Legendary Entertainment

The movie studio behind flicks like Warcraft, Pacific Rim and Godzilla was early to explore virtual reality and now has expanded to mixed reality. Legendary is using Microsoft HoloLens as a new storytelling tool for creators as well as a new way for fans to interact with characters from the big screen. For the world premiere of Warcraft in Hollywood, fans got to meet Orgrim Doomhammer as a hologram on HoloLens. The Orc was brought to life in the film by Robert Kazinsky through the magic of performance capture and CGI. And Legendary captured the character from every angle to create a life-sized hologram so fans could come face-to-face with the giant Orc.

Legendary Film

Case Western Reserve University

Learning comes alive when flat illustrations become 3D images students explore, alter, and examine from every angle. Microsoft HoloLens is helping Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Clinic transform teaching for the future.  Read Article

Bryn Mawr College
Over winter break, Educational Technology Services (ETS) had the opportunity to hold a winter internship for students to learn more about the process of developing for the Microsoft HoloLens. ETS has been working with Pearson since September to explore educational uses for mixed/augmented reality, but winter break gave ETS the chance to see what four students could accomplish as a small, dedicated team.

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San Diego State University

Dr. Philip Greiner, director of the School of Nursing said, “It is a privilege to work with Pearson and Microsoft to develop these educational components for nursing education.” Microsoft HoloLens, the world’s first self-contained holographic computer, embraces virtual reality and augmented reality to create a new reality – mixed reality. Mixed reality merges the virtual and physical worlds to create a new reality whereby the two can coexist and interact. Pearson will use Microsoft’s holographic video capture capability, filming actors to simulate patients with various health concerns and then transferring that video into holograms for the student nurses to experience in a clinical setting. When student nurses participate in the simulations using HoloLens, they will have a real world experience diagnosing patients, building the confidence and competence that they will need in their careers.


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Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and San Diego State University are both part of a Pearson mixed reality pilot aimed at leveraging mixed reality to solve challenges in nursing education. Today many nursing programs hire and train actors to simulate scenarios nurses will face in the real world — a process that is hard to standardize and even harder to replicate. As part of the mixed reality pilot, faculty at the two universities’ schools of nursing are collaborating with Pearson to improve the value and efficacy of the types of simulations in which students participate.

To develop the content for this pilot, Pearson will use Microsoft’s holographic video capture capability, filming actors to simulate patients with various health concerns and then transferring that video into holograms for the student nurses to experience in a clinical setting. When student nurses participate in the simulations using HoloLens, they will have a real world experience diagnosing patients, building the confidence and competence that they will need in their careers.

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3D Animation

Currently, All 3D softwares and Adobe Suite are located on the artist’s Boxx Workstations.

They must use their office PC’s for Office Suite software, Emails, and Internet usage.

The 3D Artists also use a Wacom 27HD (Dyer Funds used) digital input display for drawing, painting, photoshop work, and sculpting 3D

Mixed Reality

Currently,  we have requested (Dyer Funds) two Developer Kits for the Microsoft Hololens. The hololens is furthest along in the Mixed Reality platforms. The consumer version (v3) is expected to be released 2nd half 2019. Price Point is unknown.  I would guess $600 - $800 but I am only guessing. I do know that you can wear the Hololens with eyeglasses.

At this point in time, the only competitors I have my eyes on are the Magic Leap and ODG R7.  Both of these devices should be considered as well.

Magic Leap may be out  later this year. However, Price Point will start at $1,000 for consumer product and it is unknown if you can wear eyeglasses. DevKit is just the Android DevKit and rest is same software and Hololens. It is somewhat untethered. It has has a cord that plugs into a wearable battery back. ODG R7  is set to be out now and the R8 later this year as well. However, the R7 is $2,750 for consumer product. The R8 will start at $1800 for consumer product. DevKit price is unknown. You cannot wear eyeglasses with it.

The developers will need Win10 put on their workstations. Jim Verebely has already approved that this could be done.

3D Artists:

We now have 2 pipelines for this team; Quick-Turnaround and Advanced Animation.

The Quick-Turnaround pipeline uses a mix of softwares and modeling styles to create 3D scenarios when little time is provided. We have 1 position for this pipeline. This position also helps out for our gaming assets.

• Models are built, textured, and rigged in Maya 2017.
• Textures are created with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Models then brought into 3Dxchange to add to our library.
• Models then imported into iClone 7 for scene setup, lighting, animation and rendering.
• Post production on 3D videos is done with Adobe After Effects.

Where do we sit now?

• Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite We have the EDU licensing.
• Maya 2017 is now on Version 3. Version 3 has been out for about 2 weeks.

We just use default shading networks as placeholders for textures.

iClone6 and 3Dxchange6. However we purchased the iClone 3DXChange 7 Pipeline.  The iClone7 early access was released today (3/27/2017). I am hoping the new iClone7 Bundle will be released soon since we are currently stuck without an advanced rendering system.

• Adobe Creative Suite CC 2015.5 We have the EDU licensing.
• Z-Brush 4r7 is an older version since it is not used much.
• Substance Design Studio 5.6.2  is an older version since it is not used much. However, Anthony is looking into it more for creating better iClone Shaders. We cannot upgrade any further with paying. It’s not worth it at this time.
• Unity3D is on 5.5.2 which was released Feb 24,2017. We have the EDU licensing.

• TortoiseSVN 1.9.4, Build 27285 - 64 Bit

The Advanced Animation pipeline uses a few 3D softwares and modeling styles to create 3D scenarios, Game Assets, and video elements when advance notice is giving. We have 1 position for this pipeline.

• Models are built, textured, and rigged in Maya 2017.
• Textures are created with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Z-Brush and Mudbox are used when the artist needs to sculpt high resolution meshes to create HD normal maps.

• Scenes are rendered with either the Arnold rendering system or with Pixar's Renderman. These are very new to us since Autodesk recently discontinued Mental Ray. So far, only 1 person knows how (still learning) to use them. Arnold is very expensive if we want to go past our free version. It currently only allows rendering on clients pc. We obtained multiple licenses of Renderman from Pixar. (to be used for educational purposes only) We still need to get Pixar’s TRACTOR software working on our render farm. It is challenging since it requires Linux to control it, but needs Windows to run it.

John will be  working with our networking department to resolve this issue this week.

• Post production on 3D videos is done with Adobe After Effects.

• Game assets must use standard shaders (as placeholders) when creating models for Unity3D. (for gamification) Models and/or animations are then tested in Unity3D before being placed into the game that they are intended for.

Where do we sit now?

• Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite We have the EDU licensing.
• Maya 2017 is now on Version 3. Version 3 has been out for about 2 weeks.

We just use default shading networks as placeholders for textures.

• Renderman is now on Version 21. We have the full commercial license. However, it was given to us since we are a non-profit institution.
• Adobe Creative Suite CC 2015.5 We have the EDU licensing.
• Z-Brush 4r7 is an older version since it is not used much.
• Substance Design Studio 5.6.2 is an older version since it is not used much. However, John is looking into it more for creating better Unity Shaders.We cannot upgrade any further with paying. It’s not worth it at this time.
• Unity3D is on 5.5.2 which was released Feb 24,2017. We have the EDU licensing.
• TortoiseSVN 1.9.4, Build 27285 - 64 Bit

Programmer Analysts:

Currently,  now have 2 positions held for this team. They create / edit learning objects, create web applications, program everything for the Gamification learning, and will be developing for our Mixed Reality projects. They also do research and development on new technologies; software and hardware.

Where do we sit now?

• Unity3D is on 5.5.2 which was released Feb 24,2017. We have the EDU licensing.
• Sublime Text – Free Version Build 3126
• Visual Studio Code – Version 1.10.2
• WinMerge – Version 2.14.0
• Eclipse Java Neon.1a Release 4.6.1
• Microsoft Office 2010
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Adobe Creative Suite CC 2015.5 We have the EDU licensing.
• Adobe Acrobat Professional We have the EDU licensing.
• Audacity 2.0.5 (Free)
• ATOM 1.14.4 ia32 (Free)
• VLC Media Player (Free)
• Xampp - Version 3.2.2
• Filezilla - Version 3.25.1 (Free)
• TortoiseSVN 1.9.4, Build 27285 - 64 Bit

Rarely Used:

• Substance Design Studio 5.6.2 is an older version since it is not used much.
• Blender 2.78. Only 1 of the P/A’s uses it. He uses it rarely. This software is Free.

• Maya 2017 is now on Version 3. Version 3 has been out for about 2 weeks. Only 1 of the P/A’s uses it. He uses it rarely. We have the EDU licensing.
• 3D Max 2017. Only 1 of the P/A’s uses it. He uses it rarely. We have the EDU licensing.

Mixed Reality (M/R) bridges the gap between two
worlds. It merges the virtual and physical worlds together to alter your reality. This is used with 3D and 2D graphics/animation, Video, imagery, and access to the internet. All while seeing what is going on in your environment.

According to SuperData Research, the enterprise market for virtual reality and augmented reality will grow from $16 million and $17 million in 2016 to over $1.6 billion and over $3 billion by 2020, respectively. source

Microsoft is the furthest along with the A/R technology ( now calling it Mixed Reality) and will give us the building blocks for new R&D as we move further into M/R. The Hololens is a fully self containing computer more powerful than the average laptop. You do not need to be attached to anything to use it. Currently, Bellevue University, is using simple learning objects to help student learn and practice skills in addition to the course content. The Design and Creative Production department is creating 3D simulations, video presentations, interactive web applications, and now 3D immersive games and simulations. Our next step is to provide students with these tools along with hands-on instructional materials that they can engage with, in the real world, without having to be in front of a computer.

With the help of faculty and our Course Designers, we can create meaningful and helpful tools for the students. To start with, we would like to create MR applications to assist science students for the new lab on campus. They can perform tasks while receiving information on the task to help the student
learn. An example for this; the student is using a microscope for the first time, they can us MR to display directions on how to use it properly, explain what the parts are and how they work, and even provide additional content about microscopes in general. This technology can be used for most, if not
all subjects. The possibilities are only limited to your imagination.

Many other colleges and universities are already using this technology. However, I believe Bellevue University would be the only one developing for it. The others go through third party vendors. I believe using vendors is a good idea if they already have content developed, use it. We will build the rest.

Microsoft is skipping Version 2 and going straight to version 3 for consumer release. The announce date for launch is second half of 2019. New technologies are being built to compete with Microsoft. Design and Creative Production is currently interested in one them, Magic Leap. However, the release of it has yet to be announced.