cirque du soleil – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 7, 2020

Felix & Paul Studios’ Catalogue Comes to Oculus Quest in two new Apps

Traveling While Black Felix Paul Studios

Last week saw prolific virtual reality (VR) film producer Felix & Paul Studios release its latest work Alegría – A Spark of Light for Oculus Go. Today, the studio has rolled out two apps so Oculus Quest owners can enjoy all of its current and back catalogues.

The content will be split between the Felix & Paul Studios Portal and the Jurassic World Portal, enabling the creator to bring together its catalogue of cinematic VR experiences in one space for the first time.

For the launch today, the Felix & Paul Studios Portal will showcase some of its most well known titles:

Strangers with Patrick Watson – Created back in 2013, it features an intimate glimpse into the studio and process of the musician.
The People’s House – Step into President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House.
Traveling while Black – Learn about the long history of restriction of movement for black Americans and the creation of safe spaces.

While the Jurassic World Portal will offer:

Jurassic World: Apatosaurus – The closest you’ll get to what it’s like to be in the presence and close proximity of this particular dinosaur.
Jurassic World: Blue – The same, just with a velociraptor.

“The Oculus Quest has been a game-changer in getting more users into virtual reality and we’re thrilled to finally be introducing our collection of experiences to a whole new audience,” said Paul Raphael, co-founder and co-director of Felix & Paul Studios in a statement.

This initial release will then be followed in the coming months by Nomads, LeBron James – Striving for Greatness, Marshall from Detroit and Gymnasia. Additionally, a Cirque du Soleil and a Space Explorers Portal will arrive, offering new release Alegría – A Spark of Light and the first two episodes in the series respectively to audiences.

As Felix & Paul Studios continue to release more content, VRFocus will keep you updated.

June 20, 2017

Cirque du Soleil Bring Through the Masks of LUZIA To Gear VR

World-famous performers Cirque du Soleil have announced that it is bringing its unique style of acrobatic storytelling to mobile virtual reality (VR) with the launch of Through the Masks of LUZIA for the Samsung Gear VR.

Set in a fantasy vision of Mexico, Through the Masks of LUZIA is the first Cirque du Soleil performance to be captured using both hyper-stereoscopy and hypo-stereoscopy, which allows the viewer to view the performance from different perspectives, ranging from a birds-eye view, or from a worms-eye view near the ground while the typically flamboyant stunts and acrobatics are performed all around the viewer.

“Through our VR productions, we aim at offering our fans a state-of-the-art complementary experience to our live shows while reaching out to new audiences, proposing to them a first deep dive into our creations,” says Sébastien Ouimet, Senior Manager, Content Partnerships & Distribution, Cirque du Soleil. “The impressive versatility of VR gives us the opportunity to bring our audience into a completely immersive world, transposing our shows’ artistic direction in a new creative format.”

“Inspired by the simultaneously festive and surreal atmosphere of LUZIA, we created a VR-native journey through an unexpected world full of wonder and amazement, incorporating living embodiments of mythology in a landscape which is part dream, part fantasy, part reality,” said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder and creative director at Felix & Paul Studios, who are proving the platform for the experience.

Cirque du Soleil have also announced the upcoming launch of its own VR app, powered by Felix & Paul Studios, which is planned for release in Autumn 2017 and will serve as a central hub to allow fans to access VR and 360-degree content from Cirque du Soleil, such as the other VR productions Inside the Box of Kurios, KA: The Battle Within and DREAMS OF ‘O’.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Cirque du Soleil’s VR projects as it becomes available.

June 20, 2017

Felix & Paul Studios And Cirque du Soleil’s New Through The Masks Of LUZIA Launches Today

Seated inside Felix & Paul Studios and Cirque du Soleil’s new 14-minute 3D 360° cinematic experience, a young girl approaches me. She knowingly lifts the mask resting on the bed of flowers between us, and slowly places it on her head. And then I’m transported into the first scene of the imaginative, Mexican-inspired world of Through the Masks of LUZIA.

With each scene transition, we both return to discover a new mystic mask, sitting in this space that seems to exist somewhere between reality and the magical worlds on the Cirque du Soleil stage. For a moment in time, when this mysterious girl puts each new mask on, I see myself in her. Except instead of a mask, I have on my Samsung Gear VR, and I’m placed next to a roaming jaguar, a demigod of rain, a butterfly, and more engaging creatures.

Felix and Paul always begin their story development by defining the role of the viewer. The beauty of Cirque du Soleil worlds is the range of characters that they can allow their audience to be in their immersive experiences. Through the Masks of LUZIA takes advantage of the ability to play with scale in VR, shifting the size and perspective of the viewer’s character in each scene, from human to bug-sized. The change in viewer size has a brilliant effect on how each scene feels, and offers another reason for viewers of Cirque du Soleil’s LUZIA A Walking Dream of Mexico show, to also experience the complementary 360 content. This is the first-ever piece developed using both hyper-stereoscopy and hypo-stereoscopy processes.

Through the Masks of LUZIA is now available for free on in the Oculus Store and this Fall it will launch on the new Cirque du Soleil VR App that will house a complete catalog of the cinematic masterpieces of their collaboration with Felix & Paul, including Inside the Box of Kurios, KA: The Battle Within, and DREAMS OF ‘O’.

Tagged with: Cirque Du Soleil, Felix and Paul Studios

May 12, 2017

Live Mixed Reality Demo Shows Seamless Cross-AR/VR Collaboration

At today’s Microsoft Build 2017 presentation, creators at Cirque du Soleil demonstrated a custom creative toolset on stage using HoloLens technology. The world-class theater production company says the tools can be used to greatly enhance and accelerate the set design process for future shows thanks to real-time local digital collaborative design. But, speaking to Microsoft’s self-described Mixed Reality “spectrum,” it was also demonstrated how a remote VR user could seamless collaborate as if they were standing on stage with the others.

As the largest theatrical production company in the world, Cirque du Soleil is famous for its spectacular contemporary circus shows which use huge sets and equipment. When creating a new show, the design process from initial idea to opening performance takes 18 to 24 months, an operation that could significantly benefit from mixed reality tools.

Representing the first ‘deep collaboration’ between Cirque’s innovative C:LAB and Microsoft, the demonstration involved mocking up a prototype set on the Build 2017 stage using a collaborative augmented reality visualisation.

Equipped with HoloLens headsets, Geneviève Pesant, Product Manager at C:LAB and Carl Fillion, Scenic Designer at Cirque, appeared to rapidly construct a set. Objects were created, moved, and resized with a speed and precision that was clearly scripted – forgivable as there was a lot to explain in a limited time. The rendering itself certainly appeared to be running in real-time.

After blocking out some shapes the pair were briefly joined on stage by the VR avatar of Michel Laprise, a writer and director at Cirque based in Europe, who appeared to be speaking to them using one of the new Mixed Reality headsets and motion controllers. While brief, this showed seamless collaboration between AR and VR users, and is representative of why Microsoft likes to lump both types of device into the “Mixed Reality” category.

Chantal Tremblay, Director of Creation at Cirque, said “we’re really happy to be part of this development of Microsoft HoloLens. Innovation for us at Cirque is our priority. Today, as we’re growing faster than ever, and we’re creating more and more shows, we really think that this technology will help us to become more agile”.

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