Watch A Former Disney Artist Use VR to Create Ariel and The Beast

John Keefer

Devilish Rogue
Aug 12, 2013
630
0
0
Watch A Former Disney Artist Use VR to Create Ariel and The Beast

[vimeo=138790270]

Virtual Reality is making in-roads into numerous facets of life. We've seen it in games, and now we are seeing it art, as former Disney animator Glen Keane shows off his craft in 3D.

We've seen a lot of press recently on the advancement of virtual reality into games, especially with people like industry luminaries such as John Carmack and Michael Abrash pushing all kinds of boundaries. But VR has all kinds of other applications that are being explored, including artists using it to step into their canvas.

Enter Glen Keane, a former Disney animator who created Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Beast in Beauty and the Beast, and other characters from Disney films. He created a short film called "Step into the Page" for the upcoming Future of Storytelling [http://futureofstorytelling.org/] summit in New York next month. In the film, Keane talks about his work, his legendary father Bill Keane (who created the syndicated comic Family Circus) and finally his experiences with VR and what it has done for his craft.

"By putting tools in your hand that can create in virtual reality, I can put goggles on and I just step into the paper and now I'm drawing in it," Keane said in the video, as we watch him use a HTC Vive VR headset and a Tilt Brush app to create 3D versions of Ariel and The Beast.

The video doesn't offer any practical applications yet for 3D artistry such as this, but Keane thinks that this is just the beginning for storytelling and art as a form of expression. "When I draw in virtual reality I draw all the characters real life size," he said. "That doorway to the imagination is open a little wider. The edges of the paper are no longer there. This is not a flat drawing. This is sculptural drawing."

It is indeed fascinating to watch him create in a process he says felt "comfortable and strangely normal."

Source: Engadget [http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/10/glean-keane-vr/]

Permalink
 

Rattja

New member
Dec 4, 2012
452
0
0
I want it soooo bad!

When they started to develop these VR things, I just thought it would be great for gaming. It didn't even cross my mind that you could also do something like this!
I absolutely love the idea of this, and can't wait until I get my hands on the tech to do it myself.

It will be very interesting to see what crazy stuff people will make with this technology once it's out there and they start to master it, making programs for it and all that good stuff.
 

Vigormortis

New member
Nov 21, 2007
4,531
0
0
John Keefer said:
Just one small correction: It's the HTC Vive. Otherwise, great article and a great find. I wasn't aware non-developers were able to get their hands on the limited developer editions of the Vive. I thought Valve and HTC were only sending a limited number of units to interested dev studios.

Glad to see I was wrong. :)

Cid Silverwing said:
Phwoar! We gotta fund this moar! OWO
Rattja said:
I want it soooo bad!

When they started to develop these VR things, I just thought it would be great for gaming. It didn't even cross my mind that you could also do something like this!
I absolutely love the idea of this, and can't wait until I get my hands on the tech to do it myself.

It will be very interesting to see what crazy stuff people will make with this technology once it's out there and they start to master it, making programs for it and all that good stuff.
Bare in mind that what he's doing in the video is currently only possible with the HTC Vive. The room-scale tracking stations the system uses allow for that full 3D movement within the room space. The Oculus Rift and Sony Morpheus do not currently have such a tracking system.

Still, the possibilities for all of the coming VR tech is mind blowing. And that doesn't include potential possibilities we have yet to think up.

It's an exciting time, despite the naysayers.
 

Fluke

New member
Sep 19, 2007
20
0
0
Vigormortis said:
Bare in mind that what he's doing in the video is currently only possible with the HTC Vive. The room-scale tracking stations the system uses allow for that full 3D movement within the room space. The Oculus Rift and Sony Morpheus do not currently have such a tracking system.
The Rift with Touch can do room scale tracking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXrJu-zOzm4
 

Vigormortis

New member
Nov 21, 2007
4,531
0
0
Fluke said:
The Rift with Touch can do room scale tracking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXrJu-zOzm4
I probably should have been more clear. I have a tendency to assume people know what I'm referring to most of the time. It's a character flaw.

I meant the Vive is the only one (so far) to have that sort of room-scale tracking built into the final product. The Rift's system is still in the development stages.
 

CrystalShadow

don't upset the insane catgirl
Apr 11, 2009
3,829
0
0
Vigormortis said:
Fluke said:
The Rift with Touch can do room scale tracking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXrJu-zOzm4
I probably should have been more clear. I have a tendency to assume people know what I'm referring to most of the time. It's a character flaw.

I meant the Vive is the only one (so far) to have that sort of room-scale tracking built into the final product. The Rift's system is still in the development stages.
The FOVE prototype should have it too, but that's a by-product of integrating the same tracking technology. (It will have lighthouse support when it's released. Along with eye tracking, which is the fundamental point of it's existence)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fove/fove-the-worlds-first-eye-tracking-virtual-reality/posts/1284093
It is however another 'dev kit' type thing rather than an actual consumer release VR system.
By the time it's sent to the kickstarter backers, both Oculus and Valve should have made their official consumer VR launches.
So it's not really comparable on that level.

OT: This is... Impressive.
Both on an artistic level, but also a technical one.

The level of precision needed to make something like that plausible... It's the first demonstration I've seen that makes it clear just how good Valve's lighthouse system actually is.
That was just so...

Well, there are no real words to do it justice, honestly.
 

Vigormortis

New member
Nov 21, 2007
4,531
0
0
CrystalShadow said:
The FOVE prototype should have it too, but that's a by-product of integrating the same tracking technology. (It will have lighthouse support when it's released. Along with eye tracking, which is the fundamental point of it's existence)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fove/fove-the-worlds-first-eye-tracking-virtual-reality/posts/1284093
It is however another 'dev kit' type thing rather than an actual consumer release VR system.
By the time it's sent to the kickstarter backers, both Oculus and Valve should have made their official consumer VR launches.
So it's not really comparable on that level.
Yeah, I'd heard of FOVE. Only vaguely, though. Hadn't looked into it too deeply.

But still, the Vive will be the first VR consumer model to use room-scale. So, sadly, the tech shown in the video will only be available to the Vive for a time.

Thankfully, HTC and Valve are openly sharing their findings with Lighthouse, so that tracking tech will show up in many other devices.
OT: This is... Impressive.
Both on an artistic level, but also a technical one.

The level of precision needed to make something like that plausible... It's the first demonstration I've seen that makes it clear just how good Valve's lighthouse system actually is.
That was just so...

Well, there are no real words to do it justice, honestly.
Lighthouse supposedly has its tracking down to sub-millimeter accuracy.

For a system utilizing two tiny base stations tracking an area of 15 feet cubed, that's....incredible.

And from what I've been hearing, it's technically possible to link several Lighthouse zones together. So hypothetically one could turn their whole home into a VR space.