Wednesday, December 05, 2018
TheatAR Project Brings Childhood Classic to Life with AR
www.cmu.edu/news: TheatAR, a semester-long student initiated project in the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), combines stage actors and animation to create a first-of-its-kind experience in the retelling of the classic “Peter Pan.” Through a Microsoft HoloLens, an animated Tinker Bell interacts with Peter and Wendy upon their first meeting, bringing her mischief and mannerisms once reserved for movies to a theater audience.
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I got to see this and it’s fantastic. It’s still a small concept that they are building on, but it’s a concept that opens up a world of possibilities for future theater performances. One of the times I got to see it was with two older ladies (60+) at TheatAR’s project room in the ETC. We watched the film performance with Tink overlaid onto the video and one of the ladies insisted she didn’t get it, she didn’t understand. The team was able to show her what the hololens experience actually was by putting a headset on her and having her look at the pitcher that had a light in it. The light disappeared as Tink “flew out” of the pitcher and around the room. Her delight was infectious and she asked a million questions. She talked about numerous plays that she had seen that, like many productions of Peter Pan, used a light, or some other tech element to fake a fairy or other creature that human actors could not imitate. She asked if this technology could be used there instead. The team was great in answering her questions, and I wish the video in this article did Tink more justice, she’s fully realized—her animation is fantastic and super detailed. TheatAR is on to something, and it’s really cool. Special shout out to Cassidy who was a part of this team, as well as Chase and Lauren for building the set, and I believe Anthony did some work on sound. Great job!
I saw this project in it's fully realized form on Thursday and I agree with Jess that it was amazing! Cassidy is one of my roommates so I've been hearing her talk about this project a lot and I've learned a lot about its development process through her. They've been working for months planning, animating, and executing this project within ETC's spaces. I got to wear one of the hololenses for the presentation I went to, and it really blew me away. Jamie and I kept wanting to reach out and try to touch things because of how well done Tinkerbell was (though Cass said not to do that since the lens responds to hand movements like the mouse of a computer, how cool!). After the presentation the team did a talk back and it was great to learn more about the cueing structure of the show. There were small lights hidden around the space for the actors to respond to in order to know where Tinkerbell was. I didn't know that Chase, Lauren, and Anthony worked on this project as well, so congratulations to them as well!
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