Previsualisation (previs) is an essential phase in the design process of narrative art forms and media such as film, animated series, and stage plays. The goal of first.stage is to research, design, develop, evaluate, and showcase natural user interfaces that improve previsualisation by speaking the language of the artist rather than that of a technician.

The goal of the EU-project first.stage is to research, design, develop, evaluate, and showcase natural user interfaces that improve previsualisation in film, animation, and the performing arts by speaking the language of the artist rather than that of a technician, providing efficient workflows, and offering the high degree of control required by practitioners. This set of previs tools should be easy to use — requiring less training than current software, efficient — requiring less man-hours, and effective — offering the same level of precision and control as the specialist tools employed at the moment. It should further support distributed teamwork, as production teams are often spread over many places and only meet in person for short bursts.

Using Natural User Interfaces for Previsualization Rainer Malaka, Tanja Döring, Thomas Fröhlich, Thomas Muender, Georg Volkmar, Dirk Wenig and Nima Zargham

INTRODUCTION: An important phase in the process of visual design for the narrative media is previsualization (previs). Professionals use complicated 3D software applications that are not especially designed for the purpose of previs which makes it difficult for the artists and non-technical users to create previs content. OBJECTIVES: The aim is to empower artists to express and visualize their ideas and creative capabilities in an optimal way. METHODS: We suggest using natural user interfaces (NUIs) and discuss suitable interactions for different previs tasks. We developed and evaluated a series of individual prototypes as well as a central overarching prototype following our NUI concepts. RESULTS: The results show that our NUI-based interaction methods were perceived highly positive and experts found it valuable for their work. CONCLUSION: With only a brief familiarization phase, NUIs can provide a convenient substitute to traditional design tools that require long training sessions.

Rainer Malaka, Tanja Döring, Thomas Fröhlich, Thomas Muender, Georg Volkmar, Dirk Wenig and Nima Zargham (2021) Using Natural User Interfaces for Previsualization In: EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies. 8(26), e5. EAI. 10.4108/eai.16-3-2021.169030 | PDF of Paper | BibTex

Evaluation of Natural User Interfaces in the Creative Industries Georg Volkmar, Thomas Muender, Dirk Wenig and Rainer Malaka

The case study presented in this paper is concerned with the applicability of natural user interfaces (NUI) in the context of previsualization (previs). For this purpose, we have developed a virtual reality (VR) based tool that includes NUIs as a novel way to perform previs-related tasks. For the application domains of animation, film, and theater, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the prototype by realising projects that resembled real life productions in the creative industries. In collaboration with industry experts with different creative backgrounds, we conducted a large-scale evaluation and examined the potential of NUIs in a professional work context. Our results indicate that NUIs can offer a usable alternative to standard 3D design software, requiring only a short familiarization phase instead of extensive training to achieve the intended outcome.

Georg Volkmar, Thomas Muender, Dirk Wenig and Rainer Malaka (2020) Evaluation of Natural User Interfaces in the Creative Industries In CHI EA '20: Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 10.1145/3334480.3375201 | BibTex

Analysis of Previsualization Tasks for Animation, Film and Theater Thomas Muender, Georg Volkmar, Dirk Wenig and Rainer Malaka

Previsualization (previs) is an essential phase in the visual design process of narrative media such as film, animation, and stage plays. In digital previs complex 3D tools are used that are not specifically designed for the previs process making it hard to use for creative persons without much technical knowledge. To enable building dedicated previs software, we analyze the tasks performed in digital previs based on interviews with domain experts. In order to support creative persons in their previs work we propose the use of natural user interfaces and discuss which are suited for the specific previs tasks.

Thomas Muender, Georg Volkmar, Dirk Wenig and Rainer Malaka (2019) Analysis of Previsualization Tasks for Animation, Film and Theater In CHI EA '19: Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 10.1145/3290607.3312953 | BibTex

Does It Feel Real?: Using Tangibles with Different Fidelities to Build and Explore Scenes in Virtual Reality Thomas Muender, Anke V. Reinschluessel, Sean Drewes, Dirk Wenig, Tanja Döring and Rainer Malaka

Professionals in domains like film, theater, or architecture often rely on physical models to visualize spaces. With virtual reality (VR) new tools are available providing immersive experiences with correct perceptions of depth and scale. However, these lack the tangibility of physical models. Using tangible objects in VR can close this gap but creates the challenges of producing suitable objects and interacting with them with only the virtual objects visible. This work addresses these challenges by evaluating tangibles with three haptic fidelities: equal disc-shaped tangibles for all virtual objects, Lego-built tangibles, and 3D-printed tangibles resembling the virtual shapes. We present results from a comparative study on immersion, performance, and intuitive interaction and interviews with domain experts. The results show that 3D-printed objects perform best, but Lego offers a good trade-off between fast creation of tangibles and sufficient fidelity. The experts rate our approach as useful and would use all three versions.

Thomas Muender, Anke V. Reinschluessel, Sean Drewes, Dirk Wenig, Tanja Döring and Rainer Malaka (2019) Does It Feel Real?: Using Tangibles with Different Fidelities to Build and Explore Scenes in Virtual Reality In CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, New York, NY, USA. doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300903 | BibTex