VR Graffiti
Get your local graffiti artists hooked up with Tilt Brush
Growing up, I was always fascinated by the graffiti in NYC. Incredibly talented artists taking huge risks to tag a wall or train with the most beautiful fast design work I could imagine. Felt very immediate and real.
On a recent train ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the spray painted graffiti all over the concrete as we approached the VAN rail station. It was unexpected, and refreshing.
Staring out the train window, it hit me..
Why not use the VR setup we have in The Microsoft Garage to host some local graffiti artists and see what they can do with a completely new medium for their work?
Seems straightforward enough to try out quickly, so upon returning to work, I asked my recovering tagger friend "pyksy" to come by The Garage and test out my theory that a graffiti artist could quickly embrace this new way to work. Was hoping she’d actually be stoked by all this virtual reality stuff.
It almost goes without saying that for your very first VR experience, the painting app Tilt Brush by Google can’t be beat. It’s a complete mind blower. I realize that Quill can also do similar things for the Rift, so I’ll try that out shortly. But, onto the VR graffiti part…
It’s on!
I always have fun seeing someone try Tilt Brush and VR for the first time. It’s like you’ve given them a whole new perspective of the world.
“Spraying” graffiti in Tilt Brush came easy to pyksy. She intuitively drew out her signature and started playing around with the color and size of the brushes immediately. Great start.
Treating this as a quick experiment, I was looking for an insights that might matter if we were to try this again with other people. The first one came when she tried working out how to “think in real 3D” rather than the standard way of finding tricks to make graffiti look 3D on the wall.
There’s a mental leap to make moving from flat walls to 3D for graffiti artists —easily overcome by just letting go and getting into the flow of creating something totally new.
It was really interesting to hear her reason out a few things as she quickly sketched in 3-space, walking in and around her paint hanging in the air. That in many ways is the aha moment — standing inside your graffiti.
You can see a video of pyksy checking out her sig from the inside — https://youtu.be/ha7W1_2NaDc
Another observation was just how easily she picked up the Tilt Brush tools and interaction model. I am constantly impressed by this app. It seems that graffiti is such a natural for this VR setup and app that I hope we see an explosion of creativity here.
We had a blast. Highly recommended experience for you to try out.
VR Graffiti to 3D model
Doing a bit of research on what’s possible in this area, I found the following 3D model that looks an awful lot like it was inspired by this style of street art below:
With the ability for Tilt Brush to export 3D models, textures, and videos you can imagine building a vibrant community of artists sharing their inspiring experiments in this new medium. Can’t wait to see it.
CALL TO ACTION
If you have access to a VR setup, let’s get graffiti artists, writers, and even taggers together through meetups to see what they can do with VR. It was a blast for me just watching her jam out a few quick pieces. Think you’ll have a great time, too.
Post your work and comments here so we can help build out this movement worldwide.
