A new research and development centre in Dundee will create jobs and drive the next generation of visual effects technologies.
It is hoped the multi-million-pound city facility will revolutionise the UK’s film, TV and performing arts industries.
The state-of-the-art lab is part of the UK Government’s Creative Industries Sector Vision, a plan to grow creative industries by £50 billion by 2030.
It also hopes to create a million new jobs and Dundee is set to be one of the beneficiaries.
A consortium led by Abertay University is the preferred bidder to host one of four new special effects labs.
Dundee visual effects investment
The centre will specialising in the future of virtual production.
This is a new range of real-time content production techniques using computer-generated imagery, augmented reality and motion capture. It can create virtual sets, world and experiences.
Instead of adding visual effects and CGI in post-production, virtual production allows filmmakers and theatre directors to create digitally-generated environments using LED panels. Performers interact with them in real-time.
The technology has been used to great success in the ABBA Voyage live concert at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London and on Disney’s hit show The Mandalorian.
The lab will bring together expertise from Edinburgh and Abertay universities, Dundee games firm 4J Studios, tech incubator Codebase and Interface.
Delivering economic growth to Dundee
The amount of funding for the Dundee visual effects lab is still to be determined.
However, the four labs – which will also be located in London, West Yorkshire and Belfast – will have government funding of £75.6 million as well as £63m of new industry investment.
It is not known at this stage how many Dundee jobs the lab will create.
Professor Gregor White, dean of the School of Design and Informatics at Abertay University, said: “Virtual production is one of the most exciting emerging applications of media technologies in the world right now.
“There is enormous potential for virtual film production to be the next major tech success story for the UK.
“Our intention will be to use our research expertise to drive innovation and deliver economic growth and jobs.”
UK Games Fund
The plans to grow the creative industries will also benefit the UK Games Fund, which is based in Dundee.
It will receive a £5m uplift bringing its total funding to £13.4m over the next two years.
Since 2015 the fund has been developing talent and awarding grants to young video game developers and early-stage studios to turn their drawing board ideas into working prototype games and showcase them to investors.
The funding means it can help more mature start-ups grow and attract more private investment into the industry.
Founder Paul Durrant said: “This will allow us to provide larger scale games content funding for games developers creating new IP and lead to positive economic impact.
“It’s highly unusual for a fund serving all the nations and regions to operate from a Scottish base but the past eight years of operation has shown us that our location amongst the Dundee games cluster is the right one.”
Conversation