Manimation - Brave New Worlds

Across the road from Manchester animation festival there was a conference festival named Manimation which had a special VR talk named 'brave new worlds' Steve Henderson my tutor and co director of Manchester animation festival was really kindly able to get me in!

This talk was most insightful as an aspiring VR animator, many points were raised I hadn't even considered, it was really interesting and a little too short for how much there is to talk about.

Here are some of my notes drawn from this conference:

Draw into space not as engaging as something dramatic happening around you. Try new things, break rules make own rules. (Echoing a lot of Gary Napper's talk at YGF.)

AR And VR headsets, blend and be an amazing hybrid thing.

Apple discussing AR. POKÉMON GO is the biggest AR project of all time.

As you explore environment it triggers reaction. 

Storytelling. interactivity. Telling similar stories through games. Cross over with gaming to storytelling industry. Animation, the want to tell a story and know how to get people involved with VR. 

There was a lot of discussion around whether controllers should be seen in a VR environment:

VR no standard controller.  Challenge to develop set of content. Already got standard controller ??? Sticking hands in virtual world is where we should be in 5 years. People don't like games controllers. Why do we need controllers ?? Because they are precise! Technology for hand tracking needs to become flawless. Microsoft VR - Hololens tracks accurately where hands are,  needs to go this way. 

Keep seeing vibe controllers in the games. Projects where they don't look like them. Interesting. 

Spending so much time making cool worlds - that people forget about controllers. 

Your holding a thing and physically holding thing , bridge between yourself and the game.

STORYTELLING IN VR.

We wait - a short from aardman.

First person - refugees on shore of distant land. Puts you in head of someone using VR. 

Empathy immersion , first person or third person ? No rules - what does it feel like to be a refugee waiting ???

Stylised, representitive. Experiential. Cuts included - coast to boat. Soft cuts with spotlight. Use more binaural with game. Mostly in the night. Experiment for the BBC. If photorealistic would it of had as good an effect? Too reallstic and unsettling. Timing is right no latency. Everything more exaggerating - all senses in sync - this can only be real. Took a while for head to register. How fast perception said can't compute this any other way. If become too real danger that it gets locked in memory. If too real then disturbing as like a real life experience because of how brain computes information. 

Brain didn't believe what your telling yourself. 

If invisible and have no presence in scene - layer of storytelling don't need to think about. 

3rd person horror VR detaches you from experience , scary because your in scene. Could YOU be scary thing in horror story? 

VR often seen as isolating. But Facebook conference ??? Have friends in same VR experience and see what they see and talk , really interesting. 

Can we create stories from immersive theatre? 

Suicide bomber . Wrong hands. Alternative to realty. Worries. 

VR classroom , taking kids places increasing the educational experience.

So realistic that it becomes a danger to people would be amazing

VR for education and learning. Empathy - situations hope would encourage empathy - how we can use 360 to enable distant learning.

MS experience. Apollo 11 project. Go into space with group of people contextually. 

Put through mind of someone with autism.