CoSTAR Realtime Lab: Realtime Performance & Scene Intelligence

Digital production in film, games, and live streaming is evolving rapidly. Productions increasingly rely on complex pipelines involving full-body mocap, facial capture, volumetric scans, and digital doubles. Simultaneously, the need for dynamic, adaptive, and reusable volumetric environments is growing as virtual production becomes a global standard. Yet, these processes often lack a unified, realtime foundation.

CoSTAR Realtime Lab invites partners from the creative technologies, film, gaming animation or virtual production industries to collaborate on an ambitious research initiative. We aim to unify performance capture, volumetric reconstruction, and Gaussian Splatting into next-generation realtime pipelines, while also building intelligent 3D scene technologies that can be captured once, understood automatically, and reused across productions. This collaboration aims to deliver transformative end-to-end workflows for on-set filmmaking, in-engine game animation, and realtime streaming.

CoSTAR Realtime Lab will support at least two flagship pilot projects. Projects may be delivered by a single company or consortium. Consortium bids must be led by company registered and trading in the UK. Successful bidders will receive a comprehensive support package combining grant funding, in-kind access to facilities, and expert technical and creative support to develop and demonstrate a working prototype or proof of concept at CoSTAR Realtime Lab.

The support package consists of:

• In-kind access: Each project may access up to 20 days of on-site development time at CoSTAR Realtime Lab, equivalent to four working weeks. On-site access is available Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30, and does not include weekends. This access includes use of CoSTAR Realtime Lab’s R&D infrastructure, including the virtual production studio, software development lab, capture and motion tracking systems, audio infrastructure, Presence Lab (XR) and user experience facilities. Please see Realtime Lab’s full specification page on our website for a description of the Realtime Lab facilities.
• Expert support: Projects will receive targeted support from CoSTAR Realtime Lab’s technical and research teams, alongside access to CoSTAR’s wider network of industry and academic specialists. The scope and level of this support will be agreed during contracting and may include technical consultancy, creative production support and systems integration. Find out more about Realtime Lab’s page on our website for a description of Realtime Lab's expertise.
• Cash funding: CoSTAR Realtime Lab has a total grant budget of £100,000 available for this call. We expect to support at least two projects, with individual awards typically in the region of £25,000 to £50,000. The final distribution of funding will depend on the quality, ambition and balance of applications received. Please note: projects may have a higher total value than the grant award where applicants contribute additional in-kind resources, such as staff time, equipment or other investment. Applications must clearly state both the total project value and the specific cash funding requested from CoSTAR Realtime Lab. Please see the downloadable Applicant Guidance Pack below for full details on how to complete your Budget including Eligible Costs.
• Application or Participation Support: CoSTAR also provides Access Support Bursaries, based on a disability, health condition, or access need, to support those making applications to, or participating in, our Industry Access Programmes. For more information on the Access Support Bursaries and how to apply please click here.

CoSTAR Realtime Lab has technical resources and expertise in motion and volumetric capture, photogrammetry and RealityScan to support collaborative R&D-led innovation with creative and technology companies.

We are seeking R&D partnerships to create pipelines for high-fidelity digital assets, performances, and environments. Applicants may propose projects focused on Real-Time Performance AND/OR Volumetric/3D Environments.

Focus Area 1: Real-Time Performance

We are looking for R&D proposals that explore synchronised performance systems that merge:

• Full-body motion capture and facial expression tracking.
• Voice/audio performance and volumetric capture technology.
• Realtime Gaussian Splatting for high-fidelity representations.

Potential R&D areas include:

• Unified Multimodal Capture: Realtime body, face, audio & volumetric capture compatible with Vicon, OptiTrack, Rokoko, Xsens & more.
• Adaptive Retargeting: Realistic, stylised & volumetric avatar support with high-accuracy rig and blendshape mapping.
• Low-Latency Live Performance: Realtime virtual production stages and streamable volumetric/splat characters for broadcast & VTubing.

Focus Area 2: Volumetric Environments & Scene Intelligence

We seek to support R&D that explores environments that can be captured once, understood automatically, adapted in realtime, and reused with minimal manual effort. This integrates volumetric capture, scene intelligence, machine learning–driven adaptation, and modular environment design.

Key Innovations:

• Volumetric/Motion Capture & Reconstruction: Large-scale, high-fidelity environment acquisition with efficient reconstruction for realtime playback.
• Scene Intelligence & ML Automation: Semantic understanding of volumetric/3D environments, including automatic relighting, scaling, and spatial alignment.
• Modular, Reusable Environment Design: Library of volumetric components and metadata-rich assets for fast search and dynamic building and recomposition.

We are seeking proposals from:

Realtime Lab seeks to collaborate with companies or individuals with experience of building and operating volumetric capture systems.

• Digital/creative technology companies
• Film & VFX studios
• Game developers & engine teams
• Virtual production technology providers
• Volumetric capture companies
• Live streaming / VTubing platforms
• Research in graphics & neural rendering

These projects will also help the CoSTAR Network to trial, test and showcase new ways of supporting R&D in the creative industries. The projects selected through this call are expected to deliver tangible outputs. These may be early-stage prototypes or proof-of-concept demonstrations, or later stage product developments that leverage CoSTAR Realtime Lab advanced infrastructure.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate a clear rationale for how their R&D projects could lead to commercial opportunities for their business, and why the CoSTAR support package on offer is needed to unlock these opportunities.