Week 2 — My VR journey into the Oculus Launch Pad

It’s the end of week 2 already — where does time go?

If you are new to this blog and want to find out what the Oculus Launch Pad is and what I do in it, check out Week 1 post.

Last week, I set myself some objectives for the week ahead, and unsurprisingly I’ve met some of those but not all. The one thing I’m really trying to stick to is the weekly video and you can watch Week 2 Vlog below.

Vlog Week #2 (you can subscribe on YouTube to be notified every week)

Progress this week

1. In order to film my 360 movie on capoeira, I have to identify local capoeira groups, in the hope that they would let me film them. I am considering filming my own group back in London (my fabulous Senzala Capoeira London family), but that would be for a future chapter if I manage to get funding. I am pleased to report that after almost 3 years of break, I have restarted my capoeira practice! I attended a class at Stanford University. The group was very friendly and welcoming, which is a great start. I was completely out of shape and 3 days later I still have sore legs. If you ever tried to play capoeira, you know what I mean ;-)
2. I was hoping to write a full project plan this week and the progress I made was to establish a to do list to complete the project, with 2 phases: 1) to submit a prototype for the Oculus Launch Pad scholarship competition and 2) to finalize the VR experience beyond the Launch Pad. It’s a good starting point and I aim to turn it into a proper plan next week.
3. I believe that work is no fun unless you treat yourself to something exciting every week and my treat this week was to play with my new Samsung Gear 360! I published the unboxing video, you can see it below. The camera is super pleasant to use and is very promising so far.

Samsung Gear 360 (2017) unboxing

This week, I also attended the Female Founder Conference 2017, organized by Y Combinator. While this is not directly related to VR, I mention it here as it helps me in my journey as a female creator. The conference was an afternoon filled with tales from female leaders and founders about successes, failures, funding tips, all delivered with an energy and humor that I had never seen before. This was truly inspirational and I am grateful that I had the freedom to attend this event. This may resonate with the many women in the Oculus Launch Pad as well as the very dedicated Oculus Diversity team. All the talks are available on YouTube.

I took my new Samsung Gear 360 to the conference and had a little fun with it!

Tiny Planet variations of the Herbst Theater in San Francisco

Equirectangular view of the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Full house!

What I’m planning for next week

1. One area that I need to invest time in is audio. I need to become more knowledgeable about optimizing sound for a VR experience and I believe it makes a major difference. I will research the area and identify a few microphone options.
2. The purchase of a microphone will go straight into the budget sheet that I will establish, to keep track of my costs and assess how much funding I need to request in my scholarship application.
3. I’ve mentioned this before and it’s very important, I will finalize my project plan!

Well, that is, if Independence Day and life does not get in the way…

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Follow me if you are curious to see how week 3 goes. Thanks for reading!