Monthly Archives: April 2017

Virtual reality is far from what anyone would call an established medium, but at events like this weeks Tribeca Film Festival, its a mainstay. Since awarding early VR journalism pioneer Nonny de la Pea a grant in 2013, the Tribeca Film Institute has developed a full-fledged interactive art section known as Tribeca Immersive, where all but one of this years 30 experiences involve virtual reality.

At last years festival, I grouped the best work into cinematic and interactive categories cinematic usually meaning 360-degree video or animation, and interactive meaning anything that offers some control to participants. But these catch-alls no longer seem relevant. Many creators are now working within specific genres, like live-action documentaries and experiential installations, and a lot of experiences excel in one area, but dont lend themselves to traditional ranking.

So what should VR festival awards look like in 2017? I loosely adapted some new categories from the Proto Awards VRs (much, much smaller) version of the Oscars. This system may not last long either, but its the best way Ive found to capture the shows varied experiences.

The Protectors, co-created by director Imraan Ismail of VR studio Here be Dragons and Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow, boasts a combination of interesting subject matter and cinematic flair. Its an up-close look at the work of park rangers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who risk their lives to protect endangered elephants from poachers. The piece is structured more like a PSA than a piece of art, with an ending that could be smoother and more fulfilling. But up to that point, you can enjoy its compelling story and excellent cinematography, by turns sweeping and intimate.

VR filmmakers Gabo Arora and Ari Palitz made The Last Goodbye to preserve the story of Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, who was held in the Majdanek Concentration Camp in German-occupied Poland. Also produced by Here be Dragons, the piece blends photography with three-dimensional rendering to re-create parts of the camps remains as Gutter visits them for the last time. The Last Goodbye would benefit from sticking to this kind of spatial design, instead of making a jarring shift to 360-degree video in some places. Even so, its oppressive and claustrophobic environments are an effective complement to Gutters somber testimony.

Set in the near future, creator Steven Schardts short film Auto is like a shorter and less smug episode of Black Mirror. Its protagonist Musay is a longtime cab driver who cant adapt to a new world of self-driving cars, where his job is reduced to that of emergency safety driver. Autos simple, naturalistic cinematography is sometimes drab, but its still a good fit for the slice-of-life narrative. A virtual reality headset lets viewers follow entire scenes without camera cuts, but the filmmakers never overload your field of view with lots of characters or set pieces.

Continuing the theme of near-future tragedy, Alteration is the story of a man who volunteers for an experiment in recording dreams and memories. When he begins, he finds himself haunted by a fledgling artificial intelligence named Elsa, who is seeking to learn about the world through human memories. Soon, though, her observations of him descend into a kind of emotional vampirism. Creator Jrme Blanquet isnt making a cautionary tale so much as a fever dream, exploring what it might look like if present-day AIs mass data mining got very, very personal.

In the often idealistic world of virtual reality, Ethan Shaftels Extravaganza has a uniquely pointed viciousness. The short film is set inside a headset strapped to a corporate executives face, as he runs through scenes of cruel humor, crude sexual titillation, and colonialist fantasies in what hes been told is an empathy machine. The satire could be sharper, and the ending doesnt quite match the tone of the piece. But as people debate whether virtual reality will be co-opted into the media status quo, and whether empathy is just a form of voyeurism, Extravaganza is a sloppy yet brutal bit of commentary.

There are all sorts of hurdles to making virtual reality film beautiful, from the difficulty of stitching together camera feeds to VR headsets low resolution. But The Other Dakar creator Selly Raby Kane shows how much you can do with set and costume design. Its a gorgeous short about a young girl moving through a magical realist version of Senegals capital Dakar, replete with characters in vivid and creative couture. While its hardly plot-heavy, the enigmatic narrative provides a forward momentum that purely abstract work sometimes lacks.

Broken Night writer Alex Vlack and digital studio Eko are far from the first VR creators to experiment with branching narratives, but they execute the concept very well. As the films protagonist recounts her memories of a burglary and shooting, viewers see the ghosts of different choices she might have made; when they look at one image for a few seconds, it becomes the official narrative. The system is stylish and fluid, adding a game-like element without sacrificing the cinematic feel of the piece. The story itself isnt hugely compelling, but it builds a foundation Id love to see in future works.

Ardens Wake is one of my favorite pieces at this years festival; Ive already written about it here. Its diorama-like visual style is a central part of the narrative structure, creating scenes that arent technically interactive, but encourage active participation. VR studio Penrose is also telling its most ambitious story so far: its Tribeca entry is supposed to be the prologue of a larger tale set in an underwater far future.

As virtual reality films are expanding in length and narrative complexity, Apex keeps things short and intensely experiential. Its a partnership between studio Wevr and musician Arjan van Meerten, pairing a thudding musical composition by van Meerten with apocalyptic scenes that suggest both destruction and rebirth. I try to stay away from the term immersion, but at its best, Apex makes you feel like youre being subsumed into some fiery new world.

Talking with Ghosts is a collection of four virtual reality comics created with Oculus Story Studios art tool Quill. Most existing VR comics feel like either animated shorts or flat panels ported to a headset, but these are genuine sequential illustrations created for three-dimensional space, proceeding at the viewers own pace which, despite being a minor form of interactivity, changes the whole experience. The strongest section, Ric Carrasquillos The Reservoir, crafts a story about anxiety and failure through an all-encompassing miniature golf course that unfolds with every click of a remote. But each artist plays with the medium in their own way: theres Maria Yis mythological fantasy Tattoo Warrior, Roman Muradovs minimalist ghost story The Neighborhood, and Sophia Foster-Diminos quietly melancholy teenage drama Fairgrounds.

In Kite & Lightnings futuristic Bebylon: Battle Royale, a separatist kingdom of immortal babies spend their time engaging in ritual combat based on taunting and humiliating opponents for hordes of social media followers. Mechanically, this plays out as a Super Smash Bros-esque fighting game played with Oculus Touch controllers. You command your baby with motion, buttons, triggers, and the Touchs capacitive sensors, which among other things allow for obscene hand gestures. I havent played enough to speak to its merits as a game, but theres nothing else at Tribeca with the same vulgar, high-concept silliness.

Ive tried to keep duplicates off this list, but Talking with Ghosts deserves a place here as well. It doesnt involve any technological breakthroughs, but its physical graphic novel format isnt like anything Ive seen before even Dear Angelica, the first project made in Quill. Virtual reality comics are a medium I could actually imagine artists adapting to easily, without becoming full-fledged 3D modelers or animators. Of course, well need a better name than VR comics if that happens, so feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments.

In VR director Zach Richters take on Leonard Cohens classic, vocalists surround you, singing in complex harmony. The piece is shot with Lytros Immerge light field camera, which records different focal lengths to create three-dimensional space out of a video feed. You cant exactly walk around, but the world no longer snaps out of place every time you shift position. Its a little advance that makes it far easier for me to stay in the moment while watching VR video. And that makes Hallelujah well worth experiencing, even if youre not wild about yet another rendition of the sad montage song.

The Tribeca Blackout booth (which, ironically, is pure white) is one of the most striking-looking things in the venue: a gleaming, empty recreation of a New York City subway car section, complete with poles and seats. From the outside it looks sterile, but inside a headset, VR studio Scatter has created a dimly lit car where you can listen in on other passengers internal monologues, experiencing a different cast of characters each time.

Treehugger: Wawona, a project by design studio Marshmallow Laser Feast, is as intense as the four-person forest simulator the studio brought to Sundance in 2016. The experience is built around a foam pillar pitted with hollow spaces, which participants explore from inside a VR headset, while wearing a scent mask and rumbling backpack. As you move your hands (equipped with HTC Vive trackers), you can change glowing currents around a massive virtual tree, rising higher and higher into the sky as it grows.

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The best virtual reality from the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival - The Verge - The Verge

Ss technology evolves, job descriptions change.

This story first appeared in the April 25, 2017 issue of Variety. Subscribe today.See more.

For example, some years ago, when digital cameras came to dominate filmmaking, cinematographers began hiring digital-imaging technicians, or DITs, to handle image-quality control and color correction directly on the set.

And now, with the arrival of virtual-reality entertainment, a new job category has emerged VR operator to help manage camera systems on such productions.

The challenges of transitioning from traditional film and TV to VR are obvious. A single camera is enough to capture images for a movie or show, but VR content aims to replicate a realistic 360-degree environment. And the movements of a headset-wearing viewer control the point of view from which that environment is seen.

Veteran visual-effects supervisor Ben Grossmann, co-founder of VR-content producer Magnopus, says he gets eye rolls from the videogame-industry types on his team when he mentions the job titles he has to create.

They always go, That doesnt make any sense, and Im like, Thats because its half of what I know and half of what you know, Grossmann told the crowd at the From VFX to VR panel at VRLA, a virtual-reality expo that took place in downtown Los Angeles on April14 and 15.

Grossmann, who won an Oscar as part of the VFX team on Martin Scorseses Hugo, explained that many of the asset-development people who make objects, textures and matte paintings can work in both visual effects and gaming. But on projects like Magnopus Oculus Rift VR experience Mission: ISS, created using Unreal and Unity game-engine software, he needs computer programmers with skills specific to those platforms.

The process pushes engineers to the forefront to manage workflow and adds a layer of as many as 30 people working around the clock on quality assurance.

In visual effects, youre like: No ones going to see that corner. Well fix that in the grade, Grossmann explained. But in [VR], theyre like, No, 600 people are going to hit that bug, and then theyre going to complain.

In addition to big changes in effects creation, image capture is entirely different in VR because a 360-degree field of vision must be captured using an array of cameras pointed in different directions.

And data-management issues on a 360-degree video shoot are exponentially larger than those on a traditional film or TV production. Each camera in the array of a VR shoot has a memory card recording an image stream. For instance, Googles Omni VR camera rig has six GoPro cameras, while a Jaunt One VR rig has an array of 24 cameras.

Salt Lake City-based Cosmic Pictures has built a proprietary system with 25 Blackmagic Micro Cinema Cameras that shoots about 26 gigabytes a minute, according to the companys VR project manager, Chris Nielsen. Youre dealing with some major file sizes, Nielsen said.

Many 360-degree shoots use as many as five camera rigs, compounding the file-management challenges. On the VRLA panel Shooting VR for Post, cinematographer Eve Cohen said that, to her, the various VR camera rigs are akin to the different lenses she uses on a traditional production, and Im not going to show up on a shoot with one kind of lens.

VR operators manage these systems. To me, its like having somebody in charge of that camera not necessarily from a creative standpoint, but with a technical understanding, Cohen said.

Traditional three-point lighting is generally out of the question when working with the all-seeing cameras, so producers must find creative ways to illuminate sets. Shooting an interactive/VR experience for the Epix series Berlin Station, Chaos Labs co-founder and creative director Stevo Chang used Freedom 360 rigs with four GoPros, which dont handle low light well.

So for one scene we had to place an enormous number of lamps around the room just to bring the exposure level up, he said.

For T Magazines 360-degree mini-documentary The Creators: Taryn Simon, director Luca Guadagnino wanted just enough light to make artist Simons cavernous installation An Occupation of Loss appear as darkly haunting on screen as in person, so he used minimal practical lighting fixtures and removed them in post.

In a way, its almost an identical process to filming a normal narrative film, said Guadagnino, whose non-VR projects include the 2010 feature I Am Love. It involves alot of post-production.

But the fix-it-in-post attitude that reigns in traditional film and TV can get one in trouble on a VR shoot, particularly when it comes to stitching the joining of image feeds from multiple cameras, accomplished using special software and manual cleanup work by CG artists. If the image is captured improperly, no amount of digital massaging can fix it.

For me, the most important parameter is how close can you get to the camera, observed DP Andrew Shulkind during the Shooting VR for Post panel. Depending on where the [image] overlap is, you may not be able to come closer than five or six feet. If you shoot too close to a chain-link fence, that part of the shot will not stitch. If you move just a couple of feet away, that could make the difference between the shot working and the shot not working.

The technology is tricky, to be sure. But its clear that it takes a VR operator to help figure it out.

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Virtual Reality Shoots Demand a New Set of Tricks - Variety

April 26, 2017 8:28 PM By Dave Crawley

WEST MIFFLIN (KDKA) Up, around, and upside-down goes the Kennywood Sky Rocket coaster.

The blue wonder has excited thrill seekers since it opened in 2010. But this year, park spokesman Nick Paradise says some riders will be offered a chance to ride while wearing virtual reality goggles.

Doing a virtual reality when youre standing there and you think youre walking around or something like that, you get a little dizzy. This, youre actually doing what youre seeing visually, he said.

In other words, its virtually virtual.

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KDKAs Dave Crawley decided to take a pre-season ride.

Zero to 50 in three seconds. The land of Kennywood quickly morphs into a virtual stock car race. Or could they be rockets?

Youll see other vehicles, your fellow riders, demonstrated by cars around you that you can actually veer toward, bump into, Paradise says. You can veer off the track, which doesnt happen in real life, but you see that on the screen.

Depending on how you move your head or your body, youll get a different experience each time you ride. And about that virtual guy that landed on the fender?

Paradise has the answer: You dont have time to exchange insurance.

For more information on the Sky Rocket, visit Kennywoods website here!

Dave Crawley joined KDKA in April of 1988 where he reports on the interesting stories of KD Country. VITALS Joined KDKA: 1988 Hometown: Pittsburgh (Squirrel Hill) Alma Mater: Washington & Lee University (BA, English)...

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Virtual Reality Goggles Offer Sky Rocket Riders New Experience At Kennywood - CBS Pittsburgh / KDKA

A user wearing haptic devices on two fingers feels both real and virtual objects in augmented reality.

Domenico Prattichizzo

By Matthew HutsonApr. 25, 2017 , 3:00 PM

Less than a year ago, augmented realitydigital effects laid on top of the real world as seen through a computer screenburst into public consciousness with the release of the mobile game Pokmon GO, in which players see magical little monsters in the real world using their smartphones. Now, a team of engineers has done them one better: With finger-worn devices, users can feel virtual objects around them while still maintaining the ability to grasp otheractualobjects. The new technology could upgrade everything from video games to ecommerce to neurosurgery.

More than 100 million people have experienced augmented reality through Pokmon GO, and tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are investing in it. But so far, augmented reality and its sibling, the fully immersive virtual reality, have an obvious limitation: You can see and hear virtual objects, but you cant touch or feel them.

Over the years, engineers have constructed gloves with motors or electrodes designed to provide tactile, or haptic, feedback. But because most cover the fingertips, users have to remove them before they can feel a real object. Devices that leave the fingertips free dont give the fingers much feedback, or consist of ungainly exoskeletons on the backs of the hands.

So Domenico Prattichizzo, a robotics engineer at the University of Siena in Italy, and his collaborators designed two devices that enable users to feel virtual objects, which they put to the test in a paper to be published in IEEE Transactions on Haptics. One fits over the fingertip, like a chunky thimble. It has a thin plate controlled by three tiny motors that presses against the finger pad. The plate is thin enough to let users pick up real objects, but substantial enough to make them think they are touching real objectseven when none is there. The other is a ring worn high on the finger that uses tiny motors to stretch the skin under the ring. When the stretching, inches from the fingertip, combines with visual feedback, the brain essentially fools itself and transfers the sensation to the tip.

Participants tested the devices with three tasks. In the first, they held a real piece of chalk and wrote the word CIAO (goodbye) on a virtual whiteboard, which they saw througha computer screen. When the chalk touched the virtual board, it left a mark, which turned from blue to red as the subject pressed harder. Participants wore thimbles, rings, or nothing on the thumb and index finger. Compared with bare fingers, the haptic devices each reduced peoples tracing error by about 75%. Participants also reported the thimble and ring gave them better control of the chalk. In additional trials, the only device to do better was a stylus controlled by mechanical arms that cant be worn.

In the second task, people placed two virtual blocks on top of two real blocks, which they then picked up and moved. Participants were about 30% faster with the haptic devices than without. In the third task, they held a real square of cardboard and rolled a virtual ball on it toward several targets. Participants hit more targets in 45 second with haptic feedbackwhich simulated the weight of the ball rolling on the cardboardthan without it. In this final task, the thimble was slightly better than the ring.

Prattichizzos lab has led a revolution in the topic of virtual touch, says Miguel Otaduy, a computer scientist at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Hes tried Prattichizzos devices and is impressed that you can wear them and still hold real objects. That just blows your mind, he says. Samuel Schorr, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who studies haptics in virtual reality, praises the work for comparing different types of devices using different types of tasks.

Otaduy notes several possible applications. In medicine, a surgeon might be able to perform remote operations beyond the simple use of a scalpel, or train for tumor screening by feeling for virtual lumps in real tissue. In telecommunications, people could share touch over the internet. Sensing could also be remote in time: You might record the visual, audio, and tactile sensations of playing with your child, for example, to play back later.

Prattichizzo hopes to add vibrations to his wearable devices to simulate texture. Hes also developing armbands to provide haptic feedback when lifting heavy virtual objects. Some of these ideas may soon come to market through his new company, WEART: My goal is that we should be able to switch from real to virtual reality in a snap.

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Finger devices let users 'touch' virtual objects - Science Magazine

Until now, the benefits and applications of virtual reality (VR) in travel have mostly been fun diversions, or a way for travelers to experience something before they decide to buy.

But one company has unveiled a technology that would allow VR to be the actual platform through which travelers book their trips.

Navitaire, a travel technology company (owned by travel tech giant Amadeus), revealed a new system that would allow travelers to discover and book real-life trips without ever leaving virtual reality, Skift reported.

When users put on the VR headset, they are greeted by a giant globe which they can spin to explore destinations around the world. Users wear electronically connected gloves to make decisions, select and grab in virtual reality. If they are curious about a destination, they can go in and explore the sites similar to many travel VR products already out there.

However, once they choose their destination, users can see different airline routes and pick their airline. Once theyve selected a flight, they can compare seats on the plane in VR. Users can also choose to test out rental cars and compare size and seating through VR something useful when deciding whether or not that budget airfare is really worth it. Once theyve made all of their decisions, users can pick up a virtual credit card (linked to a real credit card) and pay for their entire trip.

The project is still in development. Even though theres currently a patent pending, dont expect to book a trip in VR anytime soon. Amadeus could continue adding new features. Eventually, the technology could link up with social media to show users where their Facebook friends have traveled. Travelers could even manage reservations and check in for flights using VR.

I see a future in which the internet will be a 3D experience, and everyone will have their own portable 3D headsets, Justin Wilde, a user experience developer at Navitaire, said in a statement. This will be a much more natural experience for us, because the world we live in has three dimensions. I think technology, and the way we design user experience online should reflect that too.

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You Could Book Your Next Vacation in Virtual Reality | Travel + ... - Travel+Leisure