Moov shifts to Unreal Engine for ITV’s Rugby World Cup graphics

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Friday, November 3, 2023 - 10:09
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ITV teamed up with Moov once again for the production of virtual studio and AR content for the broadcaster’s Rugby World Cup 2023 coverage, with Moov making a shift towards Unreal Engine.

For the first time, Moov created, built and animated virtual and augmented graphics solely in Unreal Engine, whereas previously, it was a mixture of Unreal and Brainstorm. Brainstorm was used to implement and look after elements such as tracking and masking.

Moov director and co-founder Nev Appleton said: “It always makes sense for your creative teams to be working and collaborating in the same space.

“By putting everything that we do, especially the creation and the operation into Unreal Engine, that means all the artistry is in the same platform.

“It also means that when we’re approving graphics with a client, we’re not showing them pre-vis or renders of something which are then going to be interpreted into a scene, which might then look different. Everything is being originated in the final version. It’s really powerful that when a director, or a creative director, signs something off what they’re seeing is what they will get.”

Anything that ITV Sport does in the future with Moov will be based on this Unreal creative workflow.

Appleton added: “We now have what we always wanted to get to, which is a pure Unreal workflow, instead of things being built in various bits of software. And on top of that, we’ve spent some time developing one of our products called Moov Orion, which is our operational control system.

Read more Inside the production of ITV’s Rugby World Cup 2023 coverage

“We’ve now got that working direct with Unreal Engine. So all those AR graphics, those rich, data-filled graphics, are being controlled by software as well, which makes the whole thing more productive and functional for the ops in the gallery.”

“We are vendor agnostic and we have worked with lots of different partners and engines, but when it comes to a virtual studio and AR, it’s a lot nicer for our teams operationally and from a software point of view to have one system that controls everything, rather than something which controls AR, something else that controls virtual screens and backdrops.

“And now, with everything in one place, we can start to build on that and look at other areas such as analysis, telestration, additional data, and so on.”

ITV used a Moov-created studio setup that was first used for the Six Nations and then for the Women’s World Cup as the base for its coverage of the group stages of the tournament.

A new shot for the Rugby World Cup was the balcony shot, developed specifically for ITV’s Rugby World Cup coverage, which allowed the broadcaster to have a daytime, dusk and night time backdrop of Paris, creating a skyscape with parallax.

The creative aspect of the project – including the balcony scene – was led by designers Jim Mann and Toby Kalitowski while Moov was responsible for the technology, the build of the AR elements and the integration work .

Speaking about the shift to Unreal, Moov creative director Adam Lawrence added: “It really opens up how we can push our graphics and make sure that everything feels seamless, and it is now fully integrated.

“With this new compositing engine, it’s providing much more freedom. For us, we’re always thinking about what the viewer is going to see, and we want to make that seamless for them. It comes down to efficiency as well; budgets are always getting tighter. And if we can be more efficient and make sure the client sees what they need from day one, that’s a benefit to us.”

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