ARStudioA low-cost virtual studio based on Augmented Reality for video production

Film, television, and Internet productions have generated content that combines real and virtual elements in the same scene. In a traditional production pipeline, virtual elements are inserted only in the post-production stage, and consequently, these elements are only visualized after every editing process is finalized. This approach can cause problems in situations such as ones where an actor acts alongside virtual characters, due to the lack of precise reference for gaze direction, for example. Such a problem, in the traditional production pipeline, can be identified only in the post-production stage. This can make production more expensive if there is a need to recruit the actors again and reassemble the infrastructure. Costs can also be avoided if part of the production team can follow along with certain retakes or even the entire production stage remotely. In addition, if the generated content can be quickly refined and made available to all the staff still in the production stage, the post-production stage can be considerably simplified. In this paper, we present a low-cost virtual studio called ARStudio that offers a set of functionalities similar to those of professional virtual studios. In addition, our system allows the production team to remotely follow the production stage and allows content refinements to be carried out quickly through tools, usually used in the post-production stage, that are integrated into the system.