News Stories

Universal Character Model White Paper Released

6.9.2021

by Rob Scott /

ETC@USC teamed with Charisma.ai, Digital Domain, Fable Studio and Write Brothers, Inc. to publish a white paper on an innovative character definition tool that enables casting audience members within a story. The goal is to help construct new immersive experiences across different narrative formats using a variety of authoring systems. The proposal features a Universal Character Model (UCM) that houses all motivations, goals and methods of any specific character in order to create consistent behavior within the fluid context of interactive and dynamic stories. The white paper is now available to the creative community.

“As autonomous characters get closer to reality, it will become necessary to build tools to assist writers as they move into a new role as narrative designers,” explained Ken Williams, executive director and CEO of the ETC@USC.

“The effectiveness of compelling stories and the development of deeply engaging characters is a goal quite different from chatbots,” said Williams. “To forecast the path forward ETC gathered a select Autonomous Character Working Group. The main task the group adopted was to collectively address the needs of creatives as they will be increasingly utilizing AI approaches to constructing open and yet bounded experiences.”

“As the goal was to advantage creatives as we incorporate AI tools to deepen story immersion, the working group included creatives with extensive technology experience,” noted ETC’s George Gerba, who led the white paper team. “The working group included Pete Billington, co-founder of Fable Studio; Guy Gadney, co-founder and CEO of Charisma; Chris Huntley, VP of Write Brothers and co-creator of Dramatica; and Doug Roble, senior director of software R&D at Digital Domain. The paper was written by narrative designer Rianna Dearden, head writer at Charisma.”

The working group determined that the UCM is not only beneficial to new immersive storytelling processes, but necessary to create flexible and believable character-based experiences, reliable story environments and compelling stories.

According to the white paper: “Interactive stories are in the post-novelty phase, and audiences desire deeper engagement with characters. When audiences are cast inside a story, a UCM creates characters that feel like they have their own sense of purpose, their own life. Characters are no longer subservient, waiting for the audience to make a choice. Audiences are no longer on the outside, looking in, they are a part of the narrative.”

“The next step is to construct a proof of concept of a UCM. This will combine the ideas behind this paper and blend existing technologies to form a prototype. Creating a proof of concept will solidify the technical requirements needed to make it a universal tool, advance the potential of the art, and rapidly advance the evolution of interactive storytelling.”

“We hope you find this initial paper both interesting and engaging,” Williams concluded. “We are open to continuing engagement with like-minded creators.”

NOTE: The following applications can be used to open the white paper, once downloaded: Adobe Digital Editions (ADE), Calibre, EPUB File Reader, Apple Books, Stanza Desktop and Okular.

ETC White Paper Details Best Practices for Virtual Production

3.25.2021

The Entertainment Technology Center@USC produced a live-action short, “Ripple Effect” to test new technologies and workflows, including the cloud, virtual production, and remote editing and visual effects. Supported by ETC member companies (Universal, Warner Bros., Microsoft, Technicolor, Equinix, Amazon Studios and Seagate), and other industry key partners, the project also introduced and evaluated a variety of tools and procedures that meet or exceed industry standards for a safe set during the COVID-19 pandemic. Executive producer Erik Weaver, virtual production executive director/producer, Kathryn Brillhart, virtual production supervisor, Greg Ciaccio, producers Brendan Bennett, Damon Laguna, and Jamie McNeill, COVID safety officer, Catherine Shin, technical writer, Nick Mitchell, tech partners, and the team at ETC have published a white paper that outlines recommendations for virtual production and critical lessons learned during the making of “Ripple Effect.”  For more information about the film project, visit rippleeffectfilm.com.

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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