INVISIBLE – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

February 16, 2017

Die großen Gewinner der 2017 Lumiere Awards

Am 13. Februar wurden in Hollywood die Lumiere Awards in den Warner Brothers Studios abgehalten. Die Auszeichnungen gehen an die innovativsten und fortschrittlichsten Technologien. Im Folgenden kommt eine Liste mit den größten Gewinnern aus den Bereichen VR und AR.

HTC Vive und Google Earth VR

Der CEO von HTC, Cher Wang, bekam den Sir Charles Wheatstone Award für seine außergewöhnlich fortschrittlichen Bemühungen im Bereich der VR. Die Auszeichnung übergaben der Präsident der AIS-VR Gesellschaft Jim Chabin und Schauspielerin Maria Bello. Die HTC Vive gilt als eine der monumentalsten Fortschritte im Bereich Optik, Steuerung und 3-D-Positionstracking innerhalb der VR.

Ebenfalls freuen kann sich Google, denn der Umweltaktivist Ed Begley Jr. übergab den Century Award für VR an Google Earth VR für einen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Umwelt. Durch Google Earth VR wird die Welt in einen digitalen Spielplatz verwandelt, in dem man an jeden Ort unseres Planeten fliegen oder sich teleportieren kann. Die Begründung für die Auszeichnung war folgende: Jeder kann inspiriert werden unseren schönen Planeten zu beschützen, wenn man erst einmal die Aussicht auf der Spitze des Empire States Buildings oder des Grand Canyon betrachtet hat.

Google Earth VR als ein Gewinner der Lumiere Awards

Ghostbusters, Dear Angelica, Nomads, Tilt Brush und weitere

Ghostbusters VR von Sony Pictures Entertainment und The Void gewann den Preis für die beste VR-Live-Action-Erfahrung. Das virtuelle Spektakel wird in Madame Tussauds in New York City angeboten. Außerdem bekam das von Oculus Studios entwickelte Dear Angelica den Lumiere für den besten VR-Zeichentrickfilm. Die Entwicklung des VR-Erlebnis basiert auf dem neuen Oculus-Programm Quill und zeigt eindrucksvoll was damit möglich ist.

Dear Angelica-Gewinner-Lumiere-Awards

Weiter geht es mit der VR-Serie Invisible vom Regisseur von Die Bourne Identität Doug Liman. Die Serie erhielt die Auszeichnung für die beste 360-Grad-Serie. Ebenfalls mit einem ähnlichen Award wurde Nomads: Sea Gypsies von Felix und Paul Studios ausgezeichnet. Das Meisterwerk über die Sama-Bajau-Völker erhielt den Award für die beste 360-Grad-live-Action.

In The Click Effect kann man sich selbst als Unterwasserjournalist versuchen. Dafür gab es den Preis für die beste VR-Dokumentation. Weitere Lumiere gingen an Branded Experience, die VR-Symphonie von Jushua Bell erhielt die Auszeichnung für das beste VR-Musikvideo, Job Simulator, für das beste VR-Spiel und Tilt Brush von Google erhielt die begehrte Auszeichnung für die beste VR-Produktion.

Der Beitrag Die großen Gewinner der 2017 Lumiere Awards zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

February 14, 2017

Tilt Brush, Dear Angelica and Job Simulator All Win at The Lumiere Awards

The 8th annual Lumiere Awards has taken place and as VRFocus reported in January it featured 11 virtual reality (VR) categories. The winners have now been announced with several familiar experiences taking the top prizes.

Hosted by The Advanced Imaging Society and The VR Society, the awards featured several honourable mentions with filmmaker and VR creator, Jon Favreau, awarded the Society’s Harold Lloyd Award. HTC Vive’s Cher Wang was selected for the Sir Charles Wheatstone Award for exemplifying exceptional forward movement in the VR Sciences. Her award was presented by AIS-VR Society President Jim Chabin and actress Maria Bello. And Google Earth VR was presented the Century Award by Ed Begley Jr. for VR in service of environmental enrichment.

Google Earth VR_user

The full rundown of award winners were:

Best VR Experience: Google Tilt Brush

Best VR Film Experience: Ghostbusters VR Experience (Sony Pictures Entertainment/THE VOID)

Best VR Animation & CGI: Dear Angelica (Oculus Story Studio)

Best Episodic Content (360-degree): Invisible (Doug Limon/30 Ninjas/Conde Nast/Jaunt VR/Samsung)

Best Live Action (360-degree): Nomads: Sea Gypsies (Felix & Paul Studios)

Best VR Documentary: The Click Effect (Annapurna Pictures/Here Be Dragons)

Best VR Journalism: Take Flight (New York Times)

Best VR Sports Experience: Follow My Lead: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals (Oculus & M ss ng P eces)

Best VR Music Experience: Joshua Bell VR (Sony PlayStation)

Best VR Advertising/Branded Content: 360 Tour of the Shinola Factory with Luke Wilson (Reel FX)

Best VR Gaming: Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs)

VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest VR accolades as the year progresses.

November 3, 2016

Westfield World Trade Center Hosting Tribeca Virtual Reality Arcade

Today Tribeca Enterprises has announced a collaboration with Westfield World Trade Center in New York City to bring virtual reality (VR) to visitors with the Tribeca Virtual Reality Arcade. Starting from tomorrow those going to the center will be able to enjoy four immersive experiences across eight viewing stations for free.

The four available experiences will be Baobab Studios’ Invasion!; Invisible by Jaunt, Samung, 30 Ninjas and Doug Liman; KIDS from Here be Dragons and KÁ The Battle Within by Felix & Paul Studios.

KÀ The Battle Within image 2

Invasion! is an animated short narrated by Ethan Hawke. In it two aliens land on Earth with destruction and devastation in mind. Only they come across two unlikely heroes, a pair of fluffy white rabbits.

Invisible is a supernatural drama about an old New York family, the Ashlands, whose reach extends into the largest corporations and governments in the world.

KIDS is an experience that follows two teenagers, a boy and girl, who live across the street from one another in the city and witness to each other’s lives through their windows.

KÀ The Battle Within, is a theatrical production by Cirque du Soleil based around two rival clans from an ancient and mythical world confronting one another in a furious clash of vertiginous acrobatics and combat.

“Tribeca is known for our world-class curation of Virtual Reality films and experiential storytelling. We are looking forward to bringing our Virtual Arcade to Westfield’s iconic destination to showcase our work outside of our April Festival and highlight these exceptional creators cutting-edge cinematic experiences,” said Andrew Essex, CEO Tribeca Enterprises.

The Tribeca Virtual Reality Arcade will be open across three weekends this month:

Friday, 4th November – Sunday, 6th November, 12-8pm

Friday, 11th November – Sunday, 13th November, 12-8pm

Friday, 18th November – Sunday, 20th November, 12-8pm

“Without a doubt, this Virtual Reality Arcade has the power to rewrite the rules of cinematic storytelling and give our visitors the chance to lose themselves in startlingly lifelike digital worlds,” said Westfield’s Chief Operating Officer, William Hecht. “We can’t wait to see the reactions on our guests’ faces as they look up, down, and all around while experiencing surprise, wonder—sometimes fear—and other times astonishment when watching this truly mind-blowing VR content.”

For all the latest VR news from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.

October 27, 2016

Watch The ‘Invisible’ VR Series From ‘Bourne Identity’ Director On Any Device

The supernatural VR series Invisible from Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow, launched a week ago on Samsung VR, but now you can access the 5-part series across any device via Jaunt.

The series is a first-of-its-kind scripted 360-degree video project about a powerful family with an intriguing secret — an invisibility gene. The episodes are going to be far more immersive in a VR headset, so if you want to check out the series it might be better in VR via the Jaunt app on Cardboard, Steam or Oculus compared to seeing it via a 2D website. That said, you could stream the first episode right from UploadVR. I embedded it below and all the episodes are at the Jaunt link above or inside the app on different platforms linked above.

The episodic approach to the scripted 360-degree project is a notable one, breaking up the overall story into roughly 5-7 minute segments and employing a number of editing techniques to cut between different locations and shots. To underscore the cutting-edge nature of the effort, creators were unable to examine captured footage live on set in a headset, so putting it together was more like the pre-digital days of filmmaking when footage needed to be developed first. In this case, the multiple cameras on the 360-degree camera rig had to be stitched. With the script, they described the whole room in addition to the actions and lines of the characters, which is one of the reasons it turned into a 40-page document.

Left to right in foreground directors Jerome Sable, Doug Liman and Julina Tatlock shooting Invisible.

“We had to create our own script writing format,” said Liman, in an interview with UploadVR. “I think when people watch Invisible, they’ll see how far you can push scripted VR, and how many of the rules that existed before us don’t really apply anymore.”

The project is created by 30 Ninjas, a digital entertainment company co-founded by Liman and Julina Tatlock, who executive-produced Invisible. Visual effects were added by The Molecule and the project was supported by Jaunt, Samsung and Condé Nast, with a sponsorship for Lexus tagged at the end of each video.

“It’s going to be hugely important for us at 30 Ninjas that people find this entertaining,” Tatlock said. “We want to tell popular stories.”

The creators are looking to see what people have to say about the project and, with Jaunt’s heatmap analytics, they may soon see data that shows them whether the many cutting and editing techniques employed throughout the series kept audience attention as intended.

“We’re looking to additional seasons of Invisible,” Liman said about the future. “Our skill level at the end of season one is way beyond what it was at the beginning of season one.”

Have you checked out Invisible yet? What did you think?

October 21, 2016

‘Invsible’ From ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Director Arrives On Samsung VR

As virtual reality grows, visual experiences tailored toward the technology’s unique level of immersion become more and more commonplace. 360-degree videos are being used for product promotion, education, live events, and more in an effort to give a more involved perspective compared to our usual rectangular videos. Today, Samsung has announced a full-fledged drama series coming exclusively to Samsung VR before its wide release on other platforms.

The 6-part miniseries is directed by Doug Liman, the director behind the Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Edge of Tomorrow. Many virtual narrative experiences are delivered in small samplings, with popular films like Suicide Squad, The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, and The Conjuring 2 all having brief VR interactions on the Samsung VR platform to promote the full 2D films. Invisible, though, will be a high production show asking viewers to stay for a full feature. Thankfully, the supernatural premise seems interesting enough to stick around for:

Invisible tells the story of an old New York family, the Ashlands, whose tentacles reach into the largest corporations and governments in the world. Although they control a large portion of the world’s economy they exist in relative ambiguity. They move without being seen and somehow without being known. That’s because select family members have the power to make themselves invisible. The cause of their invisibility remained a mystery, until now. Groundbreaking genetic research is about to break the code and expose their secret.

Invisible is available today on Samsung VR and will be available on Jaunt VR on October 27th. The show stars Sofia Black-D’elia, Olivia Boreham-Wing, Michael Siberry, Austin Caudwell and Lewis Cancelmi and is produced by Julina Tatlock, who previously produced the tv show “Who Cares About Girls?”. The show’s writer, Melisa Wallack, is known for the film Dallas Buyers Club which featured Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner.

October 20, 2016

Supernatural Drama Series Invisible Arrives on Samsung VR

The advent of virtual reality (VR) has lead filmmakers to explore new avenues in what can and can’t be done in creating immersive content. Most 360-degree experiences are shorts as studios, producers and actors get used to a camera that can see everything. Today Samsung has announced a new 360-degree series called Invisible, a limited time exclusive to the Samsung VR platform.

Created in collaboration with Jaunt and Condé Nast, Invisible is a supernatural drama series following a mysterious American family. The synopsis explains: “Invisible tells the story of an old New York family, the Ashlands, whose tentacles reach into the largest corporations and governments in the world. Although they control a large portion of the world’s economy they exist in relative ambiguity. They move without being seen and somehow without being known. That’s because select family members have the power to make themselves invisible. The cause of their invisibility remained a mystery, until now. Ground-breaking genetic research is about to break the code and expose their secret.”

The programme has been directed by Doug Liman and Simon Crane (top stunt coordinator and 2nd Unit Director: Star Wars Rogue One, Unbroken, Edge of Tomorrow, World War Z, Men in Black 3, Hancock), Julina Tatlock, Jerome Sable and Michael Litwak. Invisible stars Sofia Black-D’elia, Olivia Boreham-Wing, Michael Siberry, Austin Caudwell and Lewis Cancelmi.

The Samsung VR app – which can be downloaded from Google Play – is best used with the Gear VR head-mounted display (HMD) for the most immersive experience, but the app can equally be used without a headset. While Samsung VR users will get the content first, next week on 27th October the series will also be available via the Jaunt app.

Take a look at the trailer below, and for further details on Samsung VR and Gear VR, keep reading VRFocus.