The VR announcements are comig fast and furious at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas this year. It is definitely the hot commodity there. Everything from new VR cameras to software and distribution, even VR Stock Library. I will delve into many of these in more detail in the coming weeks but for now, here is a brief listing of what is hitting at NAB.
VideoBlocks Has dropped 360 VR footage into the Stock Footage Library. While they acknowledge that these are form early adopters, this will be a big category. Initially, they have posted 35 VR scenes available if you have the unlimited download plan.
Radiant Images also revealed the Dark Corner VR Camera featuring 4 Sony A7S MKII full frame sensor cameras, the Dark Corner rig is the perfect virtual reality capture device for low light environments.
LookAt debuted it’s review and approval platforms, LookAt, where you can privately share files and give on-video comments, compere video side by side and so on, but at this year’s NABshow we are about to announce the release of LookAt 3.0 with features unique only to LookAt, making it the most complete workflow platform for the video production industry:
Seamless Integration with multiple editing tools like Premiere, After Effects and Nuke Studio. Editors can see comments on their timeline while they edit and render in seconds to LookAt. They can also download videos to or from DropBox, Box, Google Drive and share on Vimeo.
World’s first VR/360° production platform – allowing VR/360° video makers to share, review and make on-footage comments on 360/VR videos as in any other regular video file.
Segmented Sharing & Reviewing – users can share and review one video with different groups privately so that each team sees just what they need to.
+100 Video and Files Formats support – audio, images, text, presentation, PDF files and more – all with full commenting and versioning capabilities, enabling production companies to manage all production assets in one accessible cloud space: scripts, storyboards, 3D assets, Designs, location images and so on.
Leading creative software developer The Foundry has today announced the launch of its highly anticipated VR toolset. CARA VR is a new plug-in designed to work within the industry-leading NUKE environment to enable the creation of high-quality virtual reality content.
CARA VR adds a new set of tools that builds on NUKE’s existing native support for the compositing of multi-camera live-action footage and enables artists to create seamless immersive experiences with 360° video content. The latest addition to The Foundry’s product portfolio has been developed by its award-winning research team and is a huge step forward in streamlining the creation of virtual reality content.
“Our research team is dedicated to solving the big challenges that our industry faces with new technologies. We have a long history of bringing products to market that take away some of the pain points of content creation and make it easier for artists to focus on being more creative. OCULA, which was developed in response to the rise in stereo 3D, is a great example of that,” says Andy Whitmore, chief product officer at The Foundry.
My favorite, BorisFX, will be on hand to show 360 / VR New Technology Demos
Special guest editors/artists will be in Booth SL7620 to demonstrate how they use Boris Continuum Complete 10 and Imagineer Systems mocha Pro 5 to accomplish high-end visual effects, graphics, and finishing techniques. Additionally, the teams from Boris FX and Imagineer will preview new co-developed technology designed for 360 virtual reality filmmaking and post-production.
ALLie Home Camera lets livestreamers broadcast directly to YouTube 360 and VR headsets.
IC Real Tech has partnered with Google to integrate YouTube 360 livestreaming capabilities into its ALLie Camera, which makes its debut at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas this week.
Consumers will also be able to use the $500 camera to share 360-degree videos on Facebook’s 360 video platform. And the camera will support all existing virtual reality headsets, including Google Cardboard and Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
360Heros Debuting Blackmagic Design Virtual Reality 360 Video Camera Systems at NAB will debut a line of spherical video solutions utilizing Blackmagic Design cameras at the 2016 NAB Show. The new virtual reality camera systems feature genlocking capability, position cameras and lenses for optimal frame overlap and leverage Blackmagic Design’s cinematic quality cameras for professional grade spherical content.
360Heros Inc., a company specializing in 360 video technology, will debut a line of spherical solutions utilizing Blackmagic Design cameras at the 2016 NAB Show. These solutions leverage the professional quality of Blackmagic Design’s camera systems to create cinematic 360 video content.
Coined 360 Helios, 360Heros’ new products are compatible with both the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera and the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K and are available in three, four, five, six and seven camera arrays. The 360 Plug-n-Play™ design allows users to easily install and remove cameras as well as offering the option to add additional cameras to achieve greater frame overlap and resolutions.
“Creating professional and cinematic 360 video content is not only a reality, but it’s also an in-demand medium, and delivering on it starts with investing in the right technology,” said Dan May, President, Blackmagic Design. “360Heros is answering the call for high quality 360 rigs with essential features, such as remote control and syncing, and we are thrilled that Blackmagic Design’s Micro Cinema Cameras and Micro Studio Camera 4Ks are a part of that, helping to capture and deliver cinematic 360 video.”
YouTube, the leading VR streaming service YouTube has announced the ability to live stream 360-degree videos. Leading streaming competitor Facebook recently announced their own VR camera, but has not yet announced the ability to live stream VR video.
YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan states:
What excites me most about 360-degree storytelling is that it lets us open up the world’s experiences to everyone. Students can now experience news events in the classroom as they unfold. Travelers can experience faraway sites and explorers can deep-sea dive, all without the physical constraints of the real world. And today’s kids dreaming of going to a basketball game or a concert can access those experiences firsthand, even if they’re far away from the court. What were once limited experiences are now available to anyone, anywhere, at any time.
First previewed at NAB 2015, 360VR Toolbox™ literally turned heads with its ability to preview 360 degree spherical footage in the Oculus® Rift DK2 while playing from an edited sequence in Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe After Effects. Through a successful beta test period, with evaluation and feedback from industry-leading 360VR production companies, Dashwood has added many new plugins to the suite that are essential in the post-production workflow of professional stereoscopic 360VR video. These include plugins for 360° XYZ-axis re-orientation, projection of 2D logos or video on 360VR, pan and scan output of “flat” video from 360VR sources, output of stereographic “little planet” or cubic “skyboxes” from 360VR sources, and spherical 360 blur, sharpen, glow and noise reduction filters.
New to the suite at NAB 2016 are plugins that can convert stereoscopic 180° fisheye video sources to stereo 360VR equirectangular “lat-long” projection, or stereoscopically project still images or video sources into a spherical 3D 360° slit-scan rendering environment, a first for the 360° video plugin industry.
We are also announcing 360VR Express™, a feature-limited version of the 360VR Toolbox plugin suite designed specifically for processing video or images from consumer-friendly 360VR cameras like the Kodak SP360 or Ricoh Theta S. This plugin suite will include support for monoscopic 180° or 360° video sources, as well as access to the basic functions of the 360VR HMD Viewer™ for real-time desktop or Oculus Rift DK2 previews from Premiere Pro, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. Features will include 360° XYZ-axis re-orientation, projection of 2D logos or video on 360VR, fisheye to spherical conversion, seamless 360 noise-reduction, and more.
Back from a very successful launch of the LIQUID CINEMA™ VR platform at MIPTV, Emmy® award winning filmmaker and co-Founder of DEEP Inc., Thomas Wallner, confirms the VR company will be providing a preview of their revolutionary LIQUID CINEMA™ Authoring Tool at the NAB show next week.
This Authoring Tool that is aimed at making the creation of cinematic VR experience easier, will soon be available on the market, however NAB delegates and media will be the first to get a glimpse of it.
In partnership with ARTE and Canada Media Fund, DEEP Inc. launched LIQUID CINEMA™ at MIPTV, a groundbreaking software product that allows the creation and distribution of highly sophisticated immersive 360 VR-based cinema experiences.
One of the greatest challenges VR creators face is directing the viewer’s attention when the user is free to look around at anything they want to; and where traditional film editing breaks down completely. Currently 360 players play back 360 video and not much else. There is a complete loss of control in directing the viewer’s gaze and many essential cinematic elements we take for granted in traditional films cannot be properly applied in a spherical medium where the viewer often completely misses them.
LIQUID CINEMA™ Authoring Tool solves this problem by expanding the language of cinematic VR with an innovative model: a term DEEP Inc. coined “Forced Perspective”, to make sure the viewer never misses a vital piece of action.
The core of this radical new approach is to use the viewer’s gaze to optimize the viewing experience giving back vital control back to VR filmmakers in a medium where the “fixed frame” of traditional cinema no longer exists. The Authoring Tool also allows them to customize the layout, size, and behavior of visual and interactive elements for each platform in minutes. Changes are possible even after the film has been uploaded and gone live.
LIQUID CINEMA™ Authoring Tool allows the filmmaker the freedoms not to have to write one shred of code to use it. This software allows the filmmaker to author with the easy-to-use intuitive drag and drop tool in a matter of hours. Results are in real time instantly across all platforms. No rendering necessary, ever. The tool integrates 100% into the filmmaker’s existing workflow, saving time and money.
All graphical elements and effects including subtitles, animated overlays, scrolling credits and even fades are live rendered to give the creator total control and avoid compression artifacts that can take the audience out of the experience.
Presently no available products meet this need, until now.
“LIQUID CINEMA™ was our response to build the missing tools that are needed to create cinematic VR experiences that actually utilize the special qualities of this medium. The response we received at MIPTV was overwhelming. And that was just the introduction. We are excited to preview the Authoring Tool at NAB to top creators in our industry. We want these pioneers of cinematic VR to test LIQUID CINEMA™ to show them how this will revolutionize how they create VR content moving forward”, says Founder/CEO Thomas Wallner.
That’s all for now but more NAB VR News coming soon.