In the latest posts we have been talking about the experience of shooting a whole series of pilots to show the work and the research process behind the VRTogether project, so in this post we are going to explain the plot evolution of these pilots.

To represent visually the research work of the VR Together project, at the beginning of the project it was proposed the possibility of developing 3 pilots approaching 3 different production formats in a unified architecture.

The ideas of these initials pilots proposed were the following:

• A first offline pilot, simulating an acoustic music concert in which it is intended to offer, not only the feeling of being together, but also intimacy and closeness, all this through orchestrating clouds of points, 3DMesh models and multiple sources of videos.
• The second pilot was supposed to focus on live news, pretending to be a live production of immersive content from multiple sources that aimed to transfer the user to the center of the news to share the experience with other users.
• Finally, the third pilot intended to present a test to users to an interactive and totally immersive experience, with the background of a television series, a movie or simply a scene taken from them, where users can participate in the scene, interact between them, make conclusions, etc.

The pilots were planned the following way: the first one was planned for half 2018, the second one in 2019 and the last one in 2020. The structure and plot complexity of the pilots was linked to the technical and technological difficulty of each one, being the first pilot the simpler to produce and elaborate and the third the most complex. This way, the evolution and development of the project could be appreciated throughout the years.

The main objective of the pilot was not only to show a technological expansion, but to try to capture the attention of the consumer, making them a participant in the show thanks to an elaborated plot and interaction between players, helping sociological phenomena such as word of mouth or electronic word of mouth to play the role of communicators, attracting the interest of general public and media. However, the plot of the original proposed pilots felt kind of discontinued compared to the progression of the technology used, as represented in the following picture:

That’s why we proposed a possible general structure of the pilot, giving a strong storytelling that turned into a high quality experience. Having as inspiration movies like The Usual Suspects or Basic Instinct, we proposed a continuous plot theme for all the three pilots. This way, the viewer (who will have a say) can enjoy the experience not only during the pilot, but also after that, as we can see in the following figure:

The general ideas of each type of scene can be summarized with the following ideas:

• Murder scene: It was intended that both users were in the same room where a murder had been committed, and that both users were sufficiently separated from each other to have different viewing angles and, therefore, visual contact with different objects and tracks. The collaboration of both users (involving the feeling of togetherness) would be essential to make conclusions.
• Interrogatory room (one way mirror): The users would be behind a one-way mirror of an interrogation room. Although users would be next to each other, each user would see their own interrogation room, both being aware that the other user is having their own story.
• Interrogatory inside the prison: In this third version, both users are inside the prison in front of the accused. The interaction between both users within the scene is possible.

We will keep you informed about all the news coming from this experience!

WHO WE ARE

Entropy Studio is a post-production company recognized within the advertising and film community. Since its constitution in 2003, Entropy Studio has made some of the most award-winning spots, films and VR experiences in Spain, also achieving International awards.

More than fifteen years of quality and innovation have established Entropy Studio as a recognised Studio for visual effects, design, animation, VFX, mattepaint, steresoscopy, motion graphics creation and in general all services related to postproduction and visual effects for both film and advertising.

In 2008, The first feature made entirely in Digital Cinema, “Magic Journey to Africa”, takes Entropy Studio at the forefront of stereoscopic visual effects produced in Europe. With Entropy Studio Corp in Los Angeles the company grows, with stunning productions as ZERO, QUANTUM BREAK or Campfire Creepers.

Come and follow us in this VR journey with i2Cat, CWI, TNO, Future Lighthouse, CERTH, Artanim, Viaccess Orca, Entropy Studio.

This project has been funded by the European Commission as part of the H2020 program, under the grant agreement 762111.

VRTogether: website, Twitter.

Text and figures: Guillermo Calahorra – Entropy Studio