Immersive Virtual Set
I'm an artist working in immersive video. This is part of a series of immersive videos where I'm experimenting and then sharing what I've learned.
For nearly two years now, I've been learning immersive video production in pursuit of making The Phantom Moon—a film about memories, love and learning to deal with grief. One reason I want to do this in immersive video is because it's so good at transporting you to other places. If I'd have done this 20 years ago it would have been a theatre piece with fantastical sets*. Instead, my plan is to film it on fantastical virtual sets. Last year, I spent a weekend making a super quick proof of concept. Now it feels like time to start learning how to put this stuff together for real. I relied on a lot of tutorials on YouTube (a true miracle of the internet) which are linked below. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It's not a big-budget spectacle, instead, it's a piece of a dream that I was able to make real.
This video is 180° and 3D. If you have an Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest headset, you'll get that experience. On everything else you'll get a 2D version that you'll be able to drag around to see outside the frame. This uses my VR180 Web Player that you can get from GitHub.
Note: This is an 8K video file so you'll need a fast connection for it to work. Also, Firefox doesn't always seem to be able to play back HEVC encoded videos.
Download or YouTube
- Download this high quality version for Apple Vision Pro.
- Download this side-by-side video for Meta Quest and play it with an app like Deo VR (choose SBS and LAT LONG for video settings).
- It's also available on YouTube.
How I Made This
I used Blender to create the set.
- Create A Tranquil Landscape Animation in Blender
- Create An Alien Landscape In 5 Minutes
- Create A Smooth Cylinder Or Cone In Blender
- How to render 180 degree virtual reality images and video in Blender
- How to export animations in Blender correctly and why
Adding the 2D video worked just like adding 3D video but without having to worry about 2 different eyes.
I composited everything in Davinci Resolve.
*The Phantom Moon is, in my mind, a contiuation of Holodeck, a show I created and performed as a member of Jump-Start Performance Co. back in 2004.
