Photorealist graphics of augmented reality on television: a new era

Increased reality offers endless opportunities for the television industry in terms of viewer's experience, stories narration and data visualization. Ahmet Oturgan, head of business development for southern Europe of Zero Density, tells in this tribune how this solution helps tell stories with impressive visual effects and offers interactive ways for the audience to be part of the story.

The graphics augmented reality can be used for show the show To the public anything: from Historical events of draft to dangerous weather conditions or electoral data. You can enrich your content with ra (augmented reality) representing what was, is or will be the situation or impact, so that the audience, in this way, hook to content.

The ra also allows work at a distance. Production teams do not need to move to different places to obtain images related to the story they want to tell. You can sit in your production study and use the RA to show the public everything you want! You can even "teleport”To actors and presenters from all over the world to appear in the form of graphic overlap.

Changing physical decorations can be difficult, but the RA provides flexibility To give a change of image to your study, since you can even edit the graphics at the last moment and make the changes appear instantly in the final assembly. This also reduces the time spent on the set.

Engines born as video game solutions, such as Unreal Engine, they are powerful enough to render huge landscapes in real time. Now, more than ever, we can see how television chains around the world use both for daily programs and for specific segments that capture the viewer's attention instantly. The augmented reality in television broadcasts is nothing new; The level of photorealism is.

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Photorealism and storytelling

Broadcasters cover a wide range of great -draft issues such as last minute news, economy, choices, sports and time. Show these issues of form understandable and pleasant to view It stands as a key that will guarantee that the audience is fascinated and hooked to content. Increased reality enters the scene as a quick, accessible and effective technology. In addition, when the narration is photorealistic, the Issuance quality reaches new dimensions.

Recently, in IBC 2022 (as in NAB 2022), Zero Density He made a detailed demonstration of how photorealist graphics of augmented reality could help broadcasters to improve all your workflow: from the viewer's experience to the narration and the Data -based workflows.

To better understand the creation of virtual graphics that are realistic for the human eye, you have to know that it is structured around three major elements: Live rendering capacity, realistic realistic shadows and realistic reflexes in real time.

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Render

Los rendering Issue have traveled a long way. Zero density team became the first to adopt a motor of Video games For the Broadcast area there for 2016. The company transformed Unreal Engine modifying its source code To meet live production requirements and developed both a composer based on nodes and keyer Images based; Both, tools that worked in real time. This set of solutions provides all Tools Needed so that users can create impressive images with maximum fidelity, stability and flexibility.

Visitors to IBC 2022, seeing the demonstration of Zero Density, they were surprised at the Forerealist Results And they wondered where the racks of equipment necessary to create the composition were. It was a big surprise for them to see that all processing, including video entry and exit single work station. Today, many have already realized that game engines render most photorealist graphics than emission engines And they have begun to adopt them in their Workflows.

To reach the photorealism A is needed rendering of ray tracing and a 3D composer in real time how Reality Engine.

Reality Engine, el compositor basado en nodos en tiempo real, puede teclear, rastrear, renderizar y componer gráficos fotorrealistas en tiempo real y ha sido construido de forma nativa para aprovechar las características de Unreal Engine. Esto hace que los gráficos de realidad aumentada sean más fotorrealistas.

Además, los gráficos de realidad aumentada de la presentación de Zero Density son compatibles con ray tracing, lo que demuestra que es posible obtener imágenes de calidad cinematográfica para gráficos ultrarrealistas en directo compuestos con vídeo en directo. Para alcanzar este nivel de fidelidad de imagen se necesita un renderizador de ray tracing y un compositor 3D en tiempo real como Reality Engine.

What an epic last day at @IBCShow! Just like the first days, it was still jam-packed at the Zero Density booth.

ZD team’s sincere thanks go to IBC Show 2022 for the exceptional organization, to numerous technology enthusiasts who paid a visit to our booth or followed us online. pic.twitter.com/NmjsLH8bgX

— ZeroDensity (@0Density) September 13, 2022

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Reflexes and shadows

In augmented reality productions, the mixture of the virtual and the real can be improved often. As seen in the demonstration of the IBC Show, the presenter projects its automatically reflexes on Ra graphics, creating an improved visual experience for the audience. By adding a talent monitoring product such as Traxis talentS In the formula, as the system knows the exact position of talent within the physical space, the reflections created on the AR graphics will be rendered in the correct position automatically. Similarly, this system allows you to interact directly with the graphics. In short, TRAXIS talents allows Automate the GRAPHICS OF THE GRAPHS AR When the presenter moves to a specific area of ​​the physical set.

An additional key. If you want your graphics to seem more natural and integrate perfectly into the study, make sure the virtual shadows coincide with physical lights And that your reflective objects Always reflect the whole environment.

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Blending

Last, but not less important, a unique characteristic of reality Engine is the composition of graphics with several blending modes similar to those of Photoshop, but in real time. You can add Bloom and Lens Flares mixed additively on the lower third or apply a blur effect at the bottom of the lower third on the incoming video signal.

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Data based

The RA data display It offers great value. It stands out on 2D content and ensures that spectators carefully follow the program during the time. Once all 3D assets have been designed and composed in the environment of the physical or virtual set, the last piece of the puzzle is to use a control application as realityHub to feed those graphics with data. A 3D artist can download RA graphics, modify them and have them ready in a couple of hours, but production will not be functional until it can be controlled in real time. That is what makes a big difference. With a control application such as RealityHub, a designer can control the animation time and link the elections in real time, sports and other data directly to the graphics.

For example, realityhub can use Source data that serves to feed the graphics, such as a local Excel file or a live data source, without using any additional complement or writing a single line of code. Realityhub comes with a complete set of tools to integrate Any external data source and helps users visualize complex information to the audience without complexity in preparation. Be sure to include graphics based on data to your RA channel to simplify all processes and offer an inspiring experience to the viewer.

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The Broadcast future

The immersive nature of augmented reality It allows the stations to add a new dimension and dynamic to their programs, resulting in an attraction for the unprecedented audience. It has been shown that Ra is not a fashion, but the future of Broadcast. With augmented reality evolving rapidly and becoming more and more versatile every day, Possibilities become infinite for Broadcasters, so they need to use a RA technology that can follow the rhythm of their production and innovation. Zero density technology will allow you to offer RA graphics more photorealists possible that satisfy their creative vision and the expected quality, now and in the future.

With the augmented reality evolving quickly and becoming more and more versatile every day, the possibilities become infinite for the broadcasters.

With Unreal Engine 5 a la vuelta de la esquina, estamos pudiendo comprobar cómo más y más artistas 3D empiezan a utilizar Unreal Engine como motor principal: ¡la solución ya no es solo para juegos! Cualquiera que tenga curiosidad por aprender sobre la creación de gráficos en tiempo real, le recomiendo que se dirija al sitio web de Epic Games: tienen un montón de cursos gratuitos para empezar. También recomendaría descargar la edición gratuita para la comunidad de nuestro software de composición en tiempo real, Reality Engine, e ir a nuestra Zero Density Academy para ver algunos vídeos con los que empezar a experimentar rápidamente.

Ahmet Oturgan

Responsable de desarrollo de negocio para el sur de Europa de Zero Density.

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