LONDON— Virtual production technology Disguise is partnering with AI platform Cuebric to make virtual environments faster, easier and more cost-effective to build. As part of the partnership, Cuebric has been integrated with the Disguise platform,which will allow creatives to use AI to create the shape and depth of 2.5D environments, then import them into Disguise. The result is a plug-and-play scene that can be executed on an LED stage in only two minutes, saving weeks of pre-production work, the companies said.
“Real-time environments look spectacular on-camera, yet often require many hours of artistic and technical build,” said Addy Ghani, VP of Virtual Production at Disguise. “Thanks to our partnership with Cuebric, there’s now another option. Using generative AI, artists can build 2.5D plates, helping them go from concept to camera in minutes so they can tell unique stories in a way that works for them.”
To create 2.5D scenes, users can either add purely generative content or import images from elsewhere into the Cuebric platform. Cuebric then leverages AI rotoscoping and inpainting to segment the images into layers, transforming them from 2D to 2.5D based on the depth of objects.
Once the Cuebric 2.5D scenes are imported into Disguise’s Designer software, each individual layer is depth-mapped with an auto generated mesh. This means that the individual plates are not limited to flat planes, as 3D shapes can be built into each of the plates—resulting in a more realistic parallax effect that works no matter how you move the camera on set, Disguise said.
Using Disguise and Cuebric, users can easily make changes and iterations in virtual environments during production, allowing for a more dynamic and creative process and avoiding costly reshoots.
“Cuebric democratizes filmmaking, removing the cost barrier to creating gorgeous, immersive sets and backgrounds with its plug-and-play 3D effect solution. Leveraging AI to minimize the tedious and maximize the extraordinary in the creative process will breathe new life into the production industry,” said Cuebric co-founders, Pinar Seyhan Demirdag and Gary Lee Koepke. “Desire and demand for extraordinary content has never been greater, so there is no better time to be partnering with Disguise to put the full power of generative AI into the hands of the world’s greatest creators and filmmakers.”
