The Western Australian government has announced $2 million in pilot funding for the state's digital games and interactive sector to support supporting content development, capability development, and strategic industry-building opportunities.
Former VFX coordinator Lucy Cooke launched visual planning tool SpaceDraft out of frustration, having seen too many complicated scenes and stunts planned out with scale models – even toy cars and figurines. Her software has now raised $2.7 million in seed funding and is starting to reshape industry communication.
As Amy Doherty’s career shifted from television to virtual reality, she kept coming up against hurdles. She found she lacked a shared language with programmers to convey her ideas. Writing things out, it was hard to express timing, the depths of the interactive worlds or non-linear storylines on the page. She’d even resorted to building dioramas. After learning about SpaceDraft she found a simpler way to communicate her ideas around journey, atmosphere and tone.
When many film students start out, the first thing they want to do is pick up the camera. When teachers have step in to remind them of the importance of pre-production, it can feel like putting a halt on their students’ creativity. However, educators say new software is helping to ‘gamify’ production planning.