Disney Animation Set to Debut First Virtual Reality Film "Cycles" Next Month

[cageymaru]

Disney Animation lighting artist Jeff Gipson is making his virtual reality (VR) directorial debut with the release of the short film "Cycles." Cycles is the story of what the true meaning of a home is as it was inspired by Gipson's childhood experience in moving his grandparents to an assisted living home. Gipson's vision of the project is to have the scenes play out in a single space and have the moviegoers watch life unfold around them. The emotional roller coaster will debut at the SIGGRAPH conference, Aug 12-16 in Vancouver.

Gipson joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2013 and has worked as a lighting artist on Disney films including "Frozen," "Zootopia" and "Moana." "VR is an amazing technology and a lot of times the technology is what is really celebrated," Gipson said. "We hope more and more people begin to see the emotional weight of VR films, and with 'Cycles' in particular, we hope they will feel the emotions we aimed to convey with our story." Disney Animation's production team completed "Cycles" in four months in conjunction with about 50 collaborators.

 

[Spidey329]

Gipson's vision of the project is to have the scenes play out in a single space and have the moviegoers watch life unfold around them.

So, like the hidden game within the Rick & Morty VR game?

 

[Krenum]

So....Virtual, virtual reality?

 

[WBurchnall]

So....Virtual, virtual reality?

No, more like a shared VR experience. The main problem is going to be Scarlett Johannessan. I'm sorry but everyone is in the room with headsets and seeing the same movie from different angles/places. In theory, you could wonder behind the hot actress and stare at her butt while your male friend is infront of her looking down to cleavage. Only problem is, only one male body can fit into that space at a time and it'll already be occupied. If you took off your VR glasses, I think you'd probably see a lineup in front and back. The people closer to the front having the luxury of a more zoomed image.

I'm just seeing a shared VR experience for a hollywood movie where a bunch of movie goers walk around in the room to be a weird idea. Will people be running into eachother or will the headsets have a VR camera? Or do you all have to remain in your seats the entire time and the VR aspect does not involve physically moving to change angle and just turning one's head left/right/up/down?

If the later, it doesn't seem much different than 360 wrap-around Imax where you could choose where to want to look. I recall seeing a movie like that when I was a child in the early 90s at Science World...also in Vancouver.