Inside Jon Favreau's Immersive VR World of Gnomes and Goblins
We love stories that bring VR content and technology to the fore. The project aims to bring the world of gaming and filmmaking together to break ground in immersive storytelling.
The 'Jungle Book' director talks about his new VR experience, out Sept. 8, with Wevr and Reality One.
Jon Favreau used computer-generated pixels to create the astonishingly realistic setting of Disney’s The Jungle Book. But that was only the beginning for the filmmaker, who crafted an immersive world out of thin air for the soon-to-be-released virtual reality project Gnomes & Goblins.
A preview of the project is being released Sept. 8 for free for the HTC Vive VR headset in the culmination of more than a year of work from Favreau and Venice Beach-based virtual reality studio Wevr. If the experience draws enough interest from audiences, they — along with co-producer and co-publisher Reality One, the immersive media firm from Gigi Pritzker — plan to release a more built-out version of Gnomes & Goblins.
In the preview, viewers are transported into a forest setting, where miniature homes have been made in the trees and fireflies flit about the twilight sky. The experience blends cinema storytelling and gaming mechanics. As viewers move about the scene — an area of about 5 feet by 6 feet — subtle hints prompt them to interact with the space by picking up a candle or an acorn using one of the Vive controllers. Eventually noises indicate that there is something approaching from behind, but it takes a few turns in the space until the creature, a goblin, is revealed. The character, the first of several planned for the project, interacts with the viewer, changing its behavior depending on how it is approached and how the viewer relates to it...[continue reading]
How Jon Favreau Crafted an Immersive Virtual Reality World for 'Gnomes & Goblins'
From Hollywood ReporterThe 'Jungle Book' director talks about his new VR experience, out Sept. 8, with Wevr and Reality One.
Jon Favreau used computer-generated pixels to create the astonishingly realistic setting of Disney’s The Jungle Book. But that was only the beginning for the filmmaker, who crafted an immersive world out of thin air for the soon-to-be-released virtual reality project Gnomes & Goblins.
A preview of the project is being released Sept. 8 for free for the HTC Vive VR headset in the culmination of more than a year of work from Favreau and Venice Beach-based virtual reality studio Wevr. If the experience draws enough interest from audiences, they — along with co-producer and co-publisher Reality One, the immersive media firm from Gigi Pritzker — plan to release a more built-out version of Gnomes & Goblins.
In the preview, viewers are transported into a forest setting, where miniature homes have been made in the trees and fireflies flit about the twilight sky. The experience blends cinema storytelling and gaming mechanics. As viewers move about the scene — an area of about 5 feet by 6 feet — subtle hints prompt them to interact with the space by picking up a candle or an acorn using one of the Vive controllers. Eventually noises indicate that there is something approaching from behind, but it takes a few turns in the space until the creature, a goblin, is revealed. The character, the first of several planned for the project, interacts with the viewer, changing its behavior depending on how it is approached and how the viewer relates to it...[continue reading]
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