New Quarter, New Ideas

And we're back for part 2 of the DIGM Research Project!

This time, we are allowed to work on individual projects or small groups. During class, I talked to a few classmates to see if anyone already had an idea that aligns with what I'm interested in. Though some projects sounded really interesting, I think I will focus on an individual project this time.

I'd like to work on something related to real-time production or live events. An idea that I'm leaning toward right now is simultaneous studio and virtual lighting. After talking to Nick, he mentioned that we have DMX lights and a controller in the studio that can be controlled through ethernet. However, this setup hasn't been done before on campus, so I will need to learn about DMX communication and look up documentation about the DMX router.

Afterward, I will need to make sure this setup can also communicate with Unreal Engine (or any other software). This way, the physical and virtual lights can be synced up!

Depending on how successful I am thus far, I think I will find new ways to improve and upgrade our setup. For example, I can try to look up different protocols to control other kinds of lights. Maybe even create a "cheap" setup from scratch. As Paul mentioned in our latest chat, this might become a useful research project for smaller or independent studios.

Another idea could be upgrading the setup for features other than identical lights. For example, can the DMX controller send complementary colors to the studio and virtual lights? Can the lighting in Unreal be calculated and sent to physical lights instead? Or is this setup limited to adjusting lights identically?

Next week, I will start looking into tutorials and any plug-ins that already exist to start guiding my project.


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