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8i Unveils First Volumetric VR Project Featuring Real Human Actors at Sundance
- Published January 22, 2016 12:11PM UTC
- Publisher Wholesale Investor
- Categories Company Updates
22nd January 2016, Medium By Linc Gasking
Throughout history, storytellers have always strived to create realistic depictions of their fellow man or woman. Cavemen scratched stick figures into walls; Renaissance painters spent months, if not years, capturing the likenesses of their muses and benefactors; and early photographers worked to master exposure times and shutter speeds. Artists’ scopes were limited only by their respective era’s technical limitations.
Today, with the newest advancements in the field of video capture technology, we’ve come to what I believe to be the final, most realistic medium possible: telling volumetric stories in virtual reality or augmented reality. This week at the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier, we’re excited to unveil “#100humans,” the first volumetric VR project which pushes the boundaries of storytelling by bringing real human actors into realistic virtual experiences.
Volumetric VR gives you the ultimate feeling of reality. Not only can headset-wearing users see scenes with three-dimensional humans — who actually look like real people, as opposed to the glassy-eyed bots of CG — but they can also physically walk around these “characters” and watch them from any angle. Unlike film, there are no “takes” or “shots” in VR that are edited in post-production — it’s much more fluid as the viewer is the one framing the scene and choosing their own perspective. In that sense, the viewer takes that role from the director, which opens up entirely new possibilities for storytelling and acting.
The goal of our #100humans project was to begin a journey and discover something about what this new medium of volumetric VR means for storytelling. Created by 8i’s award-winning team of visual effects, technology and film industry veterans, including Emmy Award-winner Rainer Gombos (“Game of Thrones”, “Cosmos”), #100humans explores new ways for the audience (in other words, you, the viewer) to experience virtual scenes, featuring human actors, in a way that was never possible before.
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