We are almost halfway into 2016 and the draw of VR is pulling people in slowly but steadily. I think the reluctance is more to do with cost than anything else, but it could also be that many do not want to shut themselves away with those wraparound headsets, especially when gaming with friends.
The draw of being able to watch movies in VR is still high though and an emerging development studio by the name of Fire Panda have figured out a honey trap that may well pull them all in like moths to the flame.
Studio Ghibli are a well-known name on many lips and usually the first one to come to mind when thinking of animated films. From ‘Spirited away’ to My ‘Neighbour Totoro’, most have seen at least one Ghibli film, possibly without even being aware of it at the time (points to self).
Fire Panda was started in the U.K. by Nick Pittom. Nick worked for a decade as an animator, Director and Editor with a diverse range of clients in Film, TV, Games and Marketing. In 2012 Nick wrote and directed his first short film, ‘PROTO’, which he also edited and produced many of the VFX for.
He originally set up Fire Panda to explore exciting new areas of VR storytelling, games and interactive projects, one of them being the VR Ghibli Project which gives people the ability to walk around their favourite scene in one of the Ghibli films.
Fire Panda already have these three available for viewing as long as you have a VR headset; the demos are also free to download and enjoy at your own leisure either from FirePanda’s website or WearVR:
The bus stop scene in My Neighbour Totoro:
The boiler room scene in Spirited Away where you can be surrounded by soot sprites:
And, the grassy meadow scene in Howl’s Moving Castle as the castle walks by and airships fly over:
I am looking forward to experiencing these scenes myself… When I finally getting round to buying my own viewer that is, so for those that already do own one, enjoy!