In October last year, four Bristol creatives embarked on the second run of a unique, twelve week scholarship from innovative local tech start-up Condense, in partnership with Access Creative College and LocalGlobe.
Over three months, the scholars were guided through a cutting-edge programme of study focused on bringing live events to virtual spaces through digital graphics, 3D modelling, real-time VFX, plugin integration and more. The gaming industry is a billion-dollar business, and continues to grow apace, with the gaming market worth over £400 billion in 2023. Gaming, and live events within games, are expected to be a key developing technology in coming years.
The Condense scholarship provided an opportunity to not only give home-grown talent a head start in an emerging industry, but also to help increase diversity in the wider technology industry, which is currently addressing a lack of women and people from minority backgrounds. There are signs of improvement, with Ofqual data showing a 17.8% increase in women studying A Level Computing between 2021 and 2022, and that “the tech industry has a higher proportion of BAME people (15.2%) than the labour market as a whole” (Prospects). However, there is still work to be done to ensure the future of the technology sector is both diverse and equal.
Whilst a primary focus of the twelve-week programme was building virtual venues in game engine Unity and Condense’s own, bespoke product Studio 5, scholars also got to experience the company’s one-of-a-kind live events rig, used to capture performances to use in virtual events.
The rig was also used as the centrepoint for the culmination of this year’s scholarship, hosting a showcase of the work produced over the programme. All scholars took to the stage and gave a demonstration of their finished pieces, talking about how they were created and their reasoning behind design choices. You can watch how they got on below:
The scholarship has been an incredible success, providing new skills in emerging technologies and opportunities to 9 intrepid young Bristol creatives. For more on Condense, visit their website.
And if you’d like to explore the exciting world of technology, check out our T Level in Software Development, currently accepting applications for September now!