough part of the future for Facebook to change its name and direction - so it is clearly a good rallying point for those of us listed in this VRAR Industry Report. It will focus potential clients, potential investors, potential employees, and our own technological development into a new virtual space of unlimited possibilities.
Just as Media and Telecommunications became the Internet, the Internet is going to merge with the experience of reality itself to become the Metaverse. Fifty years ago, few people predicted how much personal computing and the Web would reach into our personal and business lives; are there really any sceptics left who do not now see how deeply the virtual, the immersive, the augmented realities will impact the world for the next fifty? The belief is there because the money is already there, along with billions of users across several formerly disparate businesses: video games, Film & TV, mobile apps, social media, advertising, and more.
The use of digital humans has been growing exponentially – what was once the purview of high-end cinema has now become ubiquitous across almost every film and television program. Not just as stand-ins for occasional scenes, but for the full-length of features and in close ups. In fact, very little of what is now viewed in these media has not had the virtual production treatment. Some of this has been driven by technology, and some of it by the lower relative costs, but a whole lot of it still by the creative talents of the artists represented by the companies in this report.
What we are experiencing is the growth of digital human applications spreading out to related industries such as advertising and branding. Advertisers can easily see the possibilities in using virtual production techniques to deliver targeted variations of cast, environments, and products for their audience. They know that being able to appeal to a specific demographic with a vast database of virtual human options will lead to higher return on nvestment. At Hyperreal, we know this is not speculation and that large brands are building this future as we continue to refine the technologies to deliver it.
It may be true that the aforementioned applications are based on virtual substitutes that save money by not having to fly a superstar brand ambassador to a mountain top or the moon, or indeed to pay a real superstar at all (we can just cook them up in the virtual kitchen made to order.) But perhaps the main growth for us is in media and entertainment environments where only virtual beings can exist.
For example, it is likely that mobile Apps will morph into mere attributes of your personal support digital human or HyperModel™ (as we call our hyper-realistic virtual beings). Why have separate apps for all your home or office functions when they can be integrated into a more human communication with a single assistant? Sure, Siri and Alexa are building the way there - but the future will be more like Halo’s Cortana, with the embodiment of the human form being a key aspect. We once imagined a world with support robots buzzing about us, but clearly it is less about a single physical form, than a virtual being that can manage the multiple devices, machines, tools, schedules, and software around us. The original Sanskrit avatar was an embodiment of the heavenly form - and our service avatars will be the embodiment of the knowledge of the cloud, as well as serve as our guides to experiences in the virtual world.
To make these avatars relatable, the need is to make them as human as possible; this means visually, in expression, in form, in actions, in interactions. At Hyperreal, we believe there is a significant difference in the ability to achieve the Metaverse’s full potential with fully realistic digital humans, versus the cartoonish ones of the older platforms. The challenge that Hyperreal, and the other companies represented in this report all face, is to make these avatars real enough to have human and emotional connections.
The team at Hyperreal believes that digital humans will be at the center of all Metaverse activations. The growing community of companies that make avatars might have spent several years being on the edge of all media and entertainment, however, we are about to find out what it means to be in the middle of it.
CEO and Chief Architect, Hyperreal
(HyperModelReal-Time Ray-Traced in UE4)
