Extending Virtual Production 2025
The Extending Virtual Production project was a faculty-funded initiative within AUT’s Design and Creative Technologies faculty in 2025, aimed at pushing the capabilities and creative potential of the university’s state-of-the-art Virtual Production Studio. Built around the newly opened LED volume and immersive production facilities in the WG building, the project brought together researchers and practitioners from across design, fine art, computing, animation, filmmaking, and spatial design to experiment with and expand the use of virtual production technologies.
Through a programme of nine sub-projects and collaborative research activities, the initiative sought not only to test the technical limits of the studio’s LED volumes and real-time rendering workflows but also to explore new creative practices and interdisciplinary applications, fostering innovation across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
This research-led development included regular workshops, seminars, and work-in-progress presentations where participants shared findings and iteratively refined their approaches to integrating physical and virtual production processes.
The project emphasised cross-disciplinary collaboration, enabling staff and students to jointly investigate novel methods for bridging the digital and the material within immersive environments. By situating creative experimentation at the heart of the Virtual Production Studio’s use cases, Extending Virtual Production helped advance both theoretical and practical understandings of what contemporary virtual production can achieve in academic research and creative practice — laying the groundwork for future pedagogical and industry partnerships.
Research projects
Cecelia Faumuina
School of Art & Design
Indigenising movement: Building technology to fuel cultural vitality among rangatahi and whānau Māori in Aotearoa.
Gregory Bennett, Chen Chen, Nooroa Tapuni, Sue Gallagher
School of Art & Design
Innovative Use of Virtual Production Volumes: How can the innovative deployment of Virtual Production Volume technologies within a spectrum of creative practice-led projects advance knowledge and generate new insights beyond conventional industry applications.
Kien Tran and Minh Nguyen
School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Augmented reality-based information system for virtual production supervisor using smart glasses.
Stefan Marks
School of Future Environments
Thinking outside the volume: a suite of micro-projects intended to stretch the usual use of AUTs Virtual Production Volume (VPV).
Prof Tania Ka’ai & Toi Williams
Te Ipukarea Research Institute
Staff and students will be recorded saying their pepeha and showcasing their origins demonstrating their engagement with te reo Māori in the workplace in the VP studio.
Tet Chuan Lee and Jyoti
School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Wearable goniometry system for non-optical motion capture. A wearable prototype sleeve that can track the motion of an arm and elbow joint.
Jason Kennedy & Dionne Joseph
School of Art & Design
This project will scope opportunities to utilise virtual production tools in the design phase of the live Afro-Futuristic performance stage production Dimensions in Black by Keagan Carr Fransch, directed by Dione Joseph and to be presented in 2026 by Black Creatives Aotearoa.
Justin Matthews
School of Communication Studies
Bridging Physical and Digital Worlds: Investigating how large-scale interfaces might replicate or enhance the “spatial sense” users experience in physical environments.