I’d like to introduce myself and join the exciting conversation.
In January '16 I quit the visual effects industry to deeply involve myself into a new world. It was a few decades ago that I realised that reality was perception and perception was malleable (there is no spoon!)
Video Games would take your mind out of your body and transpose it into its virtual construct. More recently we’ve been able to use our bodies to program our minds by the careful use of virtual reality and motion controllers. When the body moves itself the signals in the brain are interpreted real, regardless of whether the mind is in a virtual context or not.
I started Electric Lens Co to help investigate how artwork as experienced in virtual reality would make real feelings in the viewer’s mind and what cues provoke the best response in a balanced way with visual and audio rendering.
Luckily I’ve been involved in several such projects in the past year and a half and even more lucky to have been able to bring together different artists from as wide a gamut as possible and, with my vfx background, bridge the technical chasms that exist in between.
The posts will be separated to be able to talk about each one individually. I’m happy to elaborate on any topics/questions.
Infiniti Motors IQ VR - Detroit International Auto Show 2016
This project was a collaboration with The Pulse as part of the Detroit International Auto Show 2016.
This was my first large-scale Unreal Engine project and a true test of every technique I had developed from VFX including large data set handling and optimising, high dynamic range workflows, on-set photography and shoot planning. New techniques were extended from there to get into the frame budget for VR as well as produce ‘photo-real’ images which aren’t very prevalent in the space. UE4 was changing very quickly at this time and new tools such as the sequencer, VR Editor and better quality rendering procedures were hot off the press. Painfully the tools seemed to be released moments after we’d hacked around many issues (a theme that continues to this day!) and a reminder of how this wave is picking up serious mass as the developers get more budget to build out the tools we’re using daily.
As it was a ‘VR car ad’ ultimately some affordance to marketing themes was necessary to bring it to light but at the base conception is was a piece which meant to make one feel as though they’ve aspired from sea level to the peak of the world and to feel humbled by the scale of nature.
My treatment was targeting the different feelings that each moment along that journey would have, be it large alpine deserts, secluded mountain lakes, vertical cliffs and finally the pinnacle of the world where the snow under your feet is linked to the ocean at the horizon.
Photogrammetry was something I’d started using about 15 years ago and have watched grow into an amazing tool today. As part of the deeper process I built into the ELC mantra, we knew we had to be amongst these environments to be able to sample the sensation of being there to truly reconstitute it into a virtual context. The shoot was based out of New Zealand and virtual location scouting was used to find real places that could be pivoted on and remixed for creative reasons. Shot over a week and processed for another few weeks we had four phases to the journey that would go into the final project.
Animals unique to NZ were chosen to feature as calm bystanders and witnesses to your presence (another theme that we continue in later work)
High dynamic range was preserved throughout and in later UE4 versions I’ve experimented with HDR versions of the project as I anticipate HDR VR headsets would bring a higher sense of presence.
Positional sound was pre-mixed by Nylon Studios and final-mixed into UE4 as part of a continuing partnership to push professional level audio into VR.
Our first original piece to further the discussion on mankind’s presence on Earth. This time from the abstract position of being inside a living painting. As a collaboration with Moving Peaks & Luke Bubb we sought to create a more honest comment on presence and the effects of our place on under the ocean without casting too much judgement. Plastics are a big topic at the moment so we pivoted on this commentary.
Partly based on a frustration that TiltBrush art looks like too much like the application we took the approach to remove the geometry out and give it life inside Unreal Engine as well as gaining access to replication and ‘photo real’ lighting systems to make a unique look.
A Houdini procedure would help optimise the geometry and prepare it for foliage dressing as well as a procedural material network that inherits vertex colours and adds surface interest to the strokes.
Interestingly, another wave of changes to UE4 came days before delivery including VR Editor improvements and VR-level animation/sequencer access. It’s a very important aspect to our workflow to be ‘in context’ when making decisions so we’re in VR as much as possible to keep the feedback loop real-time and spatially coherent. It is an exercise in frustration to develop a scene which isn’t scaled correctly once viewed in VR so we keep this as a very highly regarded workflow practise.
This went to Cannes Film Festival in the past few weeks and will see an App Store release soon. We also have plans to involve a brain-controller which will have YOU save the reef by using the mind to empathise. I hope this will prove important points about the legacy that immersion has on the brain even in everyday life.
An Extension of the original “Coral & I” piece but turned into a experiential piece where the audience has a free choice to glide through the underworld and explore the motifs that we established in “Coral & I”.
We built this as part of a Vivid Sydney project and its hour-long running time lets you ‘trip out’ and listen to the provided music or your own. We will elaborate on the configurable functionality that will come to the App Store soon.
Continuing the examination of human presence and the nature of what defines real we’re preparing to launch a new series called "Tech Noir"
A series of stories based around a well known 1980’s 42nd St. A place of questionable reality during this time in history. A canvas for our ‘Electric Dreams’ to take place.
The pilot is launching in September after optimisation and sound mix is finished.
