Sure, taking a pencil and sketching on paper is art ... if you're any good.
However, Google has come up with a way to put art of a different kind on full tilt. On Tuesday, the technology company unleashed its Tilt Brush virtual reality app, allowing users to digitally paint from an entirely new perspective. It's available as of today on the HTC Vive VR system.
So, how does Tilt Brush work? Well, it allows HTC Vive users to paint in 3D space by selecting their colors and brushes and starting on their masterpiece with the simple wave of a hand.
"Your room is a blank slate. You can step around, in and through your drawings as you go," Andrey Doronichev, Google VR's group product manager, said as part of the company's announcement Tuesday. "And, because it's in virtual reality, you can even choose to use otherwise-impossible materials like fire, stars or snowflakes."
To truly delve into all the possibilities that this tool can produce, Google brought Tilt Brush to the Lab at its sprawling Cultural Institute in Paris to demonstrate how the platform can work to bring tech and creative communities together.
"Since then," Doronichev continued, "artists from around the world and from every discipline have come to explore their style in VR for the very first time."
Doronichev adds that Google has already seen some brilliant pieces by everyone from professional animators to painters and street artists.
Perhaps the best part of Tilt Brush is that you don't need any formal art background to throw on the HTC Vive VR headset and start creating.
Doronichev vows that "even casual doodlers can start painting in seconds." In an attempt to spark inspiration and help to more widely spread the use of the program, Google says people can start using the "#TiltBrush" hashtag on Twitter to reveal some of the creations already spawned.
Creating artwork with just a wave of the hand must be a pretty spectacular feeling, right? Not to mention — extremely liberating, the way creating art should be.
We're already in awe of how good some of this artwork is. Think you can do any better?
