Undoubtedly, the world is moving towards virtual environments where production crews don’t need to leave their towns, leading to the emergence of virtual production studios worldwide. However, these studios share a common challenge: a shortage of high-quality environments and locations that meet their rigorous standards.
This industry need, combined with advancements in radiance fields – initially through NeRFs and later Gaussian Splatting – paved the way for co-founders Jess Loren and Erick Geisler. Loren, a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits, joined forces with production veteran Geisler to establish Global Objects at the beginning of virtual production’s ascent.
In our conversation, we touched upon the current state of production, where it’s heading and the gaps that still need to be filled in. Gaps that Loren and Geisler hope to fill.
The Genesis of Global Objects Filling the Gap in Virtual Production
It began with the pair looking to open a stage of their own, when Loren began to notice a content availability issue. Like any seasoned entrepreneur knows, when you spot a problem with no available solution, sometimes the larger opportunity is to pivot and become the solution. Global Objects’ pivot came serendipitously with the advent of radiance fields and spotted the potential synergy with their model.
The lifelike output of radiance fields perfectly aligns with Global Objects’ mission to transport crews to distant locations virtually. This realization initiated their quest to amass a vast collection of sought-after locations, striving to create the world’s largest repository of high-fidelity environments.
With how easy it has become to create lifelike representations, it also presents a double edged sword in that there is no minimum standard or threshold for fidelity, making it difficult to find the best of the best. Global Objects addresses this by curating a repository of top-quality radiance fields, ensuring their clients receive only the best.
Global Objects serves a wide range of clients, from top-tier film studios to students exploring production for the first time. In more and more growing cases, students are beginning to have access to LED walls and are learning virtual production. It’s an easy selling point for students to learn, as not only does it appear the larger industry is headed in that direction, but also the creative freedom that comes along with virtual production cannot be overstated. Through virtual production, students can film in dream locations like Grand Central Terminal, the Las Vegas Strip, and even the Warner Backlot. But the same question arises; how will they have access to these locations? Yet again, we see the need for a high fidelity digital library of production ready assets from Global Objects.
“If you’re going to have a virtual production stage for one day and you’re paying $20,000. Well, you better get as much content that you can.” Jess Loren, CEO Global ObjectsTweet
If a decent size of your budget is going towards a virtual stage for a single day, you need to know that your time will be efficient, well tested, and result in high fidelity shots. Global Objects enables transitions from diverse settings like hospitals to bedrooms, catering to the specific needs of different productions.
Navigating the Digital Future Protecting and Leveraging IP Rights in an Immersive World
As the world gravitates towards a hyper-real digital future, the importance of protecting and monetizing digital likenesses becomes paramount. Sooner than we imagine, the world will digitized in lifelike quality, a future in which Loren aims “to be the largest digital land baroness in the world.” This transition to an immersive digital future is well underway already and businesses need to begin contemplating how to protect and monetize their digital likeness.
Another major consideration of Global Objects is championing the rights of these IP owners and partnering with them to protect their likeness. With significant content, like Mickey Mouse, entering the public domain this year, it’s become immediately clear why having a champion looking after how your image and likeness is handled, especially in an immersive world.
It’s going to be companies such as Global Objects that drive these conversations forwards and begin to flesh out what this precedent will look like.
The conversation also extended to how companies can leverage their digital IP and properly account for it. While Nike has recently introduced .Swoosh, partially to begin exploring a virtual iteration of their products, there is so much more they can expand on.
Jess Loren stands out in the radiance field space, not just as one of its few female Chief Executives, but also for her exceptional leadership skills. She has skillfully built a strong network and forged strategic alliances, while also finding unexpected allies like LinkedIn demonstrates her resilience and innovative approach.
As part of the pursuit of the goal to build the largest library of high quality 3D assets and virtual environments, Global Objects has raised a $5 Million funding round, led by the Cuelho Family Office and has also joined NVIDIA’s Inception program, in addition to Microsoft’s Founders Hub.
You can reach Loren and the Global Objects team on Linkedin.
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