My VR journey into the Oculus Launch Pad — Week 1
I am so happy and proud to have been selected to participate to the Oculus Launch Pad — 2017 edition!
The Oculus Launch Pad (OLP) is a program supporting handpicked promising VR content creators, competing for scholarships in 3 categories: 360 film, VR experiences, and VR games.
For those who don’t know me, my name is Cecile Eskenazi and I run a web show called ‘a VR journey’, for consumers curious about AR, VR and 360 content. Among other things, I post videos on my Facecbook page and YouTube channel and write blog posts on Medium, all with the purpose of making immersive technologies more accessible to the mass market.
Weekly blog and weekly Vlog
As part of the OLP program, each participant is required to write a weekly developer blog post into the Oculus Developer Forum. I want to share my experience with my followers too! Therefore, I am planning to create a weekly video (Vlog) and re-post the developer blog posts to Medium. That’s what you are currently reading! The first Vlog episode is below and contains more details than the written blog post.
I see the Oculus Launch Pad as a tremendous opportunity to learn to be a better content creator, which is a great goal in itself. But it would be even better if I can use it to inspire other content creators to improve themselves too!
The Oculus Launch Pad program
The Oculus Launch Pad is a program designed to support promising VR content creators so they can take their unique ideas and bring them to market. We kicked things off with a weekend boot camp, followed by continued mentoring and support as participants develop their own VR experiences.
I had a blast at the 2-day boot camp, learned a ton and met many truly amazing people. My favorite session was an open Q&A with Paul and Ryan from Felix & Paul Studios. They answered ALL questions we had for them. They shared more than they had planned to, I think, and it a was very insightful session for us! I also enjoyed my first training in Unity, where I got to build a game (yes!) and now I am no longer a Unity virgin!
You can see more pictures of the Boot camp in my Facebook photo album.
Week 1: my progress so far
- My biggest progress this week was to pick the final idea for my project. I came into the boot camp with several potential project concepts and used what I learned to select the idea that makes the most sense. I will disclose more later, but for now let’s say that it will be a 360 VR experience about capoeira.
- I have been practicing capoeira for many years myself, but haven’t done so since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area a couple of years ago. So one of my first tasks was to identify local capoeira groups, so I can make contacts and plan a few local shoots. I have made contacts with a couple of groups and I’m hoping to meet the first one next week.
- I had the opportunity to get more learning: I attended AT&T’s Intro to 360 Cinematic Video & Virtual Reality, a free, hands-on workshop at the Plug and Play Tech Center. The session was very informative and I even got to do my second lab using Unity! It seems so be a recurring theme for VR ;-)
Immediate next steps
- Next week I want to focus on writing a project plan so I can organize myself for the rest of the program and beyond.
- I am also planning to unbox the Samsung Gear 360, Samsung Gear VR and Samsung Galaxy S7 and spend time to familiarize myself with my new gadgets.
- I will film the unboxing of my new gear to share what’s inside the box, in case you are considering to purchase one of those gems. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to be notified when the unboxing videos are available.
That’s all folks for this week, more coming up next week!
If you have questions about the program, feel free to post a question in the comments or contact me directly.
