Description:
Virtual Cinematics Tool for Film Collaboration
虛擬電影協作工具
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Zurich University of the Arts and the FilmEU European Universities Alliance for Film and Media Arts joined forces to create cineDESK. It started out as a shared tool for planning films in education. Over time, through teamwork and hands-on studies, it grew into a worldwide network for working together.
Innovating film education through virtual production
The tool facilitates scene blocking and staging for previsualisation. Producers, directors, cinematographers, production designers and other creative leads explore together, on a multi-touch table, how space, light, props and acting will translate into cinematic sequences.
The great advantage of working this way is its collaborative potential: all the creative crew can work at once to find the optimum visualisation.
Revolutionising the creative process
Unreal Engine renders real-time, photorealistic 3D sequences from virtual actors and camera movements. Advanced features integrate real actors through motion capture and face tracking. The virtual camera is controlled by touchscreen, or by a position-tracked iPad for a more intuitive feel. More recently we have co-developed additional control systems with local university teams, adding the virtual dolly and Gear Head Simulator.
Recording how films are made, to build AI tools for the industry here
Gathering information from real practice is a crucial step towards more robust and practical AI systems. By converting previously uncollectable practical data into digital form, cineDESK captures insights that were simply not reachable before — through sensors, virtual cameras and other data-collection devices recording real interactions, processes and production detail.
Teamwork data matters most. It lets us analyse how people collaborate, share information and solve problems collectively — and from that, build a local data model of the Hong Kong film industry, to help develop AI systems that emulate and enhance human teamwork rather than replace it.
Creativity has long been considered a uniquely human trait. Gathering data on how people actually generate novel ideas is the unexplored part of this.
Action cinema is the heart of Hong Kong film, and what made it world-class was a style of its own. Watch how these films are actually made and you find that style comes from a habit of constant adaptation — of changing the plan on the floor, again and again, until it works. You see it in action crews more than anywhere else. But almost none of it was ever written down. Directors and cinematographers create in the moment, and when the day ends the reasoning goes with them.
What I want is to turn that practical knowledge into something that can be examined — to give a shape to work that has never had one. It would let students take hold of the techniques and the thinking behind Hong Kong filmmaking, not only its results. And as the data accumulates it becomes a record of how Hong Kong films are made: something to meet the force of AI cinema with, and perhaps to generate work in a genuinely Hong Kong style, so that the tradition carries on.
The art of connection
In an ever-changing world, the art of forging genuine connections stays constant. Whether with colleagues, clients or partners, real rapport is what makes collaboration work. cineDESK is an important step in carrying the Hong Kong film industry towards virtual production and towards an AI dataset of its own.
Partners:
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)
FilmEU European Universities Alliance for Film and Media Arts
Team:
Manuel Hendry, ZHdK
Valentin Huber, ZHdK
Norbert Kottmann, ZHdK
Dr Terry Lam, HKAPA
Vincent Cheung, HKAPA
Technology:
Unreal Engine
Multi-touch table
Motion capture and face tracking
Position-tracked iPad camera
Virtual dolly and Gear Head Simulator
Recognition:
Global Top 10, User Experience Design
Global Design Awards 2025
Details:
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