VR Panorama Sketch
This summer i tried exploring the possibilities of virtual-reality and illustration. Today VR-content is getting more and more accessible with the combination of a mobile phone and a VR-viewer. After the historical panorama project from last blogpost, i was curious if i could do a similar thing, but this time in VR (and all by myself).
So i bought a cheap VR-headset (less than 15€ :) and started sketching. It was easy to find a lot of good material online on creating 360 spherical panoramas in photoshop. I ended up with a ww1 inspired sketch (and some robot’s…):
This already worked on artstation and Facebook, but was not viewable on a headset. In order to easily experience it in VR, I made it into a small video and uploaded it to youtube. Luckily (or weirdly?) photoshop can export video files. I found some free sounds online and made the video relatively easy. The 360 youtube videos are a nice way to share this kind of VR-illustrations (since you can actually experience it in VR).
You can view the youtube movie here (though 360* youtube videos won’t work in safari):
And also in VR if you have a compatible device to watch VR-content. (Oculus, GearVR, Cardboard etc.)
It’s pretty fun to stand inside my own sketch (in VR). One of the big downsides of digital work it the absence of physical scale. A large traditional painting looses much of its impressive spatial qualities when viewed on a small screen. Virtual reality creates a way to bridge this divide and can make an already epic scene even more engaging for the viewer. In the future i plan to explore this medium further.