Category: framestore

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Heading to PlayStation VR

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be bringing Framestore VR Studio’s virtual reality (VR) experience based upon J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to PlayStation VR, according to the German USK ratings board. A listing for the title has appeared on the official German USK website, suggesting that the publisher has submitted the VR experience for certification prior to an official release.

Titled Phantastische Tierwesen, which means ‘Fantastic Beasts’ in German, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a launch title for Google Daydream. Acting as part of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Wizarding World’, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them offered a unique view of the universe created by the author which has millions of fans globally.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them recently featured in a new PlayStation VR trailer released in Japan, so it comes as no surprise to find that the experience will also be heading to western territories. However, the German USK listing includes both PlayStation 4 and PC, suggesting that the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR experience could also come to either Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or possibly both. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has previously dived into VR videogame projects with Batman: Arkham VR and a forthcoming Justice League VR title, known as Justice League VR: The Complete Experience.

Framestore VR Studio’s description of the experience reads as follows: “Inspired by the narrative of J.K. Rowling’s latest tale, Framestore VR Studio scripted the Fantastic Beasts [and Where to Find Them] experience for the new Google Daydream to make the user truly feel like the protagonist: a wizard with a wand in their hand, able to cast spells and control their environment, whilst tending to their Graphorn, Erumpent and Thunderbird beasts.”

The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them motion-picture will apparently be receiving a sequel in 2018, however Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are yet to announce an associated videogame tie-in. Will there be a second Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR experience coming? VRFocus will of course keep you updated with all the latest VR software announcements from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

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Exclusive: Framestore Is Building A Mind-Bending Fractal Multiverse For VR

Exclusive: Framestore Is Building A Mind-Bending Fractal Multiverse For VR

Global creative studio Framestore is usually known for taking client projects and executing them with world-class attention to detail despite tight deadlines and high expectations. Its visual effects department works on some of the world’s biggest movies, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Doctor Strange, while other parts of the company build immersive and groundbreaking experiences, including Ascend The Wall for HBO’s Game of Thrones and a magic school bus that takes kids on a field trip to Mars.

At SIGGRAPH last week I got the first look at something quite different on the way from Framestore: a passion project led by Senior Creative Developer Johannes Saam. The software is called CORAL and it is a fractal multiverse that will invite VR developers and early adopters on some long relaxing visits. It is expected to be available in the coming months.

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Framestore Becomes Creative and Technology Partner for Facebook’s Surround 360 Camera

Today Facebook announced two new 360-degree cameras, x24 and x6, updating last year’s open source Surround 360. Now Framestore – a creative studio behind Game of Thrones’ Ascend The Wall and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR for Daydream View – has revealed its an official creative and technology developer for the new devices.

Framestore worked with Facebook early on in development which was was key for the studio’s team, led by Executive Creative Director Aron Hjartarson, Senior Creative Developer and Sci-Tech Oscar winner Johannes Saam, and Creative Producer Guillaume Raffi.

Facebook Surround 360 x24 x6

“The potential of Facebook’s Surround 360 camera is incredible,” says Johannes Saam. ‘Its point cloud based approach, paired with image overlap, blurs the lines between 2D and 3D in the production pipeline and opens up the opportunities for advanced volumetric capture.”

Both the x24, and and the smaller, x6, are 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) cameras. x24 captures full RGB and depth at every pixel in each of the 24 cameras. By oversampling 4x at every point in full 360-degrees, x24’s depth-estimation algorithms produce full-resolution 6DoF point clouds.

“The volumetric capture of Surround 360 and its ability to generate dense point clouds to synthesize spherical stereoscopic images has the potential to be the next wave in cinematography,’ continues Saam. ‘Being a part of creating this process, and molding it into a modern production pipeline, was very exciting. Facebook has an enormous platform to evolve the ecosystem of 3D and 360 content. Framestore is proud to help them develop a product that will provide progressive creative and technology opportunities for the masses.”

No prices or availability have been announced, just that the cameras are expected to launch later this year, either to buy or rent.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of F8 and the Facebook Surround 360 x24 and x6, reporting back with any further updates.

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Facebook Unveils Two New Volumetric Video ‘Surround360’ Cameras, Coming Later this Year

Facebook today announced two new additions to the Surround360 hardware initiative that are poised to make 360 video more immersive. Unveiled at the company’s yearly developer conference, F8, the so-called x24 and x6 cameras are said to capture 360 video with depth information, giving captured video six degrees of freedom (6DoF). This means you can not only move your vantage point up/down, left/right like before, but now forwards/backwards, pitch, yaw and roll are possible while in a 360 video.

Even the best stereoscopic 360 videos can’t provide this sort of movement currently, so the possibility of a small, robust camera(s) that can, is pretty exciting—because let’s face it, when you’re used to engaging with the digital world thanks to the immersive, positional tracking capabilities of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or PSVR, you really notice when it’s gone. Check out the gif below to see exactly what that means.

Originally announced at last year’s F8 as an open source hardware platform and rendering pipeline for 3D 360 video for VR that anyone could construct or iterate on, Facebook is taking their new Surround360 reference designs in a different direction. While Facebook doesn’t plan on selling the 360 6DoF cameras directly, the company will be licensing the x24 and x6 designs—named to indicate the number of on-board sensors—to a select number of commercial partners. Facebook says a product should emerge sometime later this year.

The rigs are smaller than the original Surround360, now dubbed Surround360 ‘Open Edition’, but are critically smaller than rigs capable of volumetric capture like unwieldy rigs like HypeVR’s high-end camera/LIDAR camera.

Specs are still thin on the ground, but the x24 appears to be around 10 inches in diameter (257mm at its widest, 252mm at its thinnest), and is said to capture full RGB and depth at every pixel in each of the 24 cameras. It is also said to oversample 4x at every point in full 360, providing “best in-class image quality and full-resolution 6DoF point clouds.”

The x6, although not specified, looks to be about half the diameter at 5 inches, and is said to oversample by 3x. No pricing info has been made public for either camera.

Facebook says depth information is captured for every frame in the video, and because it outputs in 3D, video can be feed into existing visual effects (VFX) software tools to create a mashup of live-action capture and computer-generated imagery (CGI). Take a look at the gif below for an idea of what’s possible.

Creating good-looking 6DoF 360 video is still an imperfect process though, so Facebook is also partnering with a number of post-production companies and VFX studios to help build out workflows and toolchains. Adobe, Otoy, Foundry, Mettle, DXO, Here Be Dragons, Framestore, Magnopus, and The Mill are all working with Facebook in some capacity.

“We’ve designed with Facebook an amazing cloud rendering and publishing solution to make x24’s interactive volumetric video within reach for all,” said Jules Urbach, Founder & CEO Otoy. “Our ORBX ecosystem opens up 28 different authoring and editing tools and interactive light field streaming across all major platforms and browsers. It’s a simple and powerful solution this game-changing camera deserves.”

Keep an eye on this article, as we’ll be updating information as it comes in.

The post Facebook Unveils Two New Volumetric Video ‘Surround360’ Cameras, Coming Later this Year appeared first on Road to VR.

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Unreal Engine Powers a Field Trip To Mars

Virtual reality (VR) can be isolating, but some developers are working on way to make it a more social experience. In one example, some children in Washington DC have the unique opportunity to board a truly special school bus – one that drives to Mars.

Field Trip To Mars

Field Trip To Mars is a VR experience created by Framestore with assistance from Lockheed Martin and using Unreal Engine 4. The experience takes place on what looks like a typical yellow American school bus, but this particular school bus comes fitted with special display screen windows and 3D surround sound speakers that allow the students on board to experience a trip through the Martian landscape.

Framestore have used Unreal Engine to carefully map out every street in Washington DC, which, coupled with GPS and laser sensor technology, means that whatever route the bus takes through the city, the children will see a unique view of Mars from the windows. If the bus turns left on Earth, the bus turns left on Mars. The active rendering means that every bump and pothole can be mapped onto the Martian landscape for a more immersive experience.

The specially designed windows in the school bus have an active film that can switch from opaque to clear when electrical current is passed through, so the real world can be viewed from the windows, or it can be quickly switched to the Mars projection.

Simon Jones, Director of Unreal Engine Enterprise had this to say: “All of this means that organisations across a range of sectors are increasingly understanding how they can embed VR within their design, development and technical strategies to help them do things faster and more efficiently. So what started life as a high-end computer gaming technology has developed to become an application that accelerates innovation, drives new technology and creates limitless opportunities. Like taking children on an astonishing field trip to Mars.”

Claude Dareau, Senior Developer of Field Trip to Mars, added: “We get the kids on the bus, the screens go dark, Mars pops up and they go crazy. Just seeing their reaction was incredible. I’d only had a few hours’ sleep and was shattered. I definitely felt emotional when I saw that.”

The VR experience would be shared and take place within a regular school bus that drives a route around Washington DC, and you can watch a detailed video about the experience below.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news about VR experiences as they come in.

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Unreal Engine Powers a Field Trip To Mars

Virtual reality (VR) can be isolating, but some developers are working on way to make it a more social experience. In one example, some children in Washington DC have the unique opportunity to board a truly special school bus – one that drives to Mars.

Field Trip To Mars

Field Trip To Mars is a VR experience created by Framestore with assistance from Lockheed Martin and using Unreal Engine 4. The experience takes place on what looks like a typical yellow American school bus, but this particular school bus comes fitted with special display screen windows and 3D surround sound speakers that allow the students on board to experience a trip through the Martian landscape.

Framestore have used Unreal Engine to carefully map out every street in Washington DC, which, coupled with GPS and laser sensor technology, means that whatever route the bus takes through the city, the children will see a unique view of Mars from the windows. If the bus turns left on Earth, the bus turns left on Mars. The active rendering means that every bump and pothole can be mapped onto the Martian landscape for a more immersive experience.

The specially designed windows in the school bus have an active film that can switch from opaque to clear when electrical current is passed through, so the real world can be viewed from the windows, or it can be quickly switched to the Mars projection.

Simon Jones, Director of Unreal Engine Enterprise had this to say: “All of this means that organisations across a range of sectors are increasingly understanding how they can embed VR within their design, development and technical strategies to help them do things faster and more efficiently. So what started life as a high-end computer gaming technology has developed to become an application that accelerates innovation, drives new technology and creates limitless opportunities. Like taking children on an astonishing field trip to Mars.”

Claude Dareau, Senior Developer of Field Trip to Mars, added: “We get the kids on the bus, the screens go dark, Mars pops up and they go crazy. Just seeing their reaction was incredible. I’d only had a few hours’ sleep and was shattered. I definitely felt emotional when I saw that.”

The VR experience would be shared and take place within a regular school bus that drives a route around Washington DC, and you can watch a detailed video about the experience below.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news about VR experiences as they come in.

Posted on

Unreal Engine Powers a Field Trip To Mars

Virtual reality (VR) can be isolating, but some developers are working on way to make it a more social experience. In one example, some children in Washington DC have the unique opportunity to board a truly special school bus – one that drives to Mars.

Field Trip To Mars

Field Trip To Mars is a VR experience created by Framestore with assistance from Lockheed Martin and using Unreal Engine 4. The experience takes place on what looks like a typical yellow American school bus, but this particular school bus comes fitted with special display screen windows and 3D surround sound speakers that allow the students on board to experience a trip through the Martian landscape.

Framestore have used Unreal Engine to carefully map out every street in Washington DC, which, coupled with GPS and laser sensor technology, means that whatever route the bus takes through the city, the children will see a unique view of Mars from the windows. If the bus turns left on Earth, the bus turns left on Mars. The active rendering means that every bump and pothole can be mapped onto the Martian landscape for a more immersive experience.

The specially designed windows in the school bus have an active film that can switch from opaque to clear when electrical current is passed through, so the real world can be viewed from the windows, or it can be quickly switched to the Mars projection.

Simon Jones, Director of Unreal Engine Enterprise had this to say: “All of this means that organisations across a range of sectors are increasingly understanding how they can embed VR within their design, development and technical strategies to help them do things faster and more efficiently. So what started life as a high-end computer gaming technology has developed to become an application that accelerates innovation, drives new technology and creates limitless opportunities. Like taking children on an astonishing field trip to Mars.”

Claude Dareau, Senior Developer of Field Trip to Mars, added: “We get the kids on the bus, the screens go dark, Mars pops up and they go crazy. Just seeing their reaction was incredible. I’d only had a few hours’ sleep and was shattered. I definitely felt emotional when I saw that.”

The VR experience would be shared and take place within a regular school bus that drives a route around Washington DC, and you can watch a detailed video about the experience below.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news about VR experiences as they come in.

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SXSW 2017: Framestore’s Advice For Producers Considering VR Projects

SXSW 2017: Framestore’s Advice For Producers Considering VR Projects

The Film and Interactive disciplines at SXSW are home to many VR experiences and they often intersect. As a matter of fact, the interactive nature of cinematic VR experiences is a quality that’s underestimated by those employing the efforts of production teams. We discussed this and other VR topics with Christine Cattano, Framestore’s Global Head of VR, during SXSW.

The Framestore crew is, collectively, some of the best minds in visual effects and VR having not only created virtual spaces inspired by works such as Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, but also creating immersive experiences like the actual magic school bus we reported on back in August last year. At SXSW, Cattano will be speaking at the “Wrapped Up In The Big Screen” session about the evolution of cinematic entertainment marketing. Cattano points out that, during the last couple years, marketers have been tapping VR platforms during the promotional run for a film or a TV show.

“I think now we’re starting to see a bit of an evolution of that,” she says. Now teams beyond marketing are thinking of ways to use the immersive platform not only during the promo window but the in-home release and maybe even in-between sequels if a film has multiple installments. “We’ve really seen this extension in the thinking and timeline for how people are looking at [VR experiences], which is great because it opens up new resources to content creators and production companies.”

VR and AR also brings a unique set of challenges for creators, one that producers may not truly take into account when green-lighting them, according to Cattano.

“What’s a challenge [for production teams] is the marketing timelines that they work within,” Cattano says. “We’ve had to do several of our projects within an 8-week time frame. That’s not really optimal for creating a piece of interactive software ultimately. You want to give yourself time for user testing, feedback, and prototyping to make sure that the experience that you’re designing is powerful and it’s doing things what you want it to do.”

The message seems to be that those in charge of doling out cash to build VR experiences for a particular movie or TV show need to understand that creators are still working with legacy platforms in the building process and it is simply not realistic to stick them with the same windows of time to finish a project that non-VR teams work with. This is especially true if those VR experiences are also interactive. These professional teams, especially an experienced company like Framestore, have a solid grasp of what does and does not work in these experiences as well as how long it realistically takes to bring it to fruition.

Cattano also suggests “putting a little bit more control in the hands of the content creators to really steer how you approach things.”

Despite these barriers, the Framestore crew continues to be one of the leading collaborators with filmmakers for high-quality interactive VR. Though they couldn’t share exactly what’s in the works, they suggest staying tuned for a big announcement.

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The VR Job Hub: Framestore Galore, nDreams & More

Depending upon where you are in the world and the company you work with of course you may be finding yourselves heading towards the end, not of the physical year but the financial one. As such it may very well be time to take stock of your personal aims and goals and see if perhaps you want to try your talents elsewhere. New challenges, new faces, and the VR Job Hub is here as usual to list down some opportunities.

View the new listings below for more information:

Location Company Role Link
London, UK Framestore Lead Gameplay/Engine Engineer (VR)  Click here to apply
Montreal, CA Framestore Head of Production (VR) Click here to apply
Montreal, CA Framestore Lead VR Engineer Click here to apply
Montreal, CA  Framestore Pipeline Technical Director (VR) Click here to apply
Montreal, CA  Framestore VR Engineer Click here to apply
Montreal, CA  Framestore Senior VR Engineer Click here to apply
New York, USA  Framestore VR Engineer Click here to apply
New York, USA  Framestore Technical Artist (VR) Click here to apply
 Newcastle, UK Luminous Group, Ltd AR/VR Developer Click here to apply
 Swindon, UK Rendermedia 3D Game Artist / Environment Artist Click here to apply
Farnborough, UK nDreams Gameplay Programmer Click here to apply
Farnborough, UK nDreams Tools Programmer Click here to apply
Farnborough, UK nDreams VFX Artist Click here to apply
Farnborough, UK nDreams Lead VFX Artist Click here to apply

As always you can check last week’s post for more listings. If you have a role within the VR or AR tech space and would be interseted in having it feature on next week’s VR Job Hub please send details of the role to either pgraham@vrfocus.com or keva@vrfocus.com

Check back with VRFocus at 3PM UK time Sunday for the latest positions.

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Framestore Expanding VR Operations to Montréal Office

VFX specialist Framestore, which first began virtual reality (VR) development back in 2014, has today announced the expansion of its VR studio. VR operations will also take place at its Montréal office in Canada.

Framestore’s VR studio has already created some well known VR experiences including 19x Cannes Lion Winner Field Trip to Mars, 2014’s Game of Thrones’ Ascend The Wall, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR for Daydream View and SAAM VR.

Framestore VR_FantasticBeasts_12

“Everyone is looking to VR right now,” said Amy Small, Global Head of VR in a statement. “We’re working unilaterally with so many industries that it only made sense to expand our global offering and explore in-depth creative and technological solutions for our partners at every office.”

The company hasn’t said what VR projects the Montréal office will be working on, but since opening four years ago it’s produced work for films such as Paddington, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Arrival. Current film projects include Beauty and The Beast, Blade Runner 2049 and Alien Covenant.

As VR operations are due to begin in the Spring, VRFocus will bring you further details as we get them.