The Oculus Touch has come onto the scene and we at UploadVR consider it to be the best VR controller on the market. With that being said, it would be all for nothing without great software to interact with. Enhancements to games like The Climb and SUPERHOT, as well as brand new games like The Unspoken, are crucial, adding a new layer of immersion to the Oculus platform. New Touch owners will be looking to exhibit their creativity with the new tools as well and that’s where Quill comes in.
Quill by Oculus Story Studio is an illustration tool where creators can paint on an infinitely scalable virtual canvas, meaning you can zoom in or out an unlimited amount of times. Working in such a new space, users love to get an idea of what the possibilities are and Goro Fujita, Art Director of Oculus Story Studio stepped up to the plate. The studio is a division of Oculus VR, specializing in animated virtual reality films, so it’s no surprise Fujita was able to showcase such a wonderful display of talent. The final product, Worlds In Worlds (shown below), was so impressive we reached out to discuss the process with him.
Fujita has worked with Oculus Story Studio for nearly two years and says the journey into the unknown of virtual filmmaking has yielded exciting and “mind-blowing” moments. “Moments like when I first held the Gameboy in my hands where my mind could not process the awesomeness I was experiencing,” he says. “And Quill was one of those moments.”
Fujita collaborated with his co-worker Inigo Quilez during a 2-Day hackathon to come up with the prototype that later turned into what we have today in Quill. Once Fujita tried out Quill, his jaw dropped. “This was the first time I was able to paint strokes in 3D space,” he reflects. “Being able to paint freely in 3D and walk around my painting was a magical moment for me. I knew that Inigo was onto something big here. Immediately we started exchanging thoughts and features that could be added.”
One of those features that Inigo had mentioned specifically stood out to Fujita: An infinite canvas. “What if there was a world within a world within a world within a world…?”
To inspire creativity at Story Studio, the team has a free day in place where everyone has the opportunity to innovate and work on VR related projects. Fujita isn’t an engineer, so he utilized those days for creative content. Thus, Worlds in Worlds was created. It took two of those free days, plus a weekend, to eventually finish the project.
When painting in 2D, Fujita thinks of his projects in 3D and lights the scenes accordingly. Quill was liberating in a way, allowing him to rotate his paintings in a way he’d already been imagining previously. Without being handcuffed to a 2D workspace, Fujita charged ahead with his idea and started with the man in the white shirt holding the Rabbit World you see in the video. When zooming in and out between those two levels, the ideas for the bug world and alien world started to formulate. If you pay attention to the sun’s placement in the painting, the lighting is consistent throughout all of those worlds.
“I felt like it took all my 12+ years of experience to be able to pull this off,” Fujita declared. He uttered out loud, “This is crazy” before settling in on a massive realization: “Quill just opened a door to a new art form.”
Quill is available on the Oculus store for $29.99 but also comes free with Oculus Touch activation (Touch is required for the program). It features a Quillistrations mode for those just looking to view the different works of art as opposed to creating them.
