{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,2]],"date-time":"2025-10-02T00:41:00Z","timestamp":1759365660824,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]],"date-time":"2025-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1759190400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CloudClass: Low Cost, Mobile, Cloud & Template Based Augmented Reality Studio for Education","award":["Eurostars-E115354"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Eurostars-E115354"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004837","name":"National Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan of the State Research Agency and the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, through Next Generation funding from the European Union","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EQC2021-007535-P"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EQC2021-007535-P"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004837","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.mdpi.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Informatics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The technical and technological advances of recent years in the field of real-time photorealistic rendering have enabled enormous development in virtual production. However, the democratization of this technology faces two main obstacles: the high economic cost of implementation and the high complexity of the necessary software. This paper studies three virtual production software solutions that represent different stages in the democratization process of the technology, ranging from the professional software InfinitySet, to the more generalist and educational environment Edison, and to the cloud version of this same software, Edison OnCloud. To this end, an analysis of their functionalities and interfaces is conducted, the SUS questionnaire is applied, and the three systems are evaluated from the perspective of Nielsen\u2019s usability principles. These tests demonstrate the complexity of the professional software InfinitySet, making it unapproachable for non-expert users without extensive previous training. On the other hand, both Edison and Edison OnCloud show significant usability improvements through limiting and reducing functionalities, which also results in a reduction in implementation costs, making the use of the technology feasible in non-professional environments, such as in education or for streamers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/informatics12040104","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]],"date-time":"2025-09-30T08:21:51Z","timestamp":1759220511000},"page":"104","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Democratization of Virtual Production: Usability Analysis of Three Solutions with Different Levels of Complexity: Professional, Educational and Cloud-Based"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2405-6538","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roi","family":"M\u00e9ndez-Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Communicaction Sciences, North Campus, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3704-7297","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roc\u00edo del Pilar","family":"Sosa-Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Communicaction Sciences, North Campus, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-8091-8237","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"F\u00e1tima","family":"Fern\u00e1ndez-Ledo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Communicaction Sciences, North Campus, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1915-3990","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Enrique","family":"Castell\u00f3-Mayo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Communicaction Sciences, North Campus, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Silva Jasaui, D., Mart\u00ed-Test\u00f3n, A., Mu\u00f1oz, A., Moriniello, F., Solanes, J.E., and Gracia, L. 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