These Workshops Are Affordable Crash Courses On VR/AR/MR
VERSIONS 2017 takes aim at closing the access gap.
From NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism. Courtesy Hyphen-Labs.
From the costs of equipment to the technical know-hows required for participation, myriad barriers keep access to virtual-, augmented-, and mixed-reality spaces beyond reach for most––and this gap is precisely where NEW INC and Kill Screen are taking aim.
On Sunday, February 26, the VERSIONS 2017 conference on new realities will be holding nine workshops that, priced from $20 to $40, offer up affordable points of entry. The hands-on workshops are led by experts and cover everything from creating virtual worlds for 2D artists to designing room-scale VR projects.
Check out our lineup in the roundup below:
Microsoft Hololens. Courtesy Kārlis Dambrāns via Flickr Creative Commons.
How do you build mixed reality worlds that mesh seamlessly with your surrounding environment? Using Microsoft HoloLens, this workshop helps you create a mixed-reality, holographic game with Unity for real-world context, and covers how to interact with the hologram using gestures and voice. The workshop is led by Adina Shanholtz, and only requires pre-downloaded software.
Price: $40
Time: 10:00 AM–1:00 PM
Place: New Museum Sky Room
If you’re a 2D artist with visions of your work inhabiting a three-dimensional space, you may want to join NYU Media Research Lab’s David Lobser to make it happen. Using easy-to-learn techniques that allow for rapid 3D prototyping of your work, this workshop lets you see just what your work could be. Come with your best reference images and designs to be rebuilt in 3D. Unity and Photoshop along with a laptop are required.
Price: $40
Time: 10:00 AM–1:00 PM
Place: NEW INC
Interested in learning how to navigate the business side of VR and AR? This workshop explores three models for financial success in the new medium, with everything from fundraising a start-up to working with brands and agencies. Workshop leaders include Adaora Udoji (VC), Drew Bamford (HTC Creative Labs) and more.
Price: $20
Time: 10:30 AM–12:00 PM
Place: New Museum Theater
So you have a VR project you want to get out to the world, but aren’t sure exactly how to do it. This workshop gives you the tools you'll need to successfully distribute your work in the VR landscape, backed up by years of experience from the experts at EEVO. Using existing methodologies and strategies from their Chief Technology Officer, Casey Hancock, you will walk away with a grasp on how to go about sharing your work with the world.
Price: $20
Time: 12: 30 PM–1:30 PM
Place: New Museum Theater
Arguably the most fun to be had in VR comes with 6DoF (six degrees of freedom) controllers, otherwise known as wands that move in 3D space. This workshop is an introduction to the Lightning Artist Toolkit, which allows users to draw directly in VR space and hand-draw VR animation in game engines and animation packages.
Led by Nick Fox-Gieg, whose film won Best Animated Short at SXSW in 2010, this workshop requires no coding experience but asks that you download the required material beforehand.
Price: $40
Time: 1:00–4:00 PM
Place: NEW INC
Room-scale VR is all about presence. This hands-on workshop will show you best practices for designing fully-immersive VR and how to identify weak designs. By examining what has succeeded thus far, workshop leader Dario Laverde will present a step-by-step tutorial on how to get started for the new and experienced alike.
Price: $40
Time: 2:00 PM–5:00 PM
Place: New Museum Sky Room
How do you make virtual reality look, well, real? This workshop from the founders of Sensorium Works delves into a host of camera and post-production wizardry to create cinematic VR experiences. Additionally, the workshop will explore how infrared, photogrammetric, and LIDAR technologies are used for room-scale VR experiences. The workshop is open to people of all levels, though familiarity with live-action or volumetric VR workflows is useful.
Price: $40
Time: 2:00 PM–3:00 PM
Place: New Museum Theater
Neurospeculative AfroFeminism. Courtesy Hyphen-Labs.
Join a variety of presenters for microtalks about the triumphs and challenges of creating in VR and AR. Presenters include Eliza McNitt (Fistfull of Stars), David Lobser (Flock), Graham Sack (Lincoln in the Bardo), and Hyphen-Labs (NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism).
Price: $20
Time: 4:00 PM–6:00 PM
Place: New Museum Theater
How can companies like Oculus, HTC, and Intel help nurture and support creatives and enable them to take risks? This workshop covers hard-hitting questions about how to move the new realities conversation forward. Presenters include Lisa Watts from Intel and James George and Yasmin Elayat from Scatter.
Price: $20
Time: 2:00 PM–3:00 PM
Place: New Museum Theater
Author: Adriana Perhamus
Editor: Rain Embuscado