Case Study: University of South Florida creates immersive campus virtual sets with Groove Jones

University of South Florida recreates 9 campus locations for volumetric productions with Groove Jones

The University of South Florida's Innovative Education Studios sought to enhance its online course content by creating immersive 3D environments for use with its volumetric stage. The challenge was to digitally recreate specific campus locations to allow for flexible filming without the constraints of weather, time of day, or on-location logistics. They partnered with vendor Groove Jones to achieve this.

Groove Jones utilized drone footage and advanced techniques like NeRFs and photogrammetry to build highly optimized, high-fidelity 3D models in Unreal Engine 5. The solution delivered nine distinct, photorealistic virtual sets of USF campus locations, which provided realistic lighting and accommodated 360 shooting angles. This empowered the university to produce content with greater versatility and higher production quality, successfully demonstrating Groove Jones's expertise in adapting emerging volumetric stage technology for educational use.

University of South Florida