VFX Voice - Fall 2017

INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE
mobile VR and the quality and interactivity
of desktop VR will see iPhone-level success.
The VFX community can contribute to
that vision by designing worlds optimized
for mobile and bringing their expertise to
VR and AR startups.
“In 20 years I guarantee you
will be spending a lot of time
with sims that will be doing
some sort of various activity.
Like the Internet you won’t
be allowed to go back to an
earlier time. You will have your
eyewear on and be holding up
your ultra smartphone. You
will have insight into everything.”
—Anthony Batt, Co-founder/
Executive VP, Wevr
“VR will go far, but I think
AR and MR will happen a
lot sooner than VR and may
even trump VR at least in the
next five years. VR is a trickier
proposition since you have to
get consumers to acquire
hardware. Of course, the
devices will get lighter and
portable. Augmented reality
can get the masses via phone
or tablet or TV screen.”
—Øystein Larsen, VP Virtual,
The Future Group
RYAN MOORE, CEO, EXPERIENCE
360, LOS ANGELES
Thus far, we have not seen the ‘virtual’ of
virtual reality. All we have done is recreate
the environment that we are familiar
with. Everything looks like something that
already exists. Nobody is taking advantage
yet of the ‘virtual’ part. It doesn’t have to be
an experience that even has a floor. There
are a lot of experiences that have not been
tried yet. We are only about two to three
years into this and it will take some time
for people to understand how to build for
it. That is something that I would like to see
spoken to. Thus, it’s more of a content issue
than a tech issue.
One other big issue is imagination. There
are a lot of people who don’t get why what
they have done, and the way they have
done things for the last 50 years, should be
disrupted. There is an ongoing education
about VR now to the powers that be and
people with the money. There has to be
an education of ‘why VR’ and new ways to
reach your customers. That takes time. You
don’t really know until you put the headset
on for the first time.
ANTHONY BATT, CO-FOUNDER
AND EXECUTIVE VP, WEVR,
VENICE, CALIFORNIA
Generally, 99% of all people have not
experienced VR yet, including the press. So
everyone is experiencing it from afar. If one
were immersed in it for 40 months, then
one would have a substantial opinion on it.
It’s like the early days of the Internet when
it took six hours to download something.
People didn’t think it was going to happen.
Now you could not imagine running any
part of your life without the Internet.
In 20 years I guarantee you will be
spending a lot of time with simulations
that will be doing some sort of various
activity. Like the Internet you won’t be
allowed to go back to an earlier time. You
will have your eyewear on and be holding
94 • VFXVOICE.COM FALL 2017