Category: ViacomNEXT

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Viacom Music + VR Fellowship to Nurture More Musical Content

Today, Viacom NEXT, in partnership with NYC Media Lab, have announced the 2017 Viacom Music + VR Fellowship with the aim of building music-based virtual reality (VR) content.

Six graduate and undergraduate student fellows are recruited from universities in the NYC Media Lab consortium. They will then be tasked with producing individual VR experiences centered on a piece of music from Viacom’s library.

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The participants will be mentored by Viacom executives and industry innovators, whilst gaining access to Viacom’s VR-ready computer systems, HTC Vive’s and other head-mounted displays.

The 2017 class of fellows are: Corey Bertelsen, NYU Game Center; Danny Dang, Parsons School of Design BFA Design & Technology; Juan Jose Egúsquiza, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program; Or Fleisher, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program; Mikei Huang, Parsons School of Design MFA Design & Technology; and Chao Jin, NYU Game Center.

“Viacom is working to pioneer original VR content that transforms fan and artist engagement in music, said Mac Lotze, Virtual Reality Producer at Viacom NEXT and co-leader of the fellowship program in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome these creative young talents to Viacom and continue exploring the amazing potential of this medium with them.”

“We are thrilled to continue our work with Viacom this summer and push the boundaries of what’s possible with virtual reality storytelling,” said Justin Hendrix, Executive Director of NYC Media Lab. “As virtual and augmented reality technologies advance, the ability to quickly produce high quality experiences will grow more important for media corporations.”

The eight-week programme runs from June to August, and culminates in a showcase at Viacom’s headquarters in New York where the fellows’ experiences will be demoed live.

Viacom Music + VR Fellowship is now in its second year with the first programme producing five VR experiences. THese included Rosalind Paradis’ Park Walk, Bryan Collinsworth’s Room 1206: Every guest has a story and Call Time: It’s your final act, turn back the clock to find your killer!, by Michelle Senteio and Sam Von Ehre.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Viacom Next, reporting back with the latest announcements.

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Viacom NEXT and Hot Sugar to Premiere The Melody of Dust at SXSW 2017

Next month will see the return of the SXSW Film Festival and its accompanying SXSW Virtual Cinema. As part of the content lineup Viacom NEXT has collaborated with musician Hot Sugar on a virtual reality (VR) music video called The Melody of Dust which will premiere at the event.

The Melody of Dust is a deconstructed VR music collection that features 87 unique melodies created by Hot Sugar. To reveal the melodies, viewers explore the musician’s ethereal castle and are invited to pick up items that have a sound emanating from it. A variety of melodies are revealed when you toss three different objects into the reactive vortex. Eventually the vortex erupts, revealing a final unique song from Hot Sugar.

“I’ve always preached that any object in the universe is a musical instrument whether we know how to play it or not,” said Nick Koenig, also known as Hot Sugar. “With Viacom NEXT, we’ve created a VR experience that lets the user confirm that concept within the visual aesthetic of my videos.”

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“We are honored to have The Melody of Dust, the first of its kind deconstructed VR music experience, premiering at SXSW,” said Chaki Ng, SVP Viacom NEXT. “Our VR design and development team worked with Hot Sugar daily as VR development and music creation happened in parallel.” He added, “What makes The Melody of Dustunique is the whole experience is ‘the song,’ not just the audio soundtrack at the end. We believe this is a glimpse of what the future of music could look and feel like as you step into the mind of a musician.”

“In this year’s new Virtual Cinema, we not only put an emphasis on storytelling and ingenuity but also showcase how other industries are embracing and excelling in this exciting new medium,” said Blake Kammerdiener, VR Programmer. “We’re excited to include The Melody of Dust and Chocolate – among this year’s standouts–to our enthusiastic and smart audiences.”

Other recent Viacom NEXT VR productions include Chocolate created by Tyler Hurd which debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival last month, and Smash Party VR, a HTC Vive title developed in partnership with animation studio Titmouse. Titmouse will also be at SXSW with an immersive VR music video, Show It 2 Me, made with musician Night Club.

38 VR experiences are due to be showcased in the SXSW Virtual Cinema, so for any further VR updates from the festival, keep reading VRFocus.

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It’s Time to Break Stuff as Smash Party Hits HTC Vive

Last month animation studio Titmouse held its annual Smash Party event, which invites people to come down with various household items, put them in a protective cage, and unleash some destruction on said items. The event also saw the debut of a virtual reality (VR) experience mimicking the party, Smash Party VR, with visitors able to digitally smash up stuff. Today HTC Vive owners get to join in the carnage as the VR experience launches for free on Steam. 

Developed in collaboration with Viacom NEXT, Smash Party VR  features a multitude of items in Titmouse’s signature art style, from brightly coloured vases, TVs, plates and toilet bowls, all to be destroyed in front of a cheering crowd. Players have 60 seconds to smash as much as they can, thus gaining point and climbing up the leaderboard. Smash Party VR gets even more intense when the walls come down and an enraged octopus hurls smash-worthy objects in rapid fire succession.

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“Now that the carnage from the 10th annual Smash Party is long gone, digital destruction lives on in Smash Party VR,” said Chris Prynoski, Titmouse president and founder. “It was great working with the folks at Viacom NEXT to create the perfect VR party game. Inside of the cage, it’s all about the smashing. Outside of the cage, you got a bunch of cartoon buddies who cheer you on during your destructive rampage. A bigfoot. Check. A ‘roid raged bipedal titmouse.’ Check. My old college roommate, Goat. Check. Who wouldn’t want this enthusiastic animated support group to throw gasoline on the fire of your annihilation.”
“As the first of many immersive VR experiences to come out of Viacom NEXT, we loved working with Titmouse to bring to life the ultimate Smash Party experience,” said Chaki Ng, SVP Viacom NEXT. “If HTC Vive owners have a big appetite for destruction, the smashing potential may continue to expand. Chris’ creative VR drawings are candy to work with and our engineering mayhem quotient has yet to be quenched, so stay tuned for further Smash Party updates.”
Launched in Steam Early Access, Smash Party VR will continue development, adding further polish over the next few months. ViacomNext will be looking for lots of player feedback, saying: “The more interest we get in the game, the more likely it is that there will be further development.”
For further updates on Smash Party VR, keep reading VRFocus.
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Unleash Some Destruction as Titmouse and Viacom NEXT Announce Smash Party VR for HTC Vive

Smashing stuff up can be great fun, which is why Emmy award-winning animation studio Titmouse created its annual Smash Party event. Taking place this weekend, the party encourages attendees to bring whatever they want to smash up, TV’s, plates, vases, basically any sort of household item, then take baseball bats, axes of other tools to said items, all inside a protective cage. In partnership with Viacom NEXT, Titmouse is now bring the event to virtual reality (VR) with Smash Party VR for HTC Vive.

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The Smash Party VR beta was launched at the event, with party goers able to try the experience for the first time. The title mixes the real-world event with some videogame madness by letting HTC Vive owners try their hand at mass VR object destruction.

As players destroy TVs, vases and toilet bowls they notice some weird and wonderful results of the destruction, and the more property damage inflicted, the higher up the leaderboard players will climb.

Talking about Smash Party VR, Chris Prynoski, Titmouse president and founder said in a statement: “We took the real life experience of smashing things with a baseball bat and made a Virtual Reality experience where you can smash things with a baseball bat. I’ve created stuff like knife-wielding cats and fire vomiting demons in VR, but I haven’t yet destroyed them in VR. Now I finally can.””

“We are actively working on truly immersive VR experiences and love working with Titmouse to bring to life the ultimate Smash Party experience.” said Chaki Ng, SVP Viacom NEXT. “It has been the perfect opportunity for our team to dream up a novel experience through so many smashable objects.”

Checkout the first trailer for Smash Party VR below. The title is scheduled to arrive for the head-mounted display (HMD) before the end of the year. For further details on Smash Party VR, keep reading VRFocus.

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The VR Job Hub: Supermassive Games, AMD & Resolution Games

Whether you’re an experienced designer, programmer, engineer, or maybe you’ve just been inspired after reading VRFocus articles – either way, you have stumbled across VRFocus’ VR Job Hub. The jobs listed here are located worldwide, from major game players to humble indie developers – the one thing they all have in common is that they are all jobs in VR.

Check out the listings below for all the information you need.

LOCATION COMPANY ROLE LINK
Guildford, UK Supermassive Games Junior Designer Click here to apply
Seattle, US Fishbowl VR Senior Developer Click here to apply
Cornwall, UK Triangular Pixels Unity 3D Programmer Click here to apply
Waterford, Ireland Immersive VR Education Sr Game Dev, Sr Web Dev Click here to apply
Munich, Germany AMD Software Engineering Click here to apply
Stockholm, Sweden Resolution Games Concept Artist, 3D Artist/Animator Click here to apply
California, US Kaleidoscope VR VR Freelancers Check out listing here
Boston, US ViacomNEXT VR + 3D + UI Designer Click here to apply

Look back at last week’s post for ongoing listings.

Check back with VRFocus 4pm BST every Sunday for the latest positions in one of the most progressive industries.