Leading creative software developer The Foundry have unveiled ColorwayAR, a 21-month industrial research project backed by Innovate UK, which will allow creative professionals to streamline pipelines by viewing designed objects within augmented reality (AR) before physical prototyping occurs. The Foundry will be leading the project and has announced that the involvement of partners The Footsoldiers: one of the largest independent footwear design consultancies in the world.
By leveraging this technology, product designers will be able to creative interactive AR environments inside Foundry’s Colorway application. From here they will b able to share their creations with internal and external stakeholders who can interact and collaborate within the AR space. This solution is also able to automatically transform 2D design images and presentation into a projected, interactive image that can be viewed on a flat surface allowing creative profession to bring their ideas to life on the desk in front of them.
“AR has the potential to save creative professionals vast amounts of time during the design process.” Explains Brendon Marczan, Product Manager at Foundry: “We’re excited to be bringing AR capabilities into Colorway, in order to improve collaboration and showcase projects in an entirely digital medium. AR used to be a difficult technology for creatives to use, but ColorwayAR is set to change that.”
ColorwayAR aims to reduce the need for physical prototypes, creating less of a burden on the supply chain and ensuring a faster turnaround in getting ideas to market for new products. Designers and creative professionals will be able to focus on and work on their concepts digitally, exploring their creative vision in an interactive, non-destructive way.
Thanks to it’s intuitive system, a dynamic one-click solution, creatives will be able to use it without having any previous experience using traditional 3D design applications or in 3D modeling. ColorwayAR also incorporates visualization technology from Foundry’s Academy Award winning Nuke software.
“Innovate UK believes that immersive technologies, such as AR, will be the cornerstone of the next revolution in the creative industries.” Comments Tom Fiddian, Creative Economy Lead at Innovate UK: “We are delighted to fund this project which involves two of the UK’s leading creative companies, innovating together with AR. ColorwayAR aims to radically improve productivity within the creative design process, through the exploitation of this emerging technology. This project has cross-sector applications for the whole of the UK’s creative industries, and has the potential to disrupt a number of other high value industries, such as automotive and healthcare.”
With the funding and support of Innovate UK, Foundry will now research and develop the AR visualization tool for the footwear space before branching out to the broader design industry including apparel, accessories and packaged goods. This advanced engineering project will commence in late 2018 and VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest so stay tuned for more.
