Virtual Reality Becoming Real

     After walking around the exhibit hall at GCD 2016 it was obvious the theme, if there was one would have been virtual reality. There were amazing tech demos from companies like Occulus Rift, HTC Hive and Sony, not to mention the dozens of peripherals to go with them. They add an amazing dimension to gaming. Just the 'First Person Shooter' genre alone was incredible, but that just scratches the surface of the games that people will come up with to take advantage of the technology.

     Coming more from the film making side of things I started thinking about how to use VR to tell a narrative story. The viewer wouldn't necessarily move the camera, but they could point it where ever they wanted. More like a motion picture in VR. Unlike stereoscopic 3d, this would a totally new way to tell a story. Many people are already doing this by creating content for Google Cardboard. You can read about some of the things in this article from gizmag. For a roundup of all of the VR news from GDC 2016 you can check out this article from Engadget.
 

     I wondered what some of the great storytellers of the past would do with this technology, people like Walt Disney. Then I remembered walking through the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco. They have the first 360 camera, built by UB Iwerks for Disney for Disneyland called Circarama. The first movie was America the Beautiful in 1955. It was made of of 9 cameras that projected on to huge screens that made the full circle. It was more of tour film, but did have a similar approach to VR in that your could look in any direction at any time and would get the feeling of movement, particularly when the view was from an airplane that banked sharply. Everyone was standing, but they provided handrails to hold on to. Producing films for it were very expensive and complicated. Kind of like all film was at the time.

Cirlcle Vision

     Hopefully as the VR technology becomes more affordable and easier to create for it will be another platform for more artists and creatives to work and not just another fad or novelty.  It is a bit of challenge, since it requires buying hardware, but after seeing what's coming out at GDC, in time it will be something that will be in the reach of most people.

     I'm excited to see what my fellow storytellers can do with it.

Kelly's Kitchen: Apple Cinnamon Bake

We've added a new episode of Kelly's Kitchen. This time Kelly and Sarah make Apple Cinnamon Bake, one of their favorite Fall treats. Inspired by their Aunt Sharon's suggestion to do an apple recipe for Fall. If you have a suggestion for a recipe drop us a note.

Tim's Vermeer

If you get a chance you should check out the documentary #timsvermeer. It's about Tim Jenison, founder of Newtek, and a project he takes on out of his curiosity about how 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer created his photo realistic paintings.

He noticed that his paintings had details like the gradient of light falling across the wall that would be unable to see with the naked eye.

In the movie he re creates a Vermeer using optics and tools that would have been available at the time. The results are amazing. It is also worth noting that Mr. Jenison is an engineer not an artist.

It's inspirational story about what a person can achieve with enough curiosity and tenacity.

Definitely worth checking out.

 http://www.amazon.com/Tims-Vermeer-Blu-ray-Tim-Jenison/dp/B00J5LXN2M

Creativity and Business

It's always the challenge. Staying creative day in and day out and being corroborative with a different people all the while balancing the business concerns. We all want to create the very best product we can, but have to work with the limits of time and resources.

I recently read the book Creativity Inc. by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull. It's a little bit different than most books on creativity. Part of it is corporate biography, which is interesting enough considering Pixar is one of the preeminent animation studios in the world. 

Another significant part of the book is about staying creative and corroborative as a company scales, and keeping a creative environment. It really boils down to people. Finding the right ones, creating the right environment and then getting out of their way. Ed is primarily an engineer, but is also a creative, so his approach to management is somewhat unique. A lot of trial and error and testing.

If you're interested in a creative business or building a creative work environment it's definitely worth checking out.

Kelly's Kitchen Quickbites: Harvest Acorn Bites

We've just added a new video to our Kelly's Kitchen series. We're calling it Kelly's Kitchen Quick Bites. They're very basic mostly 'crafty' ideas for parties and such. Most of them will be seasonal. They're very short, so take a minute and check it out! #kellyskitchen

www.kellyskitchen.tv

Game Developers Conference 2015

Registration is now open for the 2015 Game Developers Conference (GDC) www.gdconf.com. It's always exciting, it's one of the first conferences of the year for digital content creators.

Every year the line between film and gaming gets more blurred. Gaming has become a great medium for storytelling and the new devices are starting to rival film in quality.

Conferences overall seem to be in decline. It's so expensive for companies to attend, that many of the larger companies can put on their own event to show off their new products. Especially with services like livestream they can live broadcast. So they aren't seeing the return on the investment at some of these conferences. So I understand why they are cutting back.

I find it sad. There's an excitement and energy of a conference that you don't quite get with the streaming events. I always meet people that I never would have otherwise, and get really motivated and excited to get back to work. Those things have a  value that is hard to quantify. Some of the larger companies put a lot of work into their presentation, which is really just another way of storytelling. Even if it's not a product that I would initially be interested in, if the presentation is good, it will grab my attention.

Fortunately, the conferences around content creation still seem to be doing ok. Not as big as in the past, but still fairly well attended. It does give a person a feel for the industry, especially in the job fair areas.

Even though it's a little early for closing out this year, its fun the start thinking about next year. It's looking to be an exciting year.

Oh, one more thing about conferences, the Swag!

Here we go. . .

Well, hopefully this is the first step on a thousand mile journey. We know we're at the beginning, but the opportunities have never been more plentiful. This may very well be the golden age for content creators.

The content creators can connect directly with their audience like no other time in history. No need for a lot of mediators' involvement to distribute their content. Of course, this may be stating the obvious for those of you who are already involved.

As we proceed on this journey we look forward to meeting and working with new people.

Let's do this thing.