Anagram – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 6, 2022

The VR Job Hub: Anagram MyndVR, Cloudhead & HP

Every weekend gmw3 gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industries, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Remote + Travel to London & Bristol, UK	Anagram	Producer	Click Here to Apply
Remote + Travel to London & Bristol, UK	Anagram	Co-Writer	Click Here to Apply
Remote + Travel to London & Bristol, UK	Anagram	Art Director	Click Here to Apply
Vancouver, Canada	Cloudhead Games	Game Director	Click Here to Apply
Remote + On Location, US	MyndVR	Senior Sales Executive, Post Acute Care	Click Here to Apply
Plano, TX	MyndVR	Lead Senior Unity Software Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Remote	MyndVR	Unity Developer	Click Here to Apply
Remote	MyndVR	Client Development Representative	Click Here to Apply
Spring, TX/San Diego, CA	HP	Integrated Marketing Manager	Click Here to Apply
UK, Germany or France	HP	VR Development Manager, EMEA	Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

July 5, 2019

Bristol’s Upcoming Immersive Showcase to Display VR Prototype’s From Triangular Pixels & Anagram

Next week in Bristol, UK, the South West Creative Technology Network Immersion Showcase (SWCTN) will bring together eight tech pioneers to display the future of immersive technology. Of these eight prototypes, two will use virtual reality (VR) while another will utilise augmented reality (AR).

The first of these comes from Triangular Pixels – the team behind Unseen Diplomacy and Smash Hit Plunder – in the form of Responsive Content Generation Tools. This suite of tools is designed to make VR content faster and more efficient to make, whilst also allowing VR players to adapt content to their individual needs. This is especially useful for VR gamers with disabilities, allowing videogames to adapt to users rather than the other way around. For the showcase Triangular Pixels will be demoing content created by the tools, allowing visitors to see how the software adapts to the space its played in.

Then there’s the Realtime Stagemaker Toolkit from Anagram. This prototype project is actually two components. Starting with the Realtime Stagemaker Toolkit, a Unity plug-in, the software allows for the real-time manipulation of assets by the entire team. Followed by an artistic VR experience called The End is the Beginning, produced in collaboration with the Freud Museum, where participants lie on a virtual version of Freud’s couch.

“Immersion is a slippery process. Right now its one of those creative ideas that means different things to everyone. And that’s just great, because it’s a space full of possibility,” said Jon Dovey, SWCTN Project Director, in a statement. “I can see two strands at work. One is about a complete whole-body experience of being surrounded by content in, for instance, immersive theatre, art installations, and dance floors; the other where these kinds of wraparound sensory experience are industrially re-constituted through various forms of technology – notably virtual reality, but also augmented and mixed realities.”

“The basic design principle for our immersion theme has been that the industrial and creative development of the newly emergent platforms might be driven by talent with expertise in existing forms of immersion,” he continues. “We wanted to know how storytellers, theatre, filmmakers and artists might work with technologists to keep the field of immersion open and fresh; not stuck forever into a sweaty box attached to the front of your head.”

As for the AR prototype, this is the work of VIKA Books. Called Baby BSL: Where is the Bird?, this project is an AR book combining illustrations, videos, print and smartphone tech to inspire families to use British Sign Language (BSL).

The SWCTN Immersive Showcase takes place on 12th July 2019, at the Watershed in Bristol. For any further updates keep reading VRFocus.

December 7, 2018

Follow in the Footsteps of the Suffragettes With the BBC’s VR Experience Make Noise

The BBC has helped to create quite a number of different virtual reality (VR) experiences over the past year, from wartime epic 1943 Berlin Blitz to exploring the ocean’s ecosystems in BBC Earth: Live in VR, its content library stretches far and wide. The latest project to be released by the broadcaster is Make Noise, which uses voice technology to put viewers in the shoes of the suffragettes.

Make Noise

Produced by BBC VR Hub and created by Anagram, Make Noise focuses on the suffragette movement which fought for women’s right to vote. Featuring a series of colourful and abstract worlds, the experience includes audio clips of real-life suffragettes, taken from the BBC Archive, as they explain how they found and used their voices to enact change.

This is carried over into the VR experience directly, with viewers encouraged to use their own voices, whether that’s just talking, humming, singing or shouting, any noise created will then change the virtual world around them.

Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, saw the experience at Havering literary festival earlier this year and said: “Fabulous! You’re really brought into the story. You’re asked not just to look but to use your mind and your voice. I think that focus on the voice and your own engagement with it is incredible.”

Make Noise “We wanted to find a way to really connect the stories of the suffragettes to our lives – we didn’t want the aesthetics of Victorian England to get in the way of the fact that standing up for something when people are trying to shut you down is something we all can relate to,” said May Abdalla, co-founder and director of Anagram, who directed Make Noise. “By using bold abstracts shapes to make playful worlds that mess with scale, each chapter represents the emotional journey of their path to victory; from frustration though finding solidarity and resistance. In these strange visual universes the punk attitude of these inspirational women really stands out.”

Make Noise is available to download for free from the Oculus Store, compatible with Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR. UK residents will also be able to view Make Noise at a selection of libraries across the country, including Taunton Library, Oldham Library and Lifelong Learning Centre, Skipton Library, Brecon Library, Longton Library, Salisbury Library, Crownhill Library, The Library at the Curve, Slough, Beckton Globe library in Newham and Southport Community Centre.

As the BBC continues to make more immersive content, VRFocus will keep you updated.

July 9, 2018

BBC VR Hub Celebrate the Suffragettes and the RAF With Make Noise and 1943: Berlin Blitz

When the BBC decides to create immersive content there always seems to be good reason behind it, with the company focused on highlighting important subject matter. Today is no different, with the BBC VR Hub announcing two new virtual reality (VR) experiences; Make Noise and 1943: Berlin Blitz.

Make Noise

Created by BBC VR Hub with Anagram, Make Noise has been inspired by the suffragettes and Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice to ‘make more noise’, using a combination of voice technology and VR. Viewers will need to hum, sing and shout along with narrator Nikki Amuka-Bird as they are transported through a series of colourful and abstract worlds that represent the stages of the suffragettes’ struggle.

“BBC VR Hub exists to excite audiences by creating the most enthralling experiences imaginable using the power of VR, and both of these do that, but in very different ways. Make Noise uses voice technology in an innovative way to put you in the shoes of the suffragettes, encouraging you to follow their example and use your voice to change your world. It’s empowering, profound and yet playful, and a great example of why we should follow Emmeline Pankhurst’s advice and ‘make more noise’”, said Zillah Watson, head of BBC VR Hub in a statement.

The second experience 1943: Berlin Blitz puts viewers in the shoes of BBC war correspondent Wynford Vaughan-Thomas. Using the original radio broadcast of Vaughan-Thomas’ report taken from the BBC Archive, the VR experience allows users to retrace his journey on a genuine bombing raid to Berlin at the height of the WWII.

Created by BBC Northern Ireland and Immersive VR Education (Titanic VR), 1943: Berlin Blitz celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the RAF.

Berlin Blitz

“1943: Berlin Blitz on the other hand uses VR to breathe new life into the BBC Archive, using an extraordinary piece of journalism to transport you to Berlin at the height of the Second World War,” adds Watson. “It really gives a sense of just how brave the RAF and the BBC’s war correspondents were back then, and providing new context for the threats our colleagues face today when reporting from dangerous situations. For now they’re both available at a small number of select events and screenings, and we hope to launch them to the public later in the year.”

Both experiences are scheduled to be released later this year although no platforms have yet been specified. At the end of this week 1943: Berlin Blitz will be shown at a special preview during the RAF’s International Royal Air Tattoo in Fairford from the 13^th– 15^th July. For any further updates from the BBC on its VR projects, keep reading VRFocus.