VR Cinema – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 8, 2021

‘Paper Birds’ Part 2 Releases Today on Quest, Starring Edward Norton, Archie Yates & Joss Stone

Paper Birds is a VR experience from Gloomy Eyes (2020) developer 3DAR and producers Baobab Studios and Oculus. The long-awaited Part Two of Paper Birds is exclusively available on Quest starting today.

The VR experience was partially released back in December, and introduced the story of a young musician on a quest to bring back his kidnapped sister from dire circumstances.

The heartfelt story, which is described as having ‘light interactivity’, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2021 and La Biennale di Venezia in 2020. It features the voices of Archie Yates, Edward Norton, and Joss Stone.

Now the second installment is available starting today, and is bundled with the original experience on Quest for $7. Overall, Paper Birds is said to feature a 32-minute runtime.

Here’s how 3DAR and co. describe Paper Birds:

PAPER BIRDS tells the story of Toto (Archie Yates), a short-sighted child with an exceptional talent for music. With guidance from his grandparents Robert (Edward Norton), a highly respected musician devoted to his music above all else, and Elsa (Joss Stone), who set aside her dreams of being an artist to care for her family, Toto must find his way through the world of darkness to bring back his sister, taken away by mysterious shadows.

He’ll use the depth of music to open portals to the invisible world. And when he confronts the shadows, they’ll reveal their deeper purpose.

Paper Birds developer 3DAR is the animation studio behind cinematic VR series Gloomy Eyes, which was critically received at Sundance Film Festival in 2019, and was awarded ‘Best VR experience’ at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and winner of the ‘Jury Award for Storytelling’ SXSW that year.

Baobab Studios, which executive produced Paper Birds, is well known for having developed a slew of successful VR shorts and cinematic experiences, including Baba Yaga, Crow: The Legend, and Invasion!.

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March 19, 2019

SXSW 2019: The Atomic Tree Tells A Riveting Deep-Rooted Story

As the years go by, and virtual reality becomes more accessible, it also becomes more mainstream. While a lot of people look forward to VR gaming and other interactive experiences, others yearn for immersive experiences that aren’t as interactive. SXSW’s Virtual Cinema area showed off plenty of these experiences this year, and it brought in quite the crowd. Atomic Tree was one of the apps on show.

Directed by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughn-Lee, the film tells the story of a 400 year old bonsai tree in the ancient cedar forests outside of Hiroshima. The tree grew on a property owned by the Yamaki family, who tended the tree for five generations. The U.S. armed forces detonated an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The blast wiped out a lot of the landscape and claimed innocent lives. Surrounded by the walls of the Yamaki family home, the bonsai tree miraculously survived.

Some of the trippy visuals as you dive into the tree’s rings. Photo provided by The 2050 Group Publicity.

Adapted from the book “The Song of Trees” by David Haskell, The Atomic Tree takes viewers on a journey of crazy Alice in Wonderland type visuals, and a riveting look inside the tree’s history. Fantastic visuals take the viewer on an almost disorientating journey through tree’s rings. Dizzying spirals did exactly what they were supposed to by giving the viewer a sense of intense movement without pushing them completely over the edge. This helped intensify the significance and importance of the tree’s history.

A relaxing, immersive VR cinema experience

What really added to the absorptive experience was the great sound design. Several scenes take you through the Yamaki family home, where you witnessed traditional Buddhist prayer ceremonies. As the sounds of the prayer chants came through the headphones, you could move in a full 360 degrees to see everything around you, and the sound would accurately follow. There was no skip in the audio as you moved, which made the experience that more compelling.

A look at the beautiful Yamaki household. Photo provided by The 2050 Group Publicity.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic experience. It did a good job of putting me in a relaxing environment and making me forget about my hectic surroundings at Griffin Hall. However, there is a bit of a twist to the story for those who are unfamiliar with it, but I won’t spoil it for you. The Atomic Tree will be available this Friday, March 22nd, across all VR headsets via Within.

The Atomic Tree was demoed on an Oculus Go at SXSW’s Griffin Hall.

Tagged with: Oculus Go, SXSW, The Atomic Tree, VR Cinema

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December 13, 2017

Oculus Story Studio’s ‘Wolves in the Walls VR’ to Premier at Sundance

Wolves in the Walls, the terrifying children’s book from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, is getting its own VR experience. Created as one of the last projects of the now-defunct Oculus Story Studio, Wolves in the Walls VR is making its debut at Sundance Film Festival this year.

Oculus Story Studios created three VR experiences before Facebook shuttered the studio back in May; Dear Angelica, Lost, and Henry. The studio’s highly-polished experiences were created to showcase the promise of gripping VR narratives, and while the mission was more or less completed, Wolf in the Walls VR was left unfinished.

According to a report by Variety, most of the Story Studio team couldn’t accept that Gaiman’s VR adaptation was left unfinished. Despite officially disbanding, a majority of the team stayed together to quietly work on the project, which fortuitously received additional funding from Oculus as well.

Wolves in the Walls follows the ever-imaginative Lucy as she hears wolves crawling in the walls of her family’s home. Stepping into the shoes of Lucy’s imaginary friend, executive producer Saschka Unseld says the experience aims to solve the puzzle of “how to organically combine a compelling and emotional story with interactive worlds and characters.”

New York-based immersive theater company Third Rail Projects developed the story’s choreography, and was directed by DreamWorks Animation veteran Pete Billington and Jessica Shamash, known for her work at Pixar.

“After Henry, we knew that we wanted to created a deeply interactive character. Something that wasn’t passive or bound to the rectangular format of traditional media,” Billington said in a prepared statement.

“Lucy was our friend. We cared for her. She felt more than a 3D character,” Shamash added.

The first chapter of Wolves in the Walls VR is set to premiere at Sundance in January, with two additional chapters currently in the works, although release date is uncertain at this time.

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October 20, 2017

Haunted Cinema VR Experience Coming to London

London is one of the top places for theatre and cinema, hosting some of the biggest premières for film and theatre. For that reason Veero have chosen London as the site for its first pop-up virtual reality (VR) cinema experience, a spooky Halloween show called Haunted Cinema.

Veero have teamed up with Swiss pop-up VR experts WeAreCinema to bring Haunted Cinema to the UK. The experience will comprise of a series of VR horror short films. Two films already on the bill are 11:57, a short described as ‘A 360-degree nightmare’ which was awarded Best Narrative VR Film at VR Fest 2016. Also featured will be Sonar, a sci-fi horror experience where the viewer is taken down into the depths of an asteroid to explore the awe-inspiring ancient cave systems… until something goes tragically, horrifically wrong.

Barry Whyte, founder of Veero commented: “A new golden age of Hollywood is coming. Virtual Reality cinema completely changes the rules. As the UK’s first virtual reality cinema, we’ll ensure the VR films find their place alongside the world’s finest theatre – right in the heart of London’s West End. No longer will viewers have to sit at home with a headset on to enjoy immersive films. Veero makes VR social, and accessible to everyone. Horror is one of the strongest sub-genres within VR film, so it’s perfect for Halloween. We can’t wait to terrify Covent Garden!”

The cinema pop-up will take place at Neal Street in Covent Garden on Thursday 26th October, 2017. Further short films will be added to the bill soon, with the exact line-up being announced on the Veero website. Tickets can be purchased through the Eventbrite page.

If the pop-up event is successful, Veero are hoping to open a permanent VR cinema in London in 2018.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Veero as it becomes available.

August 20, 2017

James Cameron: ‘If I wasn’t making Avatar [sequels] I would be experimenting with VR’

Image courtesy Angela George (CC BY-SA 3.0)

James Camera is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated directors, best known for Titanic, and Avatar, two of the world’s top grossing films. He’s also been an evangelist of technological innovation in cinema production. Despite past skepticism, Cameron’s latest thoughts on VR show that he’s coming around to the idea, but still taking a pragmatic look.

Speaking during a recent interview surrounding the upcoming re-release of Terminator 2: Judgement Day 3D, Cameron notes that he’s well beyond the buzz of VR thanks to the virtual camera production techniques he employs.

Look I think… you know VR is kind of a yawn to me because I’ve been… our method of authoring the Avatar films… I work in a VR environment all day every day. When I finished with these interviews, I’m going to go work in VR for the rest of the day. Whether a new artform, a new form of cinema, that’s interactive can be created… I’m waiting for it to manifest.

Cameron clearly appreciates the difference between simple 360 video and more immersive VR video rendered in real-time, and suggests that most people in his circles are conflating the two. Clearly, he’d like to work with the latter.

I will tell you that if I wasn’t making the Avatar [sequels] and that wasn’t taking up so much of my bandwidth, I would be experimenting around with VR. Now what most people are calling VR right now isn’t VR. It’s really omnidirectional camera. And because you don’t really have any spatial control—any spatial movement is baked in—you [only] have the ability to look around in an environment, and that’s not true VR. [In] true VR, you can move around. And you have a lot of control over where you are spatially in the environment.

Though game engines are becoming increasingly capable, rendering a film with the visual complexity of Avatar isn’t possible today in real-time, Cameron notes. When that time comes, he’s ready to jump in.

But to do [real-time interactive VR] to a level of the kind of images we have in Avatar, I think that’s… several generations of technology away. It takes 100 hours of a massive render farm to do a single frame of an Avatar movie. So we’re decades away from being able to render at that level in real-time. Or maybe it’s a decade… whatever. But show me that and then I’ll say, let’s make movies in true VR.

Back in 2015, Cameron had a decidedly more skeptical take on VR tech for films, but it sounds like he’s becoming increasingly convinced at the tech’s potential as a film medium. And it’s true that we can’t render Avatar today in real-time, but between the latest advancements in real-time rendering and new technologies to bring cinema-quality assets to VR, we could hit a level of fidelity acceptable to Cameron sooner than he thinks.

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April 1, 2017November 26, 2017

‘Justice League’ VR Experience Comes to IMAX VR Centers Worldwide, Trailer Here

Continuing its diversification from pure, cinematic experiences, IMAX has announced that it’s partnering with Warner Bros. to bring its forthcoming superhero movie franchises to virtual reality via multiplexes and it’s dedicated VR centres.

Update (11/26/17): First teased back earlier this year, the ‘Justice League VR’ experience is now available in select IMAX locations worldwide, including dedicated VR locations in Toronto, LA, NYC, Shanghai, and Manchester. The interactive experience uses the HTC Vive and features the opportunity to choose from one of six superhero missions: Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg. IMAX says the experience takes place in 25 minute scheduled blocks with a total runtime of 12 minutes. Although prices vary by location, it comes in around $12. For reservations, click here.

Original article (04/01/17): This year saw the opening of IMAX’s first dedicated virtual reality ‘Experience’ center, through which the firm – which made its name via super-sized cinematic experiences – intends to diversify its entertainment offering to include immersive VR gaming and cinematic experiences. We’ve already seen partnerships with developers and

Now, IMAX has announced it’s working with movie studio Warner Bros. to “help usher in” their forthcoming assault on the superhero movie genre with immersive experiences to tie in with new movies like the first Justice League movie and future offerings like Aquaman and at least one other unnamed franchise.

“It’s fitting that with Imax and Warner Bros.’ shared history of launching Hollywood movies in Imax theatres, today we’re entering into our first studio deal to bring VR to the multiplex,” said Imax Corp chief executive Richard L. Gelfond to The Drum.

As of now, no specifics as to the nature of the experiences are available – whether they’ll take the form of passive 360 videos or more substantial realtime, interactive rendered experiences. Nor do we know what VR headset the content will be targeted at, with IMAX utilising both HTC’s Vive and Starbreeze’s 210 degree StarVR hardware in their VR centres.

Warner Bros. seems to be accelerating its efforts for VR as an entertainment platform. Just last week another of the studio’s major blockbuster hopes for 2017, the Spielberg helmed Ready Player One, was to get multiple piece of VR content via HTC and it’s SteamVR powered Viveport platform later this year.

“Ready Player One is one of the most anticipated movies in the world, and has tremendous potential to engage and entertain the worldwide market, showcasing the transformative nature of VR, and what it can and will be,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport. “Vive is delivering on the promise of VR and continues to be the most advanced and immersive VR experience available to consumers, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Warner Bros. to bring these experiences to consumers, on all platforms, around the globe.”

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January 23, 2017

Altair Digital Are Bringing the Planetarium Experience to Your Face Using VR

Altair Digital have announced that they are to bring the wonder of the solar system as historically experienced via your local Planetarium to virtual reality with Fulldome Cinema.

One of the earliest forms of immersive education and perhaps a pre-cursor to virtual reality, planetariums have engaged audiences with their panoramic representation of the night sky and, latterly, many other natural wonders besides.

Now, Russian company Altair Digital has seen an opportunity to tap into content produced for their so-called ‘Fulldome’ planetariums, very wide-angle content traditionally projected onto the domed ceilings of purpose built theatres. The company currently specialises in portable domed projection systems, so this certainly feels like a logical step for the company.

Altair have produced an application called ‘Fulldome Cinema‘, now available for the Samsung Gear VR, which renders a digital representation of a planetarium theatre inside VR, complete with 200 virtual seats and a 20 metre, domed projection screen. Using this, Altair then take existing Fulldome projection experiences from the real world and project those into the VR planetarium. As existing experiences are produced in stereoscopic 3D, they’re ideal for VR viewing, and the naturally panoramic scenes can be glanced around at using head-tracking as you would expect.

Right now, the experience is only available for Samsung Gear VR with a selection of free content and trailers but Altair Digital are planning to expand this scope with in-development versions of the app “coming” for Oculus Rift and Android VR platforms too. We’re presuming that eventually, full length Fulldome content will be available for purchase within the application itself.

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January 20, 2017

‘Dear Angelica’, Oculus Story Studio’s Latest VR Film, is Out Now for Free

After its announcement nearly a year ago, the much anticipated illustrative VR narrative from Oculus Story Studio, Dear Angelica, finally makes its way onto the Oculus Store. It stars Geena Davis and Mae Witman and it’s out now for free on the Rift.

Oculus Story Studio was set up with the remit to explore what was possible in the newly emerging medium of virtual reality storytelling. As such, the studio has up to now produced two VR films, each markedly different in look and feel from the last. Whilst Henry was a bright, colourful tale of a Hedgehog searching for friendship, Lost was a more muted affair, reminiscent of early 80s Spielberg.

So it continues with Dear Angelica, a new story which takes a drastically different visual approach from either of its forebears. The film is directed by Saschka Unseld who also fills the role of Creative Director at OSS. It tells the story of Jessica, played by Mae Whitman through animated illustrations representing memories of her late mother – the titular Angelica, played by Geena Davis.

The unique look comes from the way it was constructed, painted entirely inside virtual reality. Artist Wesley Allsbrook created the look and feel of Dear Angelica‘s world inside Oculus’ VR paint application Quill, creating painterly visuals which, upon glancing at screenshots look entirely two dimensional, but come to life inside VR.

You can grab Dear Angelica from the Oculus Store right now for free.

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