The Challenges of Producing A High-End VR Series
One of the most important elements we wanted to integrate into the series was the ability for viewers to move through the story. At UNLTD, we believe the era of “fixed” or stationary VR experiences is over – where the viewer is pretty much stuck in one place and the action moves past us.
However, when you add movement to a live 360 image, the complexity of the post-production process rises exponentially (like really, really exponentially). This happens both in terms of both stitching the images together and then creating visual FX.
To further enhance the viewer’s ability to move through the story, we decided to “double-shoot” everything, using our own Sputnik Motion-VRcam for all the live action shots, as well as an array of volumetric cameras capturing depth and RGB information on the actors and close-range set. We then scanned the entire location architecture for 3D mapping. Combining all these different assets, we’ve built fully interactive environments where we can match and then switch back and forth seamlessly between the live action-action and volumetric environments.
Although volumetric camera technology is really in its infancy, we’re convinced that all camera capture technology will be volumetric within the next few years.
We believe that true blockbuster “must see” style experiences will drive the mainstream adoption of VR. If we’re to succeed, VR production studios need to push the creative and budget limits and release content at the highest level, competing with anything that film, television or games have to offer.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/challenges-producing-high-end-vr-series/
VR company Upload settles sexual harassment lawsuit
San Francisco-based virtual reality startup UploadVR, which is now going by Upload, settled a sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit yesterday with its former employee. Anonymous sources told TechCrunch that the lawsuit ended, which Upload later confirmed in a statement. No further details about the settlement were provided.
Upload responded to a request for comment by linking back to a letter from their COO, Anne Ward, in which she says, “Above all else I want to make it clear that Upload is a place where everyone is welcome. Everyone. We will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, disability or sexual orientation.”
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/7/16269282/virtual-reality-uploadvr-hostile-wrongful-termination-unfair-pay
App uses augmented reality to help diamond buyers
Once that safety goal was reached, Diamond Hedge was launched. That was in early 2015, but news about the existence of the price comparison site for mobile, tablet and desktop broke just recently.
Its founder and CEO is Mehul Sompura, son of the New York-based owner of Maruti Jewelers. His idea is to allow people to “try on different engagement rings from anywhere in the world using augmented reality, and then compare that diamond from the leading diamond companies to make sure they are getting the best price for that diamond.”
Besides the augmented reality feature where users can find up to 1.3 million different stones, change their shapes and sizes according to their liking, and choose among a variety of 15 retailers to purchase them, the site and app host a blog where they can learn how to select a gem based on cut, clarity, colour, carat, price and other specifications.
See the full story here: http://www.mining.com/app-uses-augmented-reality-help-diamond-buyers/
10 Virtual Reality Innovators to Watch Powered by Dell
See the full story here: http://variety.com/gallery/vr-innovators-to-watch/#!11/armand-weeresinghe/
Ian Cheng’s videogames blend art and artificial intelligence in his first solo show at MoMA PS1.
Mr. Cheng, whose first museum solo show, “Ian Cheng: Emissaries,” is on view at New York’s MoMA PS1 through Sept. 24, has spent the past three years developing software that simulates animated games—with backdrops that include an ancient village nestled against a rumbling volcano, a teeming wildflower field and a spare, sandy atoll. The key distinction is that he has populated his scenes with foliage and figures who twitch and fight and feed each other in real time with no predetermined outcomes, an endless unspooling of artificial intelligence in beta mode.
At one point during the volcano simulation, Mr. Cheng said that he watched a group of villagers gang up on an outlier, kill him, drag his body into the center of town and urinate on him. “There was no algorithm for that,” he said. “It was horrifying, but it felt like a revelation since they had not been told to do anything like that.” In another simulation, he watched a pack of dogs encircle a man and repeatedly lick him, a man’s-best-friend response that was also unscripted.
See the full story here: http://www.cetusnews.com/life/Ian-Cheng’s-Videogames-Take-On-a-Life-of-Their-Own.rJegvaLnKb.html