Virtual Reality Art
I’m very skeptical with VR, but also very interested. My skepticism comes from a experience I had a long time ago (maybe two years ago or so) when I was offered to try the first model of the Oculus that came out to the market, thanks to a local 3D printing store that bought the development kit it for fun. The Oculus back then was still in diapers and the resolution wasn’t good enough, it was blurry and delayed, and so after a few minutes I had to take it off and puke. Literally, I went so dizzy I could not help it. Even though I said back then “can I try again?” to the guy who was responsible of the Oculus. I mean, I was excited such an invention existed and I could not wait to use the improved version.

Until this week, I’ve been using other VR options such as the cardboard model, but my mobile phone is not good enough to run many of the best VR apps, and I’m not wealthy enough to buy a serious equipment, plus I don’t play games frequently, as I’m very busy at university.
Not a long ago, a local opened in my city, in which you can hire an HTC VR equipment and an empty room for 0'38 cents/min or buy a ticket for 15 eur/hour. I decided to try it at last, and when I arrived I was offered to choose the game I liked the most. Most of them were shooters, in different context (horror, scifi and such) but one of the games catched my attention: A painting program. It promised the user a bunch of amazing brushes, backgrounds, a camera and the possibility to draw in 3D. As a person who loves art and its experimentation I did not doubt, I chose that game.
(Tilt brush trailer, above)
First I was asked to stay in the middle of the empty room, and a guy helped me putting the VR goggles on, and the headphones. Then, I saw a virtual room with gaming decoration and a huge screen with the games I was offered in the entry. I heard the voice of the guy who helped me, telling me he was starting the game, and suddenly the room disappeared and I was in a dark place with the game name in front of me. The guy (I couldn’t see) helped me putting the controllers on (a couple of nunchuk-like controllers) and explained me the right hand controller was for painting and changing the brush size, apart from clicking options, while left hand was full of options such as brushes, eraser, background, camera…

At this point I was already amazed. I could not help but gasp while trying the options. I spent a while sketching in the air and trying the different brushes, there was electric like brushes, smoke, bubbles, fire, neon… A lot of things. The quality was so high not just I didn’t feel dizzy, but I forgot it was virtual. Funny thing is there’s one of the backgrounds that has a pile so you can model stuff above it, and I tried to lean on it without realising it was virtual and there’s nothing to hold me for real. I only felt strange when, using the smallest size of a brush, the environment glitched for a moment.


After this 20 minutes trial (it can be seen here) I decided to try again thinking better about my creations, and properly taking pictures of it. I decided to create an ukiyo e like scene in 3D…

And an impressionist style color mixing in 3D:


