StoryFutures and Final Pixel partner to upskill creative industries

The alliance will see Final Pixel and StoryFutures work together at Royal Holloway, where the teams plan to address creativity and skills gaps in the future of media production.

The partnership builds on StoryFutures’ reputation for research and development (R&D) programmes in the creative industries and Final Pixel’s expertise in virtual production.

Final Pixel is taking up a residency at Royal Holloway’s Futures Studio, a virtual studio that is jointly funded by Surrey County Council. This is expected to enable Final Pixel to extend its Virtual Production training opportunities, while also providing technical, innovation, and training support for local companies and students as part of the StoryFutures collaboration.

Linked to the CoSTAR National Lab for Creative Industries R&D, led by Royal Holloway, the partnership reportedly has the potential to help address national skills shortages in emerging technologies such as generative AI for virtual production.

Amanda Murphy, Head of Partnerships and Training at StoryFutures for Royal Holloway, said: “By uniting our resources and expertise, we can really innovate to enable diverse creatives to get hands-on with exciting new technologies in our onsite studio, built for the future of production, to drive new forms of media.”

Michael McKenna, CEO and Director of Virtual Production at Final Pixel, added: “This will enable us to collaboratively develop solutions to address skills gaps and drive R&D innovation in emerging areas of technology.”

Studio Ulster, a virtual production facility spanning 75,000ft², recently launched in Northern Ireland. Discover more here.