The visual storytelling platform and a market leader in extended reality (xR) solutions, disguise, launched its latest software release, r21, unlocking improved functionality of its Designer software interface and RenderStream workflows, as well as introducing new tools for managing color workflows. The release promises enhanced performance of the disguise software for productions across all of disguise’s wide-reaching industry applications, from live shows to virtual productions, broadcasts, and fixed installations.
Developed throughout the last 20 years as a pioneering solution to previsualize and deliver show stopping concert visuals for some of the world’s biggest artists, disguise has always held its community of users, customers, and partners at the heart of its development pipeline.
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disguise’s award-winning xR workflow, officially launched as part of software release r18 last year, is a case in point. Developed in close partnership with a select group of disguise users around the world who field tested the release and shared feedback and improvements to the disguise development team over the course of two years, disguise xR has since become a leading global solution for extended reality and virtual production.
r21 is no different. Built on feedback from industry experts and practitioners, as well as insights from disguise’s Live and Color Insider groups, the new release has been tried and tested on various live productions—from Hans Zimmer’s much awaited 2022 European Tour, and new theatre shows around the UK such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The 47th—as well as virtual productions by La Planete Rouge in France and XR Studios at their new Hollywood studio location.
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“What makes r21 stand out from previous releases is that it allowed our team to test it with our user community on site for various productions—an extremely valuable opportunity that previously couldn’t happen due to Covid restrictions," said disguise head of software engineering, James Bentley. "The ability to work alongside them and see first-hand what challenges they face is hugely insightful for us as we develop solutions and features to address them."
r21 introduces a suite of new features to its core software interface, allowing its diverse range of users, which include workflow specialists, screens producers, creative designers and technical producers, to work with disguise more efficiently. The release also brings significant improvements to disguise’s RenderStream infrastructure—a core element within its workflow that integrates the disguise hardware, software, content engines and camera tracking to deliver seamless productions.
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Finally, r21 also includes new features that improve color management within the disguise workflow. Color management is at the core of every production, so with help from the disguise color insider group, the team took a closer look at its existing color workflow end to end and developed new features that enable color grading with accuracy, while also introducing support for widely used color formats.
disguise r21 is available to download for free from disguise’s homepage and available in seven languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. As part of the company’s mission to lower the barrier of entry to its production tools and better serve its growing global community, users have been able to enjoy free access to disguise’s software licence for the past two years and more recently even use the software in their local language.
