G.E.M.I.X.: Game Engine Movie Interaction eXperience

The use of Computer Graphics in the production of movies and Visual Effects is a well-known and established practice in the today industry. Due to the articulated structure of a movie production pipeline, there is a continous need for advanced tools aimed at speeding-up and optimizing the work of each pipeline department. In particular, previsualization represents a crucial step of the pipeline, because it helps to visually evaluate the potentiality of a scene before the final production by using an approximated version of its features (models, animations, etc). In this paper, we describe the design and implementation choices at the basis of G.E.M.I.X. (Game Engine Movie Interaction eXperience), a tool for the interactive production of previsualizations, implemented as an extension of the Unreal 4 game engine. In particular, we have focused our efforts in the analysis and implementation of the visual interface of G.E.M.I.X.. We have adopted a Human-Centered Design approach, collaborating with professionals in the visual effects production, and analyzing their specific needs and requirements, in order to allow a rapid adoption of the G.E.M.I.X. as the main previsualization tool in the production pipeline.