3D scanning in education is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s becoming a hands-on reality for young creatives exploring careers in film and digital storytelling. However, the film production industry can be a tough place to navigate for young people. Understanding where you fit in, especially without knowing how it all fits together, can be daunting.
Opening doors, offering real industry exposure, and investing in emerging talent isn’t just good practice. Sometimes a young person’s first hands-on experience is the turning point, when they realise that this could truly be their future.
The future of digital capture, immersive storytelling, and spatial computing, in our opinion at Visualskies, lies not just in the technologies we create but also in the next generation we inspire.
Over the past few months, we’ve been fortunate to collaborate with young minds across a range of meaningful projects from immersive educational gaming to real-world problem-solving on active productions.
Young creatives not only rise to the occasion, but frequently raise the bar when given the proper resources and confidence. For this reason, we do not view investing in the next generation as a side project. It is a component of the future we are building.
Building Next Generation Real-World Tools with Work Experience Students
Some work experience placements can offer little more than a week of shadowing, a glimpse behind the curtain, perhaps, but not much beyond that. We decided to approach things differently.
Recently, we welcomed two separate pairs of work experience students into the Visualskies office. Rather than giving them a made-up task or a training scenario, we immersed them in an actual production challenge: improving how we manage quality control for our delivery folders.
Using Python, they developed a prototype tool that looks through our project delivery folders and highlights any missing or incorrectly stores files, potentially saving our team hours. This wasn’t just a theoretical task; it’s the kind of time-saving tool our internal team has flagged as a future need. The students designed it, tested it, and helped us move a step closer to production integration.
Watching them take ownership of the problem, iterate through debugging, and land on a solution was a reminder of how quickly young talent can contribute when they’re given meaningful problems and the right support.
A Virtual Parliament Built by Kids, for Kids
Working alongside Rosie Durac and the Children’s Parliament to create a one-off video game, with them as the lead!
At Visualskies, we’re used to exploring ancient cities, scanning cliffside ruins, and helping world-class production teams build digital environments for film and television. But few projects have been as uplifting and inspiring as our recent collaboration with Sky News and the Children’s Parliament.
The Sir David Amess Children’s Parliament is a national initiative that empowers young voices to engage with politics and public life. Founded in honour of the late MP’s commitment to youth involvement, it provides a platform for children to debate real issues in a formal parliamentary setting.
In session at the Children’s Parliament
Children’s Chancellor of the Exchequer being scanned in the Visualskies Cyber Rig
Children’s Parliament Prime Minister and her digi-double
Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders in a Digital World
The challenge was clear: could we help to begin building an interactive environment where young minds could experience the complexities of governance first hand? A space where imagination drives real-world learning, and where skills like critical thinking, debate, and collaboration take centre stage.
For our part in bringing this vision to life, our expert team used the Visualskies Cyber Rig (our bespoke image capture system) to create high-fidelity 3D avatars of the Children’s Parliament’s Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and Prime Minister. These avatars were then placed into a custom-designed virtual world powered by Unreal Engine, crafted by our in-house development and scanning teams.
More Than Just Play
While the experience was entertaining, it wasn’t all fun and games. For Naila and Ayran, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was a mission with purpose. They were gathering insight for a planned educational game to help other students navigate complex social scenarios, build their own parliaments, and engage meaningfully with the democratic process. It is a powerful reminder of how spatial computing can unlock creativity, confidence, and leadership for a new generation.
By combining interactive storytelling with real-time decision-making and collaborative gameplay, the game aims to teach young people the skills and frameworks they need to become tomorrow’s leaders.
Visualskies and the David Amess Children’s Parliament Collaboration, a Fresh Start Media production for Sky News
Pushing the Boundaries of Educational Technology
It’s projects like this that remind us why we do what we do at Visualskies, they show how 3D scanning in education isn’t just theoretical — it has practical, creative, and career-launching impact.
From high-resolution scanning and real-time visualisation to volumetric capture and digital world-building, we believe in using advanced technology to make complex stories more tangible, engaging, and human, whether those stories are centuries old or still unfolding.
Bringing history to life is one thing. Helping shape the future? That’s something else entirely.
We have also been paving the way for technological breakthroughs too.
Read about our research into gaussian splatting here
Questions About Youth Involvement in 3D Scanning
Q: How can 3D scanning be used in education?
A:It can turn learning into hands-on exploration through digitising artefacts to building virtual worlds, students are able to engage with history, science, and storytelling in totally new ways.
Q: What skills do students learn from 3D scanning projects?
A: They pick up real-world tools: Python, 3D modelling, game engines, teamwork, and problem-solving — all with direct industry relevance.
Q: Can young people really contribute to professional scanning work?
A: They absolutely can. With the right support, they don’t just learn, they use their youthful creativity and problem solving to build tools, shape environments, and add real value to live projects.
WHERE TO FIND US?
Visualskies is proud to offer our expert Photogrammetry services for VFX across multiple locations worldwide. Our presence in key cities enables us to provide prompt and efficient service to our clients. You can find us in the following locations.
Mobile Photogrammetry Rigs VFX London
5 Havelock Terrace
Battersea
London
SW8 4AS
United Kingdom
