Author: ab8637

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VR Production Experience by Aibike Begali

Being the first ever IMA class that I have taken, VR/AR Fundamentals by Michael Naimark with Dave Santiano assisting provided some solid basis and fundamental insight into the area of Interactive Media. Working with VR more specifically, made it comprehensive to be able to produce a stereoscopic video as well as to edit and manipulate it such that an enjoyable and exciting product can be obtained. 

First, by constantly keeping an eye on world updates and news in the sphere of VR/AR, it was easy to submerge into trends and to understand the basics of VR/AR medium when used as a tool of expression and communication.

Secondly, trying out our own shootings out in Shanghainese streets with Insta360 Pro camera provided by the university gave us great opportunity to be able to file and document our real-life surroundings in a 360 degree video. Some slight obstacles occurred in terms of lighting and transporting the footage to PC devices due to the heavy weight of the footage and the importance of proper stitching. 

Third, the process of post-production required some in-depth understanding of manipulation of stereoscopic video and spatial audio, however with the intense help of Dave, all the iterations and work process in either After Effects or Premier Pro were remarkably possible and enjoyable. It made me think how accessible projects in VR are becoming to any amateur creators and videographers with the development of user interfaces of such video-editing softwares. 

Showtime during IMA show on December 13 showed us how powerful VR medium is in terms of teleporting people to designated locations and sharing the experience and the message aimed to be displayed. 

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News/Articles Recap

off-track news

4. off-track Cows in VR 
The spread of implementation of VR for agriculture in the future 5 years does not seem likely to happen, taken into consideration lack of distribution of VR devices in basic areas, it first has to be spread among average users and then to invade such diverse industries like agriculture.
3. off-track VR music concert 
Just something about the importance of the feeling united and being a part of something bigger that you experience when standing in a crowd watching performance of your favorite artist – something that I cannot imagine being replaced by VR experience.
2. off-track Mark AR Virtual Graffiti
Implementation of this app will require a base of numerous users, which I doubt regarding the statistics of user numbers for other already existent platforms for artists only. 
1. off-track Phone-based VR  
Phone based VR did not end, it is just waiting for the technologies to advance and become compact enough to give the VR industry a crazy rise anytime soon. 
 
vs.
 
prophetic news 
 
This type of displays might be the revolutionary invention that will lead us to the era of using such screens only. And I will be very interested to see if they will shrink down to a self phone size and that would allow many possibilities for phone-based VR and AR.
3. prophetic Openwater
The general trend of getting rid of any physical gear that was initially necessary to get a VR experience will eventually lead humanity to the use of brain-reading technologies, such as Openwater. It is now seems to be on the very roots of development, but the implementation scope of such technology will go much beyond the VR/AR industry. 
2. prophetic Neuro-transmitting wristband (introduced on Keynote)
For the same reason as Number 3. the wristbands might be the first step towards gear-less navigating and controlling your VR experience, and according to Mark, it is coming pretty soon.
1. prophetic Hand-Tracking by Oculus VR headset (introduced on Keynote)
 
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On 3 Products

During our shooting, while tracking the lifestream of the VR video, I started messing with the perspective a bit and got some interesting zooms that made me immediately wonder whether we are able to achieve same effects in AAE. 

Luckily, our the task for our next class happened to be the review of three products, and the very first of it, Mantra, appears to feature the exact effects for converting your footage to such spheric perspective. The latest version of Mantra added the ‘Spherify’ feature.

Cara is more of a technical tool, including stitching, correction and color matching, and the most important feature for our projects’ post-production – tracking & painting directly on the stereoscopic footage. 

From the materials represented on their website, Mocha seems to be an easy-to-use tool for various functions: Mocha Planar Tracking Tool makes it possible to remove objects, Area Brush Quick Masking Tool, Color Management, Mega Plates, etc. 

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Week 3 on Alvin Graylin and Kevin Kelly

Article #1

Most agree: Remote work via VR will become the norm.
I am very excited about the idea that VR is capable of washing away physical locational boundaries in many fields, but the working sphere seems to be affected primarily. It makes up a great deal of any company’s budget to maintain and rent offices and buildings and because in capitalist society cost-efficiency happens to be a major game changer, I believe that virtual working spaces have to overtake at some point in future.

Least agree: Gathering experience and access will be more important than gathering wealth.
This statement assumes that people will spend the majority (if not all) of their time in the virtual world gathering virtual experiences which I personally doubt as I think the more exciting VR experiences will get, the more time people will need off it. Have you ever found yourself willing to take a quiet brake on your own after having good adventurous/noisy/exciting/overwhelming time? If yes, this would mean that your personal space will still matter to you as well as every material object that decorates or inhabits it. So people might still care about spending money on material goods at least to get some fancy meals ordered and some softest sofa in the corner of their space.

Article #2

According to Kelly, digitalization of our reality is inevitable. He brings up some fundamental examples of the biggest tech corp-s implementing digital mapping and other techniques to support his claim. In my opinion, the progress in this process will go as fast as the rate of development of AR technologies, but not faster than that.