GroundLink: Exploring How Contextual Meeting Snippets Can Close Common Ground Gaps in Editing 3D Scenes for Virtual Production

TL;DR

GroundLink is a Unity tool that enhances collaboration in virtual production by providing contextual meeting snippets and decision tracking, thereby closing common ground gaps and improving editing efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Unity add-on with a dashboard, constraint-aware feedforward, and cross-modal links to support knowledge sharing in virtual production workflows.

Findings

Improves perceived confidence and ease of scene editing

Helps build common ground among team members

Shows strong potential in real-world VP workflows

Abstract

Virtual Production (VP) professionals often face challenges accessing tacit knowledge and creative intent, which are important in forming common ground with collaborators and in contributing more effectively and efficiently to the team. From our formative study (N=23) with a follow-up interview (N=6), we identified the significance and prevalence of this challenge. To help professionals access knowledge, we present GroundLink, a Unity add-on that surfaces meeting-derived knowledge directly in the editor to support establishing common ground. It features a meeting knowledge dashboard for capturing and reviewing decisions and comments, constraint-aware feedforward that proactively informs the editor environment, and cross-modal synchronization that provides referential links between the dashboard and the editor. A comparative study (N=12) suggested that GroundLink help users build common ground with their team while improving perceived confidence and ease of editing the 3D scene. An expert evaluation with VP professionals (N=5) indicated strong potential for GroundLink in real-world workflows.