Mobile VR has hit the streets in a new way with Exit Reality—and it’s headed to a city near you. At VRLA, they also hosted Flipside, the fastest animation platform on the planet.
If you were at VRLA this weekend, chances are you noticed the silver truck parked at the front of the convention floor. With its metallic, futuristic vibe and an unending stream of attendees flocking to it throughout the weekend, the Exit Reality truck was hard to miss.
Even for its sleek aesthetics, the truck is very real and very functional. Exit Reality CEO and Cofounder Yoni Koenig confirmed that the truck was indeed the same one known for cruising down the streets of San Francisco with free VR experiences in tow.
“Yeah, it’s a real truck,” said Koenig. “This thing drives around.”
While driving around, the truck tends to attract people with very limited knowledge or experience with virtual reality—which, according to Koenig is, “exactly the point.” He recognizes that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to delivering a positive VR experience, so his hope is that, by offering a host of different options for different tastes, Exit Reality can ignite curiosity about the future of virtual reality.
“How do you get people to care about things?” said Koenig. “Through experiences. We program the content very much the way a television station or network would.”
Where many preach about evangelism, Exit Reality puts it to practice—sharing the magic of VR to audiences that might not otherwise have a chance to. Rather than selecting experiences at random from a store, Exit Reality carefully curates content to offer a wide spread of the most innovative, exciting content available.
That’s where Flipside enters the equation.
For VRLA, in addition to loading up the truck with classic, “fanboy” VR experiences such as Tilt Brush and The Lab to excite the novice VR enthusiasts among the convention crowd, Exit Reality hosted Flipside, one of fastest wasy in the world to make animations—in VR.
Flipside, developed by Canadian VR startup The Campfire Union, is the world’s first VR television studio. The software enables users to transform standard VR devices like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive into a fully operational television studio and motion-capture system. Shows created in Flipside Studio are cheaper, faster, and easier to produce than any existing animation method, and infinitely shareable with friends and family.
Actors become the characters on a live virtual set, and the VR studio eliminates the need for post-production. Perhaps most significantly, the software makes it possible for animated shows to be watched live in real time, streamed in 2D via social media.
Though Flipside is geared for use by professional content creators, the experience featured inside of the Exit Reality truck was a “miniature version” of the studio that allowed users to enter an animated set in VR and act as a reporter in a live news broadcast.
According to Campfire Union CEO Lesley Klassen, the collaboration between the two innovative startups ended up being a perfect fit for both parties.
“They were looking for some new, fresh content,” said Klassen. “And this is the first time we’ve publicly shown it to people.”
Hot off a successful VRLA weekend, it’s safe to say that both companies are gearing up for a big year. Make sure to stay up-to-date with Exit Reality and Flipside.
