Month: November 2018

Short week and short post. Most of us are taking off tomorrow to various destinations for Thanksgiving, so we only have one actual day—today—to work on the project. Most of the equipment has been loaded in, lighting levels have been set, and we’re in the process of figuring out audio. When we get back, we’ll be integrating final set pieces and dressings, props, and bringing over all the HoloLenses for our big tech week.

Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us at Team TheatAR!

There was perhaps no moment more exciting in this project than at last donning the HoloLens and directing not just two actors on stage, but three! At this performance, the role of Tinker Bell will in fact be played by Tinker Bell herself—it’s now possible to guide her around the stage (to predetermined locations, of course) and cue her acting beats in time with her human costars’ performances.

The HoloLens itself is already a few years old which with the way technology progresses these days already feels like ages ago, but directing a holographic actor on stage and seeing her convincingly “converse” with real people and move around and inside objects on stage feels like a milestone in theater/tech history. There’s still a (very) long two weeks between now and when we show this to the public, but there is a strong sense of magic happening that we are using to propel us through the final weeks of development.

Here’s what else happened this week:

Set design/construction: As evidenced from the photo above, we have a set! It’s much more painted (blue) than in that photo now, and there’s a lovely rug that covers the linoleum flooring. Additionally, the final virtual model of the set that gets run inside of the HoloLens has been created as well.

Programming: We’ve now successfully configured the Spectator View Pro setup, which will allow both audience members not wearing the HoloLens as well as our tech team cueing the performance to view the show as intended. We’re mounting two monitors on each side of the stage specifically for these purposes. We’ve also successfully networked multiple HoloLenses together, to maximize the size of the audience that can experience the performance in the optimal fashion—the way we envision audiences of the future viewing performances of this nature.

Art/Animation: Tinker Bell’s animations are really coming along now. She’s zipping around stage, emoting, and generally feels like an actual character. This will only get refined over the next couple of weeks.

Misc. Production: Rehearsals with the actors have been going really well. It’s important to remember that even in the midst of all the technological craziness, there’s a real human story to tell here between Peter and Wendy. It’s quite a touching little scene with a lot of warmth, and we’re spending time to make sure that isn’t lost with all of the tech layered on top of it.

 

Time. The inexorable forward march of progress. Despite our frequent yearnings for scientific devices or even magic that could turn back the clock, it only moves in one direction. Time is our enemy at Project Neverland and we are fighting the good fight against it every day.

The good news is that there are still 3 weeks left before we start performances. The bad news is that there are only 3 weeks left until we start performances. This realization has produced a considerable amount of stress, but we are harnessing it as a catalyst to sprint towards the finish line and deliver an amazing show; a kind of performance the likes of which (as we must occasionally remind ourselves) has never been seen before.

Here’s what else has been happening this week:

Set Design/Construction: We spent considerable time hauling assembled wooden flats, a dresser, a rocking chair, and a bookshelf up a dark flight of stairs to reach our wacky little performance space. All of the major pieces are up there now, in the process of being painted. The walls are all up and they’re getting painted now as well. As you can see from the picture, the window (the one Peter and Tink will enter from into the Darling nursery) has been constructed into one of the wooden walls.

Programming: We made considerable process with the HoloLens networking this week. Unity timeline and animation data can now be synced across multiple devices. This is big! As far as the other major hurdle is concerned, it’s proven to be more than a little complicated getting the livestreaming solution configured. We need this in order for those without HoloLenses on their heads (including the crew) to see where Tinker Bell is on stage at any given moment. Hopefully we’ll get this sorted out next week.

Art/Animation: We’re in full swing with the animating now that the rig is complete. Tink’s basic moveset has been created, which includes: fly forward, fly backward, fly up, fly left, and fly right. She also now has a handful of standby/idle animations for when she’s between cues. These include: angry, happy, and grumpy. We also refined her flight path a bit this week.

Misc. Production: We should have Tink’s sounds completed early next week. The speakers and sound system will be loaded into the space next week as well. We had our first rehearsals in the space with the set and actors this week, and it was a delight to see this scene on its feet. Our actors are essentially already off book (memorized) and this will only help as we begin to play around with the scene and refine their performances when we add Tink to the mix.

In some ways, animating Tinker Bell for this production is like being an air traffic controller. Unlike your average computer animation, you have to worry about Tink colliding with real-world obstacles, including people. While Tink crashing into Peter or Wendy won’t result in a fatal injury, it will decisively crush the audience’s faith that she’s a real character in this world.  To that end, as seen in the GIF above, Tink’s flight path is something that’s being extensively planned out in detail well before the actual animations are layered on to her character model.

Here’s what else has been happening this week:

Set Design: More furniture has been built and more set pieces have arrived for the nursery. In addition the dresser we had already constructed, we now have the rocking chair, the bookcase, and the frosted glass jug Tink will hide in during the scene. All our effects lighting has arrived and they’re ready to be assembled into the completed set, which is being (partially) constructed this weekend and into early next week.

Programming: Work continues on both setting up the Spectator View (which allows anyone outside of the headset to see Tinker Bell) and the networking (which allows more than one HoloLens to share the same experience). We also overhauled our surface detection solution and imported the virtual set into Unity, which is how the entire experience will be able to run.

Art/Animation: As mentioned earlier, Tink’s flight path has been established within Unity. After the final rig is received this weekend, all of the detailed animation can begin in earnest. A sprint to the finish line!

Production: We had our first table read of the script with Will and Amara, who will be playing Peter and Wendy, respectively. It was delightful to hear all of the dialogue spoken by our talented cast and we had a productive discussion about how the unique rehearsal process will work in the coming weeks. Next week we begin rehearsals in the space with the set. It’s like a real show!