The play 'The Tempest' uses a digital avatar on stage to give life to the goblin Ariel

To bring the digital character to life, who interacts in the work with real people, the actor's movements and facial expressions have been captured directly on stage. The technology has been developed by The Imaginarium Studios and powered by Intel processors.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (CSR), together Intel and The Imaginarium Studios, have created 'The Tempest', a production based on the play of William Shakespeare that uses innovative technologies in order to offer an avant-garde theatrical experience.

"Together, we have created interactions between the human and the digital that convey maximum realism and immerse viewers in a living environment, by the hand of a theater company that has always been at the forefront of the most radical experimentation", explains Penny Baldwin, Vice President, Global Marketing and Communications Group, Intel.

The technology developed by The Imaginarium Studios (Performance capture), powered by Intel processors, immerses the audience in a journey in which performance capture technologies allow a character to be rendered entirely digitally, in this case the goblin Ariel, live and directly on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

This ability to render an entire digital environment in real time, in this case an avatar, eliminates the need to produce the entire performance in advance and then project it on stage. At the same time, this reinforces the atmosphere of spontaneity that characterizes live performances..

This technology captures the actor's facial movements and expressions, in order to ensure that the entire actor's performance is reproduced in the digital character.

CSR, Intel and Imaginarium Studios have invested more than a year of research to make digital avatars possible., rendered in real time and able to interact with real actors.

Directed by Gregory Doran, artistic director of the CSR; with Simon Russell Beale, CSR Associate Artist, in the role of Prospero; and designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis, CSR Design Director, this collaboration combines THE EXPERTISE OF CSR in the world of theatrical performances with the digital innovation of The Imaginarium Studios and Intel's expertise in technological innovation.

 

Other articles on Intel, The Imaginarium Studios