Felix & Paul, the studio known for its pioneering work in creating cinematic immersive films, is set to release the first installment in a new VR trilogy shot from the International Space Station (ISS), which is slated to offer stunning views of Earth from low orbit.
Called Space Explorers – Blue Marble, the first in the series is set to launch on Earth Day, April 22nd. The trilogy will be available for free on Meta Quest and Quest 2 headsets.
The immersive film series aims to provide a deeper understanding of our planet’s place in the universe and the importance of protecting it for future generations.
The first episode offers up an unobstructed, 360-degree view, filmed at the nadir of the ISS, which points directly at the Earth below.
The studio’s goal is to offer the viewer a sort of virtual ‘Overview Effect’, or a phenomenon that occurs when astronauts view the Earth from space and experience a profound shift in their perspective and understanding of the planet.
Founded by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël in 2013, the studio has created a number of original immersive film productions, including The Space Explorers series, Traveling While Black, and Strangers with Patrick Watson. The studio has also created productions with existing franchises, including Jurassic World, Cirque du Soleil and Fox Searchlight’s Wild and Isle of Dogs.
Felix & Paul has won a host of awards over the years, including five Canadian Screen Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Daytime Emmy, along with numerous other awards and nominations.
You can catch Space Explorers – Blue Marble for free exclusively on Quest devices, with the first episode launching Saturday, April 22nd.
Canon, one of the world’s leading camera makers, today introduced a new dual-optic lens which captures 180° stereoscopic views through a single sensor on the company’s high-end EOS R5 camera.
Canon today announced what it calls the EOS VR System which includes its new dual-optic camera lens, new firmware for its EOS R5 camera to support immersive capture, and new software for handling post-processing.
The new RF5.2mm F2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens is interesting because it captures both views onto the single image sensor in the Canon EOS R5 camera. Although this divides the resolution (because both views are captured in the same frame), it also stands to simplify the process of capturing 180° imagery because both views will necessarily have matching time sync, alignment, color, calibration, and focus. If any of these factors aren’t matched they can have a negative impact on the vieweing experience because it’s uncomfortable for the eyes to reconcile the discrepancies between each view. Capturing this way also means that the output is a single file for both eyes, which can streamline post-production compared to cameras which capture each eye’s view in a separate file (or many views which need to be stitched together).
Image courtesy Canon
The lens has an aperture of f/2.8 to f/16 and can be focused as close as 8-inches. The distance between the lenses is fixed at 60mm to be close to the typical human IPD. The company plans to update its Canon Connect and EOS Utility programs to offer a remote live-view through the lens for monitoring and shooting at a distance. Canon says the lens will be available in late December and priced at $2,000.
Around that time the company will also release two pieces of subscription-based software, an EOS VR Utility and EOS VR plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro.
The EOS VR Utility will be able to convert the captured files from dual-fisheye to an equirectangular projection (which is supported by most immersive video players), as well as make “quick edits” and choose the resolution and file format before exporting.
The EOS VR plug-in for Premiere Pro will enable equirectangular conversion right inside of Premiere and allow the footage to be easily managed within other Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
The company has yet to announce pricing for either utility.
Canon calls the new lens “an important milestone in our company’s rich history as a lens manufacturer,” and says it “welcomes a bright future for VR content creation.”
“This new RF lens produces a stunning 8K virtual reality image and sets itself apart through its simplified workflow. Our goal is to make immersive storytelling more accessible for all,” says Tatsuro “Tony” Kano, EVP and GM of Canon Imaging Technologies & Communications Group.
Live-action immersive video was thought by many to be the next-generation of filmmaking to in the early days of modern VR, but it hasn’t seen nearly as much traction as pre-rendered CGI or real-time rendered content. Complicated immersive camera systems surely didn’t help, and to that end, Canon hopes its new lens and software tools can make a difference.
However, most live-action immersive video also lacks volumetric capture, which means the view can rotate (3DOF) but can’t also move through 3D space (6DOF), which tends to be less comfortable and immersive than VR content which can. Several companies have been working toward volumetric live-action capture, but several key players—like Lytro and NextVR—ultimately didn’t survive and were sold off before finding a market fit.
Whether or not simplified capture and production pipelines are enough to reboot 3DOF live-action immersive content remains to be seen.
YouTube channel Defunctland has gone out of their way to digitally recreate the now-defunct 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride from Disney World as an immersive 360 degree video that can be enjoyed from inside of a VR headset.
The best and easiest way to watch this would be to open up YouTube VR in a Quest and search for 20,000 Leagues VR — watch this one from Defunctland:
Typically, when a ride at an amusement park is decommissioned, it’s typically lost forever. But now diehard supporters and talented programmers are doing their part to digitally archive experiences using VR so that fans around the world can still experience them.
The original 1954 was a live action Disney production and is an iconic sci-fi adventure film about a sea monster attacking a crew in the Pacific Ocean. It won Academy Awards for both Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects as one of the first-ever feature film to be shot in CinemaScope, which was used to shoot widescreen movies. You can watch it now via Disney+ streaming.
The ride itself was featured at Disney World from the 70s until the mid 90s before it was shut down and removed to make way for others. Notably, Disney doesn’t actually refer to its rides as “rides” but instead “attractions” officially as they are meant to represent entire experiences from the moment you set foot in the park, approach the area of the ride, wait in line, etc. — these are all parts of the “experience” and it’s difficult to recapture that even in a VR headset.
We wrote about how immersive the new Star Wars ride is at Disneyland for this very reason.
Efforts like this from Defunctland to archive attractions and help make sure they live on is amazing to see and hopefully they can continue to do this kind of work with other decommissioned rides like Delta Dreamflight or the originally incarnation of Snow White’s Scary Adventures.
We spoke with the director of Virtual (Black) Reality, Baff Akoto, about how his latest collection of immersive short films tell a connected tale of shared identity.
I wasn’t always a fan of virtual reality. Conceptually, I was on board. It was the practicality of it all – as much as I would’ve enjoyed emulating Ready Player One from the comfort of my home, the associated cost of an Oculus Rift and VR ready PC kept that dream out of reach. And given the fact that VR had come and go multiple times throughout the years, I didn’t think it would last long enough for me to indulge. It had always been a fad.
But, my views started to change as things progressed.
[UploadVR regularly commissions freelance writers to review products, write stories, and contribute op-ed pieces to the site. This article is a feature piece from an established journalist.]
Virtual (Black) Reality: Volume 2
With new technology came expanded uses. I started to see VR headsets as more than expensive toys/machines meant to render virtual worlds for us to play in. I saw them as tools. An avenue to accessible gaming. A means of fighting discrimination. And most recently, a powerful way to connect with others.
This was made most apparent after viewing a narrative VR series called Virtual (Black) Reality: Volume 2. Directed by Baff Akoto (Football Fables, Leave the Edge), the series takes a brief look into the lives of four African-descended Berliners and Parisians.
The goal was to represent black communities that are seldom depicted in mainstream media while also sharing parts of the Afropean experience to others around the world. The shorts do more than that though. They also make aware an undeniable truth. That black people, regardless of origin, have a lot in common with one another.
The idea that we all share a basic level of familiarity isn’t new. As a black person living in the US, this sort of thing is a regular occurrence. Still, I was moved by what I saw in each of Akoto’s short films. It could have been due to my current disposition – 2020 has been a rough year for everyone – or the fact that it was nice to see black people in a state of just being.
Director, Baff Akoto
But each short resonated with me on a deep level. In them, I found a part of me that I didn’t know was missing. A shared familiarity to unique spaces, some of which I’d had never actually been in. Talking with Akoto, he’d express similar feelings.
“I think it was always a very inherent thing to understand,” explained Akoto over the phone. “That we are global, as black folks, as people or descendants from the African diaspora.”
We are global.
Filmed in 180°, Virtual (Black) Reality was first conceived as part of the YouTube Creators Lab in London back in 2018. The series would eventually land in this year’s BFI London Film Festival as part of the LFF Expanded – the festival’s special grouping of immersive art. Its placement within the festival is a testament to the care that went into each short. Shot in a manner befitting a given subject, the audience is always afforded an intimate perspective on the onscreen happenings. Building on this space are the subjects themselves. Whether it’s Babs in his barber shop or Bella in her dance studio, they all are more than comfortable sharing a part of themselves with Akoto (and the rest of the world).
Outside looking in, Baff Akoto accomplishes his goal – as expressed by him in the details used to explain the series. There’s more to it than just sharing these experiences though. It was also to provide a sense of community. Raised in London and Accra, he didn’t always feel properly represented. Akoto explained that “being African, West African or Ghanaian, was an anomaly [in the UK]. You didn’t really see that representation in the culture. So, from an early age, you kind of pick up that my kind of black wasn’t really mainstream black, ya know?”
The lack of representation wasn’t necessarily indictive of a largely shared sentiment among Afropeans; they weren’t hatful of West African’s or anything like that. On the contrary. The diversity was well met. It’s just that some of us might not always feel as welcome as we should. “You talk to your friends in Germany or your cousins in France and you know, there’s this unconscious kind of multiplicity. Like, this inherent diversity amongst black folks and Africans.” He continued, “but as the same time, [we’re seen] or recognized for being black.”
Akoto wanted to explore the wider context of being black. He didn’t want to focus on our shared trauma though, instead keeping the series grounded in tradition and heritage. “There’s a very well-oiled machine that…kind of commoditizes Black Pain, right? That’s something we are very used to seeing.” I nodded as he talked about how we see ourselves in film. How those works frequent the Oscars. No shade given though. “I mean, they’re very fine projects by very fine filmmakers,” said Akoto. “And I’m not saying I won’t ever do [something like that] but this wasn’t that. This was very much about black life and showing communities.” He wanted to show everyday life.
That’s not to say that his shorts didn’t include any history. One of his shorts featured Kwesi, who works at the Each One Teach One library in Berlin. In it, he shares his views on early German colonial aggression on the African continent. Between 1904 and 1908, German forces would enact the first genocide of the 20th century; they killed Herero, Nama, and San people, sending thousands of them to the first German controlled concentration camps. When I asked Akoto why he included this segment along with the others, given his aim to showcase normal life, he expressed its importance to the culture. “I don’t think we have culture without history, ya know. Like, neither of those things could exist in a vacuum, right?”
Akoto explained that the irrational damage of history is in culture and vice versa. “The Germans have a long and sordid history with colonialism. And if you’re Black and you’re German, that’s something that you need to know and understand in order to kind of make sense of your place in that particular country.” In other words, these shorts mostly offer a peak into the everyday lives of black people. The extra bit of history helps to contextualize their current standing in these countries. “I’m really interested in showing something that wasn’t sensational or headline-worthy,” said Akoto. “Just show another day in the life of people like you or me, you know?”
Virtual (Black) Reality: Volume 2 is profound. On the surface, it might seem mundane. We’re just watching people do their thing? Well, yes. In doing so, we’re allowed to be viewed as normal people. Not the downtrodden. Not slaves. But as black people living our lives. It also showcases a part of the Afropean experience. A view of our culture in Berlin, Paris, London and so forth. Which, with it, comes a relegalization that we aren’t as different as some would believe. I can see myself rocking with Bella as she incorporates hip hop and African dance into a dope routine, sitting with Kwesi to discuss African history, laughing at Babs’ stories while getting a haircut and encouraging ShaNon as she moderates talks with refugees (utilizing her multicultural experiences).
In a way, they all feel like distant cousins even though I’ve never personally met them or shared in their live experiences – my time living in Frankfert and Berlin, Germany (or the fact that my wife is a first-generation Ghanaian) notwithstanding. “I for one, am always marveling at the spirit around us black folks,” said Akoto. “You have a culture, you know. When you’re stepping into a [black] barber shop in Harlem or one in Paris. You know what…in a sense, you know what you’re going to get.”
Researchers from Google developed the first end-to-end 6DoF video system which can even stream over (high bandwidth) internet connections.
Current 360 videos can take you to exotic places and events, and you can look around, but you can’t actually move your head forward or backward positionally. This makes the entire world feel locked to your head, which really isn’t the same as being somewhere at all.
Google’s new system encapsulates the entire video stack; capture, reconstruction compression, and rendering- delivering a milestone result.
The camera rig features 46 synchronized 4K cameras running at 30 frames per second. Each camera is attached to a “low cost” acrylic dome. Since the acrylic is semi-transparent, it can even be used as a viewfinder.
Each camera used has a retail price of $160, which would total to just north of $7,000 for the rig. That may sound high, but it’s actually considerably lower cost than bespoke alternatives. 6DoF video is a new technology just starting to become viable.
The result is a 220 degree “lightfield” with a width of 70cm- that’s how much you can move your head. The resulting resolution is 10 pixels per degree, meaning it will probably look somewhat blurry on any modern headset with the exception of the original HTC Vive. As with all technology, that will improve over time.
But what’s really impressive is the compression and rendering. A light field video can be streamed over a reliable 300 Mbit/sec internet connection. That’s still well beyond average internet speeds, but most major cities now offer this kind of bandwidth.
How Does It Work?
In 2019 Google’s AI researchers developed a machine learning algorithm called DeepView. With an input of 4 images of the same scene, from slightly different perspectives, DeepView can generate a depth map and even generate new images from arbitrary perspectives.
This new 6DoF video system uses a modified version of DeepView. Instead of representing the scene through 2D planes, the algorithm instead uses a collection of spherical shells. A new algorithm reprocesses this output down to a much smaller number of shells.
Finally, these spherical layers are transformed into a much lighter “layered mesh”, which sample from a texture atlas to further save on resources (this is a technique used in game engines, where textures for different models are stored in the same file, tightly packed together.)
Light field video is still an emerging technology in the early stages, so don’t expect YouTube to start supporting light field videos in the near future. But it does looks clear that one of the holy grails of VR content, streamable 6DoF video, is now a solvable problem.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this technology as it starts to transition from research to real world products.
Get ready for a VR safari on your Oculus Quest when Ecosphere launches next week.
This series of VR videos, recorded in 180 degrees 3D, comes from Phoria. The app offers several encounters with exotic wildlife from across the globe. The experience is narrated by actress and WWF ambassador, Anna Friel. Check out the trailer below.
Ecosphere takes to you the jungles of Borneo, the savannahs of Kenya and the coral reefs of Raja. At each location, you’ll get close encounters with wildlife, including elephants and manta rays. You’ll also meet some of the local people working hard within these areas. This isn’t a game but instead a cinematic experience to sit back and enjoy.
This will be quite different from a lot of the experiences currently available on Quest, then. Traditionally we’ve found live-action 360-degree video be underwhelming, but we’re hoping Ecosphere’s focus on high quality 180 degrees 3D footage will truly transport us to these locations for intimate experiences.
The piece was produced in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Silverback Films Ltd and Oculus. It’s not clear if it will be released for free or have a price attached to it.
Ecosphere lands on Oculus Quest on June 8th, and will be available on Oculus Go, too. It’s already listed in Quest’s coming soon section. Looking for something else? We’ve got a full list of the biggest VR apps releasing on Quest and other VR headsets this month right here.
Will you be checking Ecosphere out? Let us know in the comments below!
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, several VR and AR projects that were set to be presented at this year’s SXSW Festival are being released online this month after the festival’s cancellation. The projects include several 360 video projects that will launch on Oculus TV, along with a new AR project called ‘Fragments’ that is available now for Magic Leap 1 users.
SXSW announced that they would launch a new collaboration called the ‘SXSW 2020 Virtual Cinema on Oculus TV’. In lieu of a physical festival, SXSW will present seven 360 video projects which were all entered into the Virtual Cinema competition before the physical events were cancelled. All seven projects will be available to experience in Oculus TV from May 22-31, and you can read more details about each project on the SXSW site.
Additionally, a new augmented reality project from Atlas V and NSC Creative called ‘Fragments’ is available for the Magic Leap 1 from today. The project was set to have its world premiere at SXSW as part of the official selection before cancellation. The project is directed by Peabody Award winner Aaron Bradbury and is based on the true story of Lisa Elin and her husband Erik Craighead, who passed away six years after they met. Fragments will explore the themes of grief, death and ‘how we perceive and hold onto memories of a tragic event.’ The project’s release also coincides with the International Day of Light, chosen as a a ‘reminder of hope in these especially dark times’.
Will you be checking out any of these SXSW VR and AR projects when they go live? Let us know in the comments below.
Virtual reality is a great platform for video games and staying active without leaving the house, but it also has immense potential for virtual tourism and that’s where Zen Universe hopes to plan its flag.
Some of the most amazing and most breathtaking moments I’ve had in VR are a result of high-resolution 360 photos, videos, or super-realistic 3D interactive content. Rather than just being a collection of static 360 photos or videos without depth, these are actual environments you can walk around created in Unreal Engine and many of them are based on actual real world locations.
“Whether it’s the most famous landmarks you’ve never dreamt of visiting or places of fiction you’ve always dreamt of going to, the power of virtual reality will take you there.” reads the Steam Early Acces page. “Our state-of-the-art technology raises the industry bar in realism, entertainment, and interactivity. Explore the many worlds of ZenArt VR to marvel, relax, learn or play.”
While you’re exploring worlds the virtual guides help and guide you as your explore and each world even has a fully realized day & night cycle with shifting lighting.
The Early Access launch will include two of the four planned locations: Tales of the Rocks, which is an ancient forest and Olympus: Home of the Gods. If you get it in Early Access, you’ll get the next two destinations for free when it fully releases. It’s planned to be in Early Access until fall 2020. When it fully releases, the price will double.
According to the Steam page, VR support is only currently officially available for Oculus Rift headsets. Zen Universe releases May 13th, 2020. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
I’m sure SoundSelf’s transfixing brand of synthy visuals is based on very, very thorough research from a lifetime of meditation and self-discovery. I am sure it is profound and learned in a way that many VR meditation apps may not be. And that is why it is my great shame to say that, to me, it felt like one big acid trip.
As repulsively uncultured as that may sound, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy elements of SoundSelf which, amazingly, is releasing today after passing a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. Lots of VR meditations experiences have come and gone since then, but this is a different kind of relaxation. Forget sitting crossed-legged, eyes closed in a virtual forest, SoundSelf has you lying on your back (not entirely comfortable with a Rift S halo strap), gazing up at the night sky. It is in itself a soothing sight, but the app teaches you to below deep, monotone noises from your mouth, which gradually have you ascend up into the ether. Check out 20 minutes of gameplay below.
From there, you’ll be subjugated to a relentless barrage of neon lighting, swirling and swimming around your view like a hazy mist. Again, using your voice influences the patterns you’ll see, prompting you to experiment a bit with different sounds and tones. And that’s pretty much it, the point being you’ll return here for a virtual escape every now and again. And I can see people doing that; the visuals, paired with an echoey distortion applied to your voice when picked up through your headset’s microphone produce a blanket of immersion unlike anything else I’ve seen in VR.
But I’ll confess that, while novel, this rotating wonder probably isn’t something I’ll be coming back to; at times I found it to be intensely dizzying and I’m not one to sit still for too long anyways. It’s also not too considerate of a meditation app if you’re self-isolating with people in the same room. But if you’re looking for a new way to meditate in VR, one that isn’t just playing your usual Spotify guided courses on a virtual beach, or, hey, maybe you’ve run out of your self-isolation stash, SoundSelf offers an intriguing alternative.
If you’ve ever dreamed of attending a prestigious film festival, now’s your chance.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the VR portion of the annual Tribeca Film Festival is moving online this weekend. If you have an Oculus Quest or Oculus Go (sorry, Rift owners) you can watch this year’s Cinema360 line-up, a collection of 15 short films curated into four playlists, through April 26. It’s a shrewd move in the face of the current climate that, beyond keeping people safe, removes much of the unnecessary exclusivity that surrounds festivals.
And it’s something you should definitely check out. This collection of films definitely suggests VR filmmakers are still getting to grips with the platform; there’s still a strange discomfort to watching 3D video without being able to move your head, or fighting off blur, but as usual there’s a suite of fresh ideas, new perspectives and inventive storytelling. We rounded up each below.
Program 1: Dreams To Remember
Focused on fantastical experiences and real-life adventures, this offers a selection of dream-like films, often masking more troubling undertones. Rain Fruits, for example, is a brilliant, tough story of a boy from Myanmar migrating from his lucid home, where rain forms what he affectionately calls rain fruits, to the unforgiving streets of Korea. Though deeply concerning both as a story and a microcosm for a wider situation faced all over the globe, the piece finds poetry in its profound narration and beauty in its rain-dusted visual style. Dear Lizzy, meanwhile, is a Yellow Submarine-style, half-music video animation that mines gold from its acidic visuals, set to the backdrop of a girl reading a letter to a missing friend.
Less arresting is 1st Steps, an earnest attempt to document man’s mission to the moon in VR that rarely feels like it knows what it’s doing with the platform. It frantically zigs and zags from one style of shot to another, barely giving you a chance to gather your bearings, providing a sensation perhaps akin to the disorientation of space itself. Nevertheless, it’s chock full of amazing imagery and atmosphere. Forgotten Kiss, meanwhile, is a pleasant, if inessential pantomime of a piece retelling a Russian fairy tale.
Best Film: Rain Fruits
Program 2: Seventeen Plus
As its name implies, Seventeen Plus moves on to more mature themes, and it sets out to prove it straight away with the fantastic A Safe Guide To Dying, a fresh dystopian story of VR’s chilling possibilities, fully integrated with the platform and fighting its way to a more hopeful outlook on life. Black Bag follows on in tone with a darkly unsettling piece about the fetishization of high octane action as a supplement for the mundanity of life. It’s abstract, perhaps a little too much so, but makes a mark with some searing imagery and ambiguity.
The Pantheon of Queer Mythology, meanwhile, is a pretty eye-opening envisioning of Deities as bastions of queer representation that begs for multiple viewings to decipher its imagery and narration. Finally, Saturnism is a brilliantly amusing expansion of Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son, which puts you in the unfortunate position of the latter character. It’s silly, but well done and uniquely able to put a smile on your face in the midst of being eaten by a giant.
Best Film: A Safe Guide To Dying
Program 3: Kinfolk
Focused on home and family, Kinfolk holds some of the selection’s most warming and memorable films. Ferenja, for example, tells the story of a young girl coming to terms with her mixed-race upbringing, finding herself struggling on both sides. The piece is informative and culturally rich, adding a balanced voice to the topic of identity in 2020. The Inhabited House ingeniously invites you into the director’s grandparent’s house, then maps old family videos to their locations in the room, effectively bringing memories to life. It’s a novel idea that I’d love to be explored in deeper context. But it’s Home that steals the show here, depicting a beautifully staged family reunion at a Taiwanese grandmother’s home, casting viewers as the owner. There’s real family chemistry to the party, offering a rare glimpse into another way of life that seems truly authentic and caring.
Best Film: Home
Program 4: Pure Imagination
The final playlist might not have much connective tissue, but it’s a chance for the selection to have a little more fun, like with Lutaw, a Pixar-esque short animation the shines a spotlight on the work of Yellow Boat of Hope, a charity that provides transport to schools between islands in the Philippines where, amazingly, some students had been swimming to school. Attack on Daddy is a decidedly more ludicrous bit of playtime in which a father and his daughter find themselves trapped in a Wendy house. It’s cheesy and, frankly, a little student film-level, but an amusing concept nonetheless.
Elsewhere, Upstander is a short, sweet message of sticking up for people. Spinning out of Oculus’ VR for Good program, the piece presents a fairly routine look at bullying that’s strengthened by a powerful ending message. Finally, Tale of the Tibetan Nomad offers an engaging look into Tibetan folklore.
