Realtime stagemaker

A prototype software tool for efficient collaborative creation in Unity.

Have you endured the frustrations of prototyping a piece of VR or AR?

Crafting an immersive experience is a process that requires the input of a wide range of creative voices. However, the primary tools for professional VR and AR creation require a high level of specific expert knowledge to use effectively. The complexity of these tools often slows down and complicates initial experience prototyping, as well as imposing a significant barrier to entry for newcomers to this youthful industry and artform.

Stagemaker is a toolkit which enables multi-disciplinary creative teams to quickly work together in the creation of early-stage 3D experiences. Using the toolkit, two or more practitioners cohabit a 3D space - one in-headset and one on the computer, co-designing, testing out positioning, scale and pacing of animations and assets as they work.

 It works within your Unity project and generates assets which can immediately be pulled into a range of professional tools for further development - allowing practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds to focus on their creative challenges, rather than wrestling with the complexity of software tools. Stagemaker - from concept to greybox in an afternoon. 

Realtime Stagemaker is a prototype rather than a tool that is ready for market. It was funded by the South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN) as part of the Immersion Prototype funding stream. For more information, go to: https://www.swctn.org.uk/immersion

“As artists, Anagram consistently think outside the box and manage to surprise even the most innovative sectors of the media art community in their rethinking of the artist-audience divide. Who better, then, to intervene in the tool-making process than artists who have mastered tools of the ‘off-the-shelf’ variety, who have experienced their limits, and who see alternatives to enhancing the creative process for themselves and others?  

Stagemakers offers a plug-in that will transform Unity into a site of creative demonstration and conversation.  It taps precisely those skills (film, immersive theater, sound and interactive installation design, etc.) that set Amy and May apart from standard software developers, and that give this venture its promise to multidisciplinary creators in the real-time VR space.”

William Uricchio
American media scholar and Professor of Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor of Comparative Media History at Utrecht University in the Netherlands