Asset & Metadata

Asset & Metadata Workflow

Use of a HAND ID™ begins its journey “from script to screens” immediately when a project is greenlit, tracking the supply chain every step of the way – and often multiple times in a single step, e.g., in production planning (see diagram), when production assets are inventoried based on storyboarding and/or a production bible (naturally varying according to project needs). In the same timeframe, a HAND ID™ tracks the contracts signed in production planning as a unique identifier, capturing it for reference as a Talent ID. This Talent ID, combined with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), is also retained for Rights Management.

Note Rights Management in this workflow also interfaces with an Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR, eidr.org), an open system for tracking entertainment industry assets. EIDR identifies the actual asset(s) by cross-referencing its IDs with an Asset Management System (AMS), which represents the focal point of all digital asset captures.

Digital Assets requiring a tracking identifier are captured through a variety of scanning methods, both real-time (e.g., photogrammetry, metadata capture, point cloud, 2D-to-3D Neural Radiance Fields, [NeRF)) and from existing digital libraries (e.g., volumetric, metadata). Note many of these assets arise from direct digital capture of human characteristics (e.g., body, voice, and other Name/Image/Likeness/Voice [NILV] attributes) and all tags and metadata associated with it. Digital assets from the HAND ID™-fed Talent ID database (see above), combined with those scanned and pulled from archives are then stored in an AMS through the auspices of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA); this allows all captured digital asset data to track with HAND ID™ identifiers via DOIs provided by the Talent ID and Rights Management databases.

With a likely mix of real-time and archived or previously scanned digital assets, the AMS would also necessarily be under a version control system – which would also accept asset updates and change data also via C2PA auspices.

Digital assets are then made available in the proper file format to the Creation/Production process of entertainment creation, e.g., production, virtual production, post-production, VFX, Game/AR/VR and product modeling. Any asset updates from these processes, including creation of new assets, are captured (along with their metadata) and tracked by the AMS (and HAND ID™).

Finally, HAND ID™ tracks digital assets through distribution – which can take the form of innumerable products and services, many of which have probably yet to be realized. Current product/service lines include film/streaming programming, live events (news, sports), advertising/marketing, games, VR/AR, customer services and merchandising. Digital asset utility for these product/service lines are limited only by creators’ imaginations, but already include VFX, virtual actors and presenters, interactive adverts, and immersive virtual environments.