Chances are you heard about virtual reality a whole lot in 2016.
That’s largely because last year marked a breakthrough for the medium in several ways: The hardware (like Playstation VR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift) finally became accessible and affordable to everyday consumers; platforms like Steam and Transport began hosting growing catalogues of VR content and programs, and ambitions began extending past hype-friendly content towards revolutionizing everything from education to medicine.
But for all the progress the medium made, 2016 was still very much early days for VR. What the medium can and will do is still unknown, but in the year ahead one profession in particular promises to play a major role in shaping it: Designers.
Experimenting with VR Content
Hardware is always the first consideration in the VR space — you’re more likely to hear the words “Oculus” or “Samsung Gear VR” than the name of any short film or app. But like any medium, content matters. Those who believe in the possibility of VR aren’t converted by the tech, but by the content they’ve seen through the tech.
What makes something worthwhile in VR isn’t all that different from other media: It’s about exceptional design.
“[VR is] not just a blank canvas — it’s like the canvas hasn’t even been stretched yet. We’re really just trying to figure out the fundamentals,” says Oren Haskins, an illustrator who provided the character design for Pearl, an animated VR film from 2016 that puts you in the passenger seat with a musician and his daughter.
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Meanwhile, the tools used to create VR content are evolving. Dear Angelica uses painterly strokes to depict a story of grief and memory — another VR design mechanism that will impact creatives in 2017. This particular VR experience was created with the Oculus program Quill, which is like a mid-point between Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop that gives artists the unique experience of creating in three-dimensional VR space. It’s one of several programs that allow creatives to not just design for virtual reality, but with and in it. Oculus also released the sculpting program Medium, and Google has his own version of Quill called Tilt Brush.
“The first time I just painted one stroke in Tilt Brush, and then walked around it, I thought, ‘This is it. This is the thing.’ It was like being in a dream moment,” says artist Stuart Campbell. His Sutuwerldproject, for example, highlights the vast aesthetic possibilities of the medium by featuring four entirely different worlds seen through window-like portals.
VR Tools and the Evolution of Design
2017 will undoubtedly lead to more creators and projects like Campbell and Sutuwerld as others begin to experiment and pursue what can be done.
“From a tool point of view, it’s going to be a very exciting year, just because so many discoveries are being made, and pushed out so quickly, that advancement seems to be happening really fast,” says Campbell.
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Source: Shutter Stock Blog