Wolves in the Walls from Fable and Age of Sail from Google won Emmy awards this year, according to the Television Academy.
Wolves in the Walls tells the story of Lucy, a character its creators see as a fully realized virtual being who addresses you directly and interacts with you as a visitor in her world. The VR project based on the work of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean won in the category of Outstanding Innovation In Interactive Media.
“Sometimes when you are exploring in the dark it’s comforting to know that others are not too far away, hands outstretched, searching alongside you,” said Wolves co-creator Pete Billington, in a prepared statement. “We are humbled and grateful for the encouragement and recognition.”
The award names Billington, Jessica Yaffa Shamash (Creative Producer and Creator) and Edward Saatchi (Executive Producer) alongside Fable Studio and Facebook. It is available for free on Rift through Facebook’s Oculus store.
Age of Sail is a gorgeous VR short from YouTube, Google Spotlight Stories, and Boathouse Studios. It won Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation with Céline Desrumaux (Production Designer), Bruno Mangyoku (Character Designer) and Jasmin Lai (Color) named in the award.
Fable Studio is co-founded by members of the groundbreaking Oculus Story Studio team and they are developing a Part 2 for Wolves In The Walls we should be able to preview later this year. Fable seems to be a studio at the forefront of interaction development in VR and we are looking forward to seeing what they do to further develop ways of interacting with simulated characters like Lucy.
Google just released Age of Sail, its latest Spotlight Story for VR headsets. The company’s ability to assemble talent to deliver quick but meaningful storytelling seems to have paid off again, as Age of Sail hits a home run in nearly every department.
The short is story set in the early 1900s, and centers around William Avery (voiced by Ian McShane), an old sailor set adrift on the open sea. Avery comes upon Lara, a young girl who’s fallen overboard a luxury steamer.
Image courtesy Google
The experience plays out aboard Avery’s small cutter sailboat, already a relic as the world adopts a new class of steamers and ocean liners. You sit beside the two as you experience a breathtaking tale of bygone memories and mounting danger on the North Atlantic.
Image courtesy Google
Without spoiling it further, Age of Sail is an extremely polished experience that puts two believable characters front and center. While it could do with some anti-aliasing on PC VR headsets along with supersampling, the whole experience smacks of expertise in lighting, animation, writing, voice acting, and direction—the whole lot. After Google’s other high-performing Spotlight Story Pearl (2016) won an Emmy for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Storytelling, we’d expect no less.
There’s some artificial locomotion here, but it’s fairly tame considering you’re sitting aboard a boat in stormy weather. It’s best experienced sitting down.
Image courtesy Google
Google has published a 2D theatrical recording of the entire experience, but if you want the full impact, VR headset users can download the real-time rendered version via Steam (Vive, Rift), Viveport (Vive, Rift), and versions for both Android VR and Apple devices.
Age of Sail premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August, and was produced by Chromosphere and Evil Eye Pictures and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Kahrs.
Inspired by the paintings and style of Bernie Fuchs, Age of Sail is Google Spotlight Stories most visually complex and longest project to date.
Set on the open ocean in 1900, Age of Sail is the story of William Avery (played by Ian McShane), an old sailor adrift and alone in the North Atlantic. When Avery reluctantly rescues a teen (played by Cathy Ang) who has mysteriously fallen overboard, Avery finds redemption and hope in his darkest hours. The film will offer a completely immersive experience with a full 360-degree field of view along with having a running time of around 12 minutes in length.
“I wanted this piece to operate in a less stylized universe because the audience should believe the world is real, to feel the peril and the exhilaration of being in a storm, to be vulnerable,” said Director John Kahrs in a statement.
To watch Age of Sail find it on YouTube or via the Google Spotlight Stories app which can be downloaded for Android and iOS devices. When it comes to YouTube, the YouTube VR app is now available for Oculus Go, as well as supporting PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR.
Google Spotlight Stories has created several experiences over the years, with recent additions including Piggy, Back to the Moon, Isle of Dog: Behind the Scenes, Son of Jaguar and several more, all available through the app. As further content is added, VRFocus will keep you updated with the latest experiences.
Age of Sail stayed with me in a way that no other VR experience has. I mean that quite literally; as I sit here typing up my thoughts on Google’s latest Spotlight Story, I can still feel myself bobbing up and down on the rough waves that you brave alongside Ian McShane’s world-weary sailor and Cathy Ang’s defiantly optimistic rescuee. Now that’s immersion.
Directed by Oscar-winner, John Kahrs, Age of Sail is a 12 minute VR short that you can see as a 2D movie or inside a mobile VR headset, but it’s best viewed via a Steam download on Rift and Vive. It’s a piece about the changing of the guard and finding a place for yourself in the new world, two topics that it explores with an on-the-nose metaphor and a touch of warming affection.
We join McShane’s William Avery on his modest sailboat, bellowing with laughter as he sings along with his full crew to an old sea shanty that’s cut short by the roar of a tiny steamboat signaling the beginning of a new age. The next moment, we’re several years into the future and another boat 20 times the size of that dwarfs a now isolated and considerably more haggard Avery. A girl falls from the side, whom he somewhat reluctantly rescues. Needless to say, Ang’s enthusiasm and sentimentality don’t make for a good fit on the cramped confines of the deck, seating you in the middle of a touchy pairing.
There’s mood here unlike anything seen in prior Spotlight Stories. As the two clash and the wind begins to swirl you find yourself lost in the drama of both character and element. Waves rise and you go with them, the deck swings and sways as does your stomach. You get the sense that Kahrs deliberately embraced sea sickness instead of straying away from it in an effort to put you right there on the boat. At one point, lost amongst the waves, you can even dip your head in and out of the water as you’re tossed around by a violent sea.
Internal conflict represented by grey skies and stormy seas might not be a new concept to traditional cinema, but Kahrs uses that immersion to find new layers for it here. It might work a little too well for some to handle.
But there’s reason to endure. Age of Sail has some remarkable cinematography to it, especially in its opening minute when steamboats drag your head around as you try to keep up with the future. It’s a clever bit of scene-setting, which Kahrs continues to demonstrate, reminding you of the kind of efficient story-telling we’re used to seeing on the silver screen. It’s also a hint that filmmakers might be starting to really grasp the language of VR.
All of that’s enhanced by a rustic art style worthy of its shaggy seadog of a protagonist. Spotlight Stories are known for being easy on the eyes and this is no exception, even with the largely dimmer color palette at work.
Ultimately Age of Sail might not have the gut-punching emotion of Pearl or the charm of Rain or Shine, but it does bridge the gap between the high-end construction of traditional cinema and the raw immersion of VR quite admirably. This is a VR sea shanty that might leave you with a few knots in your stomach, but I assure you it’s worth enduring.
Final Recommendation: Worth Watching
Age of Sail is available now on Steam, YouTube and Google Spotlight Story’s iOS and Android app for free.
The virtual reality (VR) short animated film titled Age of Sail is making its debut at the Venice International Film Festival this week and to mark the event a new trailer has been released. The ambitious short film project is a part of the Google Spotlight Stories, who are bringing it to the event, and is directed by Academy Award winner John Kahrs.
Age of Sail tells the story of William Avery (voiced by Ian McShane), an old sailor adrift and alone in the North Atlantic in the 1900’s. When Avery reluctantly rescues a teenage girl (Cathy Ang) who has mysteriously fallen overboard, Avery finds redemption and hope in his darkest hours. The film will offer a completely immersive experience with full 360-degree filed of view along with having a running time of around 10-12 minutes in length.
The most recently project to come out of the Google Spotlight Stories unit, the film is the most ambitious to date with a great level of detail to be found throughout the film. Speaking at a panel at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Kahrs explained: “I wanted this piece to operate in a less stylized universe, because the audience should believe the world is real – to feel the peril and the exhilaration of being in a storm, to be vulnerable.”
With a unique art style and the immersive power of VR, Age of Sail is set to give viewers a front-row sit on an emotional and interesting tale that will see a lost sailor make a return all thanks to a teenage girl. Those are the Venice International Film Festival will be able to catch the film during the event with there be no word on a release outside of the event just yet.
The Venice International Film Festival is currently running until September 8th and is one of the three largest international film festivals around, next to the Cannes International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.
You can see the trailer for Age of Sail for yourself below and for all the latest on the film and Google Spotlight Stories in the future, keep reading VRFocus.
Google Spotlight Stories have brought some of its virtual reality (VR) animated projects to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France. The VR projects being showcased include Age of Sail and Piggy.
2018 will mark the third year that Google Spotlight Stories has team with VR @ Annacy to offer its VR projects to the festival.
Google Spotlight Stories creators spoke about their VR short films as a panel, where they spoke of the limitations and possibilities of 360-degree immersion. Panellists included Age of Sail Director John Kahrs and Piggy creator Jan Pinkava.
Talking about Age of Sail, Kahs said: “I wanted this piece to operate in a less stylized universe, because the audience should believe the world is real – to feel the peril and the exhilaration of being in a storm, to be vulnerable.”
Age of Sail tells the story of an old sailor named William Avery, who is adrift in the North Atlantic and who finds and rescues a teenage girl who was mysteriously lost at sea. The VR short is said to be the longest and most complex project produced by Google Spotlight Stories to date. A sneak peak of the film cocking in at 1.5 minutes was shown during the festival, with the final running time expected to be between 10-12 minutes.
Piggy is a tribute to classic comedic cartoons where the audience get to control the tming of an expanded visual gag.
“The plot of ‘Piggy’ is a series of classic cartoon gags, but now the viewer controls the timing just by deciding where to look,” co-director Pinkava explained, “This is the first time we had a character interacting directly with the audience, and its presence in the story is actually the story,” he added, explaining that the minimal plot aims to offer a maximum 360 immersive experience, where the viewer has a decisive role in the story, as both watcher and watched.
For future news on Google Spotlight Stories VR projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.
