Immersive Design Tools 101 for Brands with Women in VR Artists Olga Nabatova and Sam Luck
In today’s advertising and branding world, more and more companies are embracing technology and innovating on the fly. With the emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), brands are expanding their creative horizons and inviting audiences to navigate within a futuristic immersive world
Updated as of 10/12/20
A few years ago, Video became King in terms of messaging and capturing an audience. Imagery and video are the fundamental forms of social media content; however, designs can be adapted and artwork can evolve in 3D, 360°, and beyond. Perhaps a company is lacking a 3D artist or immersive designer. Or in other cases, companies may have a limited budget or an old school reluctancy to change its path.
Whatever is hindering and delaying the transition to a new way of content creation could be detrimental. The truth is some companies somewhere are developing novel content and creating exciting ways to get consumers attention
Interested in creating content in this space or just want to dive in and see what the buzz is about?
Where Do I Start?
To get started, you’ll need an Oculus Rift S, Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2 (both Quests’ need Oculus Link) or HTC Vive headset along with a PC Ready computer powerful enough for creation in VR.
Next, begin exploring with programs like Quill, Adobe Medium, Tvori, Tilt Brush, Sketchfab, and more. Go slow, ease into it, and soon you’ll be able to admire, aspire, and create content literally never seen before.
Research shows that audiences are engaged and excited about brands entering the space and creating Marketing campaigns utilizing AR/VR. These early adopters showcase optimism, enthusiasm, and passion. Soon, businesses and agencies will need to source these experts who have a head start on immersive content creation.
Girl Power in Immersive Art
Take for example two award-winning women in VR Toronto-based artists, 3D designer and recently listed as one of the Top 50 Augmented and Virtual Reality Influencers
and VR and AR Illustrator/Animator Sam Luck, her Quill is one of the most popular animations in Oculus TV.Sam and Olga are big fans of Quill, Tilt Brush,
and Sketchfab — excited to practice their craft, test the various capabilities of VR and AR programs and explore novel ways to create art and tell stories in XR.They are meshing their hobby, livelihood, business and vision across different applications, all of which are innovative, compelling, and revolutionary.
Have you ever met someone and thought, “They have IT.” This “IT” factor infuses energy, ambition, creativity and spirit that all fit together and breed a star in the making. That’s how I felt when I met Sam Luck and Olga Nabatova for the first time in previous Facebook’s Social VR platform, Facebook Spaces. Facebook Spaces now replaces by Facebook Horizon is the social media giant’s venture as a way to connect with people in virtual reality via an Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2, Oculus Rift or Oculus Rift S.
Sam and Olga joined me in social VR platform, previous Social VR platform Facebook Spaces, to talk a little bit about their findings and the tools that fuel their creativity in an intuitive, simple way.
Their conversation, creative mindset and artistic backdrops were mesmerizing. It is evident there are unlimited possibilities for them and artists alike, not to mention the global brands that will soon enlist AR/VR also known as XR into their Marketing plans.
Women in VR AR Leaping Together to Create Magic: Designing for Theater in Augmented Reality (AR)
A labor of ❤️ love.
Sam and Olga created, the above images and below video collaboration, and submitted for the recent Magic Leap’s Independent Creator Program Grant contest.
Collaborating and creating designs from memories, Sam and Olga have experimented with programs from Tilt Brush to Oculus Medium now Adobe Medium, Sketchfab to Quill, Tvori and so many more. Sam with an Oculus Rift and Olga with an HTC Vive, they work on different programs and then share tips and notes to problem solve and garner feedback from each other.
“It can be really lonely designing in VR when you aren’t in a team because no one really understands it, so it’s amazing to have a partner in crime like Olga where we can pitch ideas to each other and work together.” — Samantha Luck
One of their recent collaborations was something very special and unique while mixing artistry and culture. For many years, Olga worked as a set designer for a children’s theater, responsible for creating backgrounds, taking videos and photos, painting and making crafts with children. In this specific collaboration, the techie twosome took Olga’s background in theater and created art for a theater in their neighborhood using Augmented Reality.
Teamwork makes the virtual dream work! They shared the technical side of their process and the final product — innovative, immersive, and so interesting!
- Sam modeled the piece in Adobe Medium
- Next, she exported and animated it in Tvori
- In the final steps, Olga took it and put it into Sketchfab as an Augmented Reality piece for the theater.
5 VR AR Design Tools for Artists
1. Tilt Brush
Tilt Brush is a room-scale 3D painting virtual reality application available from Google, originally developed by Skillman & Hackett.
Samantha shared, “Tilt Brush because it has really great brushes. The only negative is you can’t animate in it…yet. A lot of artists have been bringing their work into game engines like Unity to add camera movement, lighting, other materials etc. and then showcase their pieces. There’s been a lot of really cool music videos and live concerts with video projections that were made using Tiltbrush and Unity!”
“Tilt Brush allows artists and anyone else with a creative streak to paint brilliant three-dimensional drawings and craft virtual sculptures” — Olga Nabatova
Social VR Tip: Take your VR Masterpiece to a new level by using these Tilt Brush tutorials. Facebook Group for Tilt Brush Artists to get up-to-date on tips, see what others are doing and more.
2. Quill
Quill is a VR illustration and animation tool built to empower artists and creators to actually go inside of their art and experience it in a new way.
With the 1.7 update in late December 2018, it’s no coincidence that users are ramping up their creative juices and collaborating on the program to explore the new advancements and unlimited possibilities that exist with all kinds of art in VR. Immersing within the art piece opens newfound imagination and can be effective for final art development or as a production tool for concepts and tutorials. “Quillustrations” can be shared to Facebook Spaces, where social VR users and the VR Artist can immerse themselves into their own art!
Social VR Tip: If you’re looking to create art in Quill, there are a plethora of instructional videos, and definitely join the following Facebook Groups like Virtual Animation.
3. Adobe Medium
Medium is a revolutionary 3D art tool, owned by Adobe, with which you can sculpt, model, paint, and create tangible objects in a VR environment. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced designer, this is like having your own pottery clay maker without the mess!
Social VR Tip: Join communities or learn via tutorials, there is always a way to learn with these platforms such as the Medium Facebook Group and tutorials.
4. Tvori
Tvori meaning “create”, is a program to create animated stories in VR.
is designed to make scene creation and animation fun and simple. Tvori also offers real-time and keyframe animation in VR, rigging, and 3D character animation.Users can import their VR made Oculus Medium sculpts, and bring them to life with lighting and effects, and can record their scenes using the built in camera. Tvori also offers a lot of import and export capabilities to easily transfer models from other 3D programs.
“The ultimate plan is to create a platform for people that need to express an idea in 3D without complicated tools,” said co-founder of Tvori
in an interview, “And it should be collaborative.”
Social VR Tip: Join others practicing with Tvori like Sam, Olga and
, a VR AR Designer who recently won second place in a recent contest, along with joining the Tvori Support Facebook Group.5. Sketchfab
Sketchfab is a platform to create, share, and sell 3D design models on the Web, mobile, AR, or VR. If you upload a 3D model and want to make it viewable in AR, make sure your phone is AR compatible and the 3D model you are viewing is not a large file. If it is a large file it takes a long time for the model to load. If you are interested in participating in art challenges, Sketchfab also hosts weekly challenges.
For any questions about Sketchfab, you can check out their forums for help and support. Olga and Sam said, they are very helpful and accommodating.
Social VR Tip: Learn more and get some inspiration via and Sketchfab 3D artists Facebook Page. Add a plugin to your Wordpress for direct viewing of your brands’ sketches and join contests.
Is it difficult to transfer among these different immersive design tools?
Sharing the scoop in a recent Facebook Spaces video: L-R Sam Luck, Navah Berg, Olga Nabatova
Learning and testing new products are their favorite things to do. Here are three tips they shared when working with different tools.
3 Tips When Designing with Different Immersive Tools
1. Optimize.
It can be challenging at first, but just make sure your file is small. The smaller it is, the less problems you encounter. When you start in Adobe Medium, use a file that is relatively small because when you will animate, the file inevitably becomes bigger. You certainly don’t want people waiting to download your content.
2. 3D Thoughts.
Think in 3D — the Earth is not flat and neither is AR/VR — it’s 360. Always pay mind and design with a panoramic lens. Look all around your creation, turn it upside down, and remember that people will be looking around it the same way. Think about why you are working in this specific medium. What can VR express that other mediums cannot?
3. It’s so Meta.
Inject Metadata — 360° Videos. In order for Facebook, YouTube and other sites to recognize your video as 360° content, you have to inject metadata into the video file. This will facilitate uploading 360° videos onto YouTube and Facebook.
Design Tip: Make sure you inject 360 metadata using this injector program.
Brands are willingly adopting this new technology and Marketers are embracing its tremendous possibilities. The race is on for companies to develop in the space and create attractive designs to evoke emotions, stimulate its audience, and differentiate from its competitors. If you’re looking for designers that can help you reach the next level of design, check out these two women in VR AR design, Sam Luck and Olga Nabatova.
A few other tools not noted in this blog that Sam and Olga use:
- Blocks by Google https://vr.google.com/blocks/
- https://www.gravitysketch.com/vr
- AnimVR https://nvrmind.io/made-with-animvr/
- MasterpieceVR https://www.masterpiecevr.com
- Microsoft Maquette https://www.maquette.ms
Connect with Sam and Olga on social:
Olga Nabatova: Twitter
