Google Daydream tool lets anyone easily create VR animations

Google's new virtual reality platform is still being prepared for its debut in the fall, but in the meantime the company is leaking out small samples of what the platform can deliver. 

The latest demonstration of Daydream's power reveals a simpler way for creators to produce animations in VR.

Rather than requiring traditional skills used within 3D animation software applications, the Daydream Labs experiment allows the user to animate scenes by simply grabbing objects and moving them around.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"Instead of animating with graph editors or icons representing location, people could simply reach out, grab a virtual toy, and carry it through the scene," Rob Jagnow, a Google VR software engineer, wrote in a blog post revealing the tool on Tuesday. "These simple animations had a handmade charm that conveyed a surprising degree of emotion."

The experiment also shows how the same VR composition technique can be used to animate figures with moveable joints.

Earlier this month, the Daydream Labs team also showed off what a shared experience in Daydream's VR platform looks like, but so far there's no word on when or if these experiments will be offered directly to the public.

Along with Google's reference designs for Daydream VR headsets and controllers, the Android-powered VR platform will officially launch in the fall.

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