I am delighted to announce that, in stark opposition to our current batch of giga-byte sized source repositories, AlienDNA weighs in at a respectable… 760k. Yes, that’s right. The entire source repository is less than 1MB.
And here is the v017 video. Enjoy
We’re doing a rapid prototype of how an underwater VR cinematic journey might play out. A primary dynamic visual element is the bubbles. Refraction, expansion, sound FX… all of it! Right after bubbles, come rays of light, caustics, and the miraculous mirror reflection of the surface from below. It should be a fun design and rendering challenge, esp. when we port to the resource-challenged mobile headsets.
Here are some of our sourcebook visual inspirations for the math & physics ahead:
Vivian Spiral dancing beneath the waves. photo credit: Orion Fredericks
Do you have experience with shaders and rendering and particle animation of underwater scenarios? Post your links below and / or send us your resume!
We finally prioritized mobile above DK2 dev, and have compiled our first fast demo for the superb GearVR platform by Samsung.
If you’re lucky enough to own a GearVR, download & enjoy:
• download dSky-v35.apk for Note4 / Galaxy6 + GearVR
Earth to Planet Alpha31…
sign us up!
Planet Alpha 31 – Sneak Peek (pre-alpha build) from Adrian Lazar on Vimeo.
Sneak Peek for Planet Alpha 31 captured from pre-alpha build.
www.planetalpha31.com
In 1986, Pixar Animation Studios created its first film, dubbed Luxo Jr.
It was presented to a sophisticated audience at SIGGRAPH, the annual convention for those in the know, and in the engineering, design, and creation of the best 3D graphics in the world. At the time, the air was one of hope; Tron had just been released to audience acclaim a few years earlier in 1982, the first movie to have significant computer-generated visual effects (nee CG/VFX) sequences, and whispers in the wind predicted at some point, at some time, a completely 100% CGI (computer generated imagery) film would be created.
In less than 2 minutes, Pixar proved that seemingly inanimate objects, in this case simple desk-lamps and inflatable toy balls, could exude, even ooze, character, charm, and even emotion.
That one film opened the door to an entire new era of Hollywood cinema, which arguably exploded into mainstream consciousness a decade later in 1995 with Toy Story, the first commercially successful, full length, completely computer-generated CG film… again, by Pixar, the love child of George Lucas, John Lasseter and Steve Jobs.
Fast forward 30 years. Oculus, the amazing company that launched on kickstarter and was stunningly acquired by Facebook for $2 billion a mere 2 years later, launches a virtual cinema division dubbed Oculus Story Studio.
And now, here’s Henry.
Meet Henry from Story Studio on Vimeo.
Henry is a clear attempt to move from hardcore, sci-fi, robot-loving gamers, into a more general, emotional, human populace. Presumably, a human populace willing to put on a pair of blackened ski-goggles in order to watch — scratch that — in order to experience, genuine story-fed emotion.
Henry is, plain and simple: An attempt, albeit a decent one, to launch a new category, animated cinematic interactive VR… with a best-in-class example.
Come August 28, and more-so, come February 2016, the world will decide.
Here’s hoping they succeed.
great meetings with the Studios in Hollywood. Put some post-demo polish on the Star Wars featurette, now it may be time to revisit Harry Potter in his most awesome game of Wizard Chess VR. Remember BattleChess? You ain’t seen nuthin yet.
Early early pre-viz:
scene recreation, v0.03
Wixards Chess, still from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. © Warner Brothers
our first task is to do the basic “blocking” on the scene. For this we use simple capsules as stand-ins for the actors. Once all the gross movement is accounted for, then we swap in the high resolution humanoid models, and slowly add in actual gestures / movements / walks / hands / head animations, lip sync, and even eye gaze, aka dristi.
character stand-ins for basic scene blocking
Harry Potter Wizards Chess, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone © Warner Brothers
Onward.
Flying : Major accomplishments, and major lessons learned.
dSky VR : under the GGB!
The good news : we got Flying Adventure working in the Rift, and let me tell you : flying under the Golden Gate Bridge, through volumetric clouds, at 70mph about 3′ above deck… a total rush. I flew in and around the city for about 30 minutes, totally absorbed, free, in bliss. Further, there was a palpably sublime moment when, flying across the surface of the water at speed, I looked down and saw something on the face of the waves: it was my avatar’s reflection, distorted in real time. Spine tingling.
whats that reflected on the face of the water? me, as avatar
The bad news : humans and birds are not at all built the same. We first modelled the simulation so that a human flyer would be belly down, in a sort of yoga cobra position, abs engaged. The challenge is : while a birds eyes are on the *sides* of its head, and its head is naturally aligned for the bird to view forward while prone… a human’s eyes are on the *front* of our heads; and while prone, we are naturally looking downward. thus, if we are using “natural” forward propulsion, as one might imagine superman or ironman doing, we humans are forced to *seriously* arc our necks back in order to see “forward” towards where we are headed, and to more naturally navigate our flying world.
Human neck : natural downward articulation | avian neck : natural forward orientation
human v. eagle : very different animals.
The consequence : after 30 minutes of flying, my neck really hurts… and that’s coming from a trained acrobat, supposedly used to such contortions.
Fast conclusion: we are fast coming full circle to Palmer Luckey’s assertion that “present-day VR is a seated experience”. Going to start exploring alternate methods of navigation metaphors, including:
quite possibly the best way to fly : on a saddle, atop a trained giant eagle.
Until our next post, enjoy the screenshots.
Click here for downloadable demo.