The Rochester Institute of Tehcnology officially unveiled its Magic Spell Studios Tuesday.

It is a multidisciplinary creative technology space designed to help student stay on the cutting edge of film, digital media and game development.

The Rochester Institute of Technology's newest addition certainly lives up to its name.

With mind-bending technology and state-of-the-art equipment, the campus’ Magic Spell Studios, officially unveiled on Tuesday, will take RIT’s film and digital media programs to the frontier of virtual/augmented reality and game development.

The 52,000-square-foot facility includes a theater, film sound stage and creative making spaces among other amenities.

RIT’s Magic Center (which stands for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity) was established in 2013 by founding director Andrew Phelps, and was instrumental in growing these disciplines on campus. Now, it has a permanent spot to expand and evolve.

New York state funding of $13.5 million helped bring the facility to fruition, as well as funding from Cisco, Dell, the Wegman Family Charitable Foundation and Austin McChord, a 2009 RIT graduate and founder of Datto.

The gaming technology industry is growing at lightning speed, with talent and technology also highly sought after in the animation, filmmaking and app design fields. The new facility will give students the tools they need to build products that can be marketed in the real world.

The global games market is expected to be worth about $115 billion this year, said RIT President David Munson.

The industry employs over 220,000 people in the U.S., and “we intend with Magic Spells Studios to grow more of those jobs right here in the Rochester region,” he said.

“I’m convinced that Magic Spell Studios will provide the Finger Lakes region with an additional competitive edge as an industry hub, building on an established climate of creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit that has defined this community and this university for many decades,” he said.

RIT is one of three state-designated digital gaming hubs, and the university runs award-winning academic programs in interactive games and media, and in film and animation.

Students from these programs will be brought together under the Magic Spell Studios roof to bring their wildest ideas to fruition, said Magic Center and Magic Spell Studios Director David Long. The building’s functions are mainly focused on game design, interactive design like virtual reality, and film production projects with live action and animation, he said.

These disciplines attract “students who, when they graduate, might be interested in starting their own studios and start-up efforts,” said Long. “There are classes here in Magic Spell Studios, but it’s fundamentally a research space and a making space.”

Enrollment in RIT’s game design and development programs has increased by 150 percent since 2009, and the new Magic facility will supercharge that momentum by providing bright minds with further opportunities to shine, said Long.

“This’ll permit us to grow those programs, which are already in huge demand, meaning we’re just attracting that much more talent to learn here and to make here, and hopefully to incubate and start building some businesses here,” he said.

STADDEO@Gannett.com