In their SXSW in-person XR Spotlight section experiences set for March 9, the Studio Biarritz team, led by VR director Steve Hallema, producer Corine Meijers, and lead designer Koen Koopman, will showcase their latest project about a grieving child struggling to separate reality from fantasy, who creates ‘You’ – his imaginary friend, to fight the monsters in his mind.
Studio Biarritz has shared with AWN two behind-the-scenes “Making Of” sneak peeks that dig into the animation development and production of their new immersive experience, The Imaginary Friend, which will be showcased in-person at SXSW’s XR Spotlight Section this Saturday, March 9, from 2-6 pm for press and Sunday, March 10th through Tuesday, March 12th from 11am-6pm for the public and press, at the Fairmont Hotel near the Austin Convention Center. Visit the company website for more information. You can also visit them on IG.
From award-winning VR director Steve Hallema, producer Corine Meijers (Symbiosis, Ik ben een bastaard, and Floating With Spirits), and lead designer Koen Koopman, the new immersive project follows Meijers sold-out immersive multi-sensory experience Symbiosis shown at last year’s SXSW. Meijers continues to work with fellow creatives to explore her vision of how deeply intertwined the sociological and physical are, affecting our reality throughout.
In The Imaginary Friend, you become an imaginary friend to a grieving child, Daniel, who struggles to separate reality from fantasy. He creates YOU–his (imaginary) friend–to fight the monsters in his mind. Although you have fun together, he starts to grow disconnected from his surroundings... Are you helping, or just making things worse?
The player will experience the whole story through the eyes of the imaginary friend, a “psychological lens” of how the boy sees the world. This gives the player a natural place in the story world, providing a dream-like trip through a magical realistic story-world. The intimate relationship between Daniel and his imaginary friend is at the heart of the experience. Although he made his imaginary friend up, Daniel doesn’t fully control him, just like no one really controls their subconsciousness.
According to the Studio Biarritz team, one of the great possibilities of VR is its power to directly include a player in its storytelling and allow them to be (almost) entirely present in the story world. “The Imaginary Friend boldly seeks to push player involvement, setting out to create a personal experience where the player can actively engage with its lead character,” the company shared. “To top things off, the boy’s imagination is populated with animated 3D elements that have the charm of children’s drawings and that overlay the very realistic 3d surroundings created by Koen Koopman that blend beautifully with the look and feel of the volumetrically captured actors and helps with distinguishing reality from fantasy.”
Volumetric video is a new technology that captures live performers in 3D, allowing actors to move freely in the virtual space of the project while ensuring that the expressions and emotions of the performances are preserved. Pioneering a technique called “head retargeting,” the team was able to subtly turn the actors head in the direction of the player. This contributes to the player feeling like they’re acknowledged by the lead character, greatly enhancing the connection you make during the experience.
Source: Studio Biarritz
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
