2LE Media,  dock10, and the University of York have been awarded match funding from Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme to develop AI tools to power lighting in virtual studios. 

The £100m BridgeAI programme was announced last year by Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, and the portion going to 2LE Media, dock10 and the University of York will use an innovative educational children’s TV drama format to build on foundational research that dock10 and The University of York carried out last year to explore how AI can deliver real-time lighting for virtual studio productions.

In a green screen environment, lighting elements such as shadows and reflections do not readily transfer between actors or physical props and virtual environments. Instead, they have to be composited into scenes in post-production, limiting the commercial and creative potential of live virtual studios.

The project hopes to use virtual studios, generative AI, and computer vision AI to enable real-time light interactions between physical and virtual worlds. It hopes to do this by creating an AI neural network that is trained through the use of synthesised green-screen data to simulate the different pathways light travels between the physical and virtual elements of a scene.

Michael Livingstone, lead creative for 2LE Media, has said: “The technology being developed by dock10 and the University of York is incredibly exciting, 2LE are thrilled to sit alongside them as the creative partner for the project. We’re looking forward to the collaboration and the onward development of the new production workflows that embrace AI-driven lighting techniques in virtual production.