Trevor Hogg meets the team behind breakthrough VR animation Invasion! to learn what the future has in store for the medium.
Generally the hype surrounding the technological advances for 3D movies, which began with the release of Avatar in 2009, has been replaced with the push to produce virtual reality content. Entering into the high-tech gold rush along with Facebook is newly formed Baobab Studios, co-founded by veteran animation filmmaker Eric Darnell, who believes that the young, virtual medium will grow in mainstream appeal.
“At least right now, VR is a singular experience. You have this headset on and you’re locked out of the world,” states Baobab Studios’ chief creative officer Eric Darnell, who made his feature directorial debut with Antz in 1998. “I don’t really have any vision on how it will become this group experience in the future, but it will become one. It may mean that I put a headset on in San Jose (where I live), my brother will put one on in Colorado, and suddenly we’re in the same world together interacting.”
There are those who believe that virtual reality is simply a stepping stone to augmented reality. “I know that a lot of futurists say that AR is going to be a much bigger thing than VR, but that’s because it can extend beyond storytelling. You’re walking down the street with a virtual-reality friend who says: ‘This is a restaurant you might like.’ But for me what is most exciting about VR is that you can take audiences to places not based on reality. It has its own rules and look, yet feels as real as walking down the street.”
MAKING A MARK
This story is from the February 2017 edition of 3D World UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2017 edition of 3D World UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
PRESENT NARRATIVE IN STILL-LIFE IMAGES
Mohammad Hossein Mohammad Salehi walks us through his process for creating a dramatic shot
EASILY ADD DECALS AND GRAFFITI TO OBJECTS
Bring extra life to your scenes as Editor Rob Redman shows you how to create realistic visuals for objects in Cinema 4D
BUILD AN EPIC CHARACTER WITH STYLISED TEXTURING
Two artists team up to explore a hand-painted texturing workflow for their formidable Viking
THE ART OF Andrej Troha
FROM CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TO SOAP AND SAILBOATS...| ...CESCI ANGELL LEARNS ABOUT THE ARTIST'S CAPTIVATING CREATIVE JOURNEY
SUBTLE IMPACT
Trevor Hogg scopes out the visual effects work in David Fincher's The Killer
SOUTH WALES DREAMERS
3D World catches up with Emlyn Davies and Mark Procter of Wales-based animation studio Bomper on its 10th anniversary
MODEL THE PERFECT CHARACTER FOR A DELICATE SCENE
Discover how Prashan Subasinghe builds up the narrative in his shot with a gentle lioness
Wacom One 13 Touch
With accessibility and sustainability in mind, Wacom has been busy devising a new range of pen displays that are offering some great features for less. The Wacom One 13 Touch pen display has a lot to offer, especially for aspiring artists, with the high quality display that you would expect from Wacom, a smooth and intuitive drawing experience, and the addition of multi-touch capabilities.
Callipeg
Animation tools have come a long way over the last few decades, and even further in the past couple of years. Long gone is the need to sit at a desk with backlighting enabling you to see previous frames. Now you can animate at home, on a train or anywhere else you might find yourself using the same techniques on an iPad. Callipeg, while cutting edge, harks back to these classic animation methods.
PistonBuds PRO Q30
Gigantic over-ear headphones are no longer the necessity they once were to achieve a satisfactory level of noise cancellation, as increasingly more in-ear alternatives are now becoming available. The PistonBuds PRO Q30s are a fabulous example of this, as they offer users exceptional noise-cancelling capabilities while managing to deliver high-quality sound.