Oculus Story Studio has premiered its second virtual reality animated film to demonstrate to Hollywood and filmmakers the potential of using VR technology in providing other forms of entertainment besides gaming.
The film, titled Henry, was debuted at a private event at a Beverly Hills mansion in California, where the Oculus-owned film studio invited 300 special guests to don the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, still the most prominent upcoming piece of VR technology to date, to watch the 10-minute short film being touted by the company as the future of movies.
Henry, by the accounts of Oculus employees who have seen the film, is an adorable hedgehog with an obsession for hugs. The film opens on Henry's birthday, where he celebrates alone inside his tree trunk home when his birthday balloons shaped as animals come to life. Clearly, lots of hugging and balloon creatures don't mix.
Oculus has no plans of releasing the film for commercial purposes. Instead, Henry serves as a demonstration for Hollywood to see the brand new possibilities that can be done when working with VR. Most prominently, Oculus says characters in VR can elicit emotion from audiences more than regular characters.
"In film, it's all frozen in time. In virtual reality, the actor is alive in every moment," says Oculus Story Studio Producer Edward Saatch. "Henry now feels as if he's real. You question yourself, 'Is Henry doing that because I'm here?'"
Henry is the second VR film outed by Oculus. Its first production, titled Lost, is about a mechanical device that comes to life in a forest and debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.
When the consumer version of the Oculus Rift debuts in early 2016, both Henry and Lost, along with other games and content that Oculus is working on will become available on the platform for users to experience in VR. Unfortunately, there won't likely be a lot of people who will be lucky enough to see Henry and feel like he is standing close to them because of the restrictive price of $1,500 at launch.
Still, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey says the company plans to bring the Oculus Rift to the masses by doing in-store demos at retailers and taking tours at major cities to allow people to try out the VR experience for themselves.
"You can't really understand it just by hearing about it. You have to try it," Luckey says. "I'm a strong believer not everyone is going to love VR right now, but everyone has a use for VR eventually."
