Pixotope Makes Virtual Production Education Accessible with Mobile App
Pixotope, a leading software platform for end-to-end real-time virtual production, has announced Pixotope Pocket, a mobile app that “puts the power of a virtual production studio in the palm of your hand.”
Pixotope Pocket allows students to use their smartphones to produce immersive creative content.
“This will change the game for virtual production education, giving students flexible, easy, and unfettered access to augmented reality and virtual studio tools and workflows from their dorm room that are normally only available in expensive and complete studio settings. Students only need their smartphone and a PC to create powerful and immersive content from anywhere,” promises Pixotope.
The new app is available now for all students enrolled in the Pixotope Education Program. This program includes universities worldwide, including in the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chile, Italy, and Japan.
Pixotope hopes that its new Pixotope Pocket app will “address the current talent shortage in virtual production.” By providing universities with the required technology and connecting students with industry experts, Pixotope believes it’s making virtual production significantly more accessible.
“The introduction of Pixotope Pocket represents the next evolution of the Pixotope Education Program. While we’ve made great strides in addressing the virtual production skills gap, we knew the technology could be made even more accessible to aspiring creators. The first step was to provide students access to our platform via their media facilities through the Pixotope Education Program. With Pixotope Pocket we are taking this one step further,” explains Carina Schoo, Pixotope Education Program Manager.
Unlike traditional augmented reality (AR) and virtual studio (VS) apps, using Pixotope Pocket doesn’t require professional cameras and specific tracking hardware. Users can use the camera on their smartphone to shoot footage while the Pixotope Pocket app “takes care of the camera tracking.”
Tracking is achieved through device motion tracking, camera scene capture, and advanced scene processing. The video and tracking data are then streamed through a local network to a local machine that has Pixotope Graphics intstalled.
“The virtual production skills gap is often cited as one of the main barriers to adoption. This is because getting the technology into the hands of tomorrow’s creatives has historically been cost and resource-prohibitive. Pixotope Pocket addresses that head-on and makes the technology even easier to access and use. The result is an exponential increase in opportunities for students to hone their skills outside of their school’s media production labs,” says David Dowling, Pixotope Chief Revenue Officer.
Pixotope worked alongside Pixotope Education Program partner, the University of Gloucestershire, to develop Pixotope Pocket and bring it to market.
“In order for our students to succeed in their careers they need to be able to understand technology, whether they’re using it themselves or commissioning someone else to use it,” says Anne Dawson, Head of the School of Creative Industries, University of Gloucestershire. “It’s very important that we partner with leaders in the industry, like Pixotope, to make the technology more accessible and help our students achieve this understanding.”
Pixotope Pocket is available for iOS, although Android device support is in the works. All students enrolled in courses at educational institutions partnered with the Pixotope Education Program can access the new app now.
Image credits: Pixotope