The Oculus Story Studio team has taken the wraps off its second virtual reality storytelling experience called 'Henry,' an animal character-driven environment that immerses the viewer in a cartoon-like world of wonder for the Oculus Rift.
Directed by Ramiro Lopez Dau, who worked on animated movies including Pixar’s Monsters University, Cars 2 and Brave, this follow up to the team's first VR experience, Lost, is proof that Oculus is serious about blurring the lines between film and VR.
[seealso slug="oculus-story-studio-lost-saschka-unsfeld"]
Aided in part by Kendal Cronkhite, a production designer for the Madagascar animated movie series, Lopez Dau's VR production appears to lean heavily on his Pixar experience by playing more to children's tastes.
The main character, Henry, is a hedgehog who is described as overly friendly and always in search of hugs, despite his prickly exterior. The team showed off brief glimpses of the Henry VR environment, as well as storyboards and early, hand-drawn animations, but beyond that not much is known about what the entire VR experience will entail.
Although gaming has been viewed by many as the most obvious first step for VR to penetrate the mainstream, increasingly devices like the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR (which works closely with Oculus) are relying more on interactive film-style experiences to boost their virtual platforms.
Also, because the controllers and haptic feedback accessories necessary to truly make VR gaming immersive are still being developed, the more passive act of simply viewing VR content has rapidly moved into the forefront of the emerging space.
Oculus' Henry VR experience is set to debut on July 28 at a special event in Hollywood, California.