TOKYO – “This has been called the first year of virtual reality,” said Motoo Kawabata, a software producer at VR content maker PolygonMagic.
At this year’s Tokyo Film Festival market (TIFFCOM,) which ended on Thursday, it was certainly the first year for VR companies – three altogether – to take booths and demonstrate their products. They also pitched products and services still in the development stage.
In PolygonMagic’s case, these included having visitors don a Samsung VR headset and watch an attractive young woman alone in a room showing off her new lingerie. This being 3DVR, the viewer felt that he (or she) was also in that room – an illusion that suggested all sorts of possible uses for the software, which Kawabata admitted “is exactly our intention.”
The company, however, does more than make slightly risqué content. It also shoots and edits VR film to clients’ specifications, develops VR applications and markets an eminently affordable 3D viewer — “only JPY1,000 ($10) at electronics stores in Japan,” Kawabata said.
“We are studying the production of films,” said Kawabata, “but VR filming is totally different from filming with a normal camera. Instead of a sequence of shots, you’re shooting in 360 degrees.”
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At TIFFCOM, Kawabata and his colleagues met with buyers from all over Asia and North America. “We’ve had a lot of talk about partnerships and content production,” he said. “We’ll definitely be back next year.”
Also at TIFFCOM was 1-10 Holdings, a company that calls itself a “spatial entertainment agency.” Using VR technology, 1-10 produces installations, games and other content, as well as the artificial intelligence system for Softbank’s Pepper robot and the ANATOMe 3D body scan system. “We can scan you in a second and animate you in 3D any way we want,” said communications director Michael Lam with a laugh not entirely sinister.
The company has a subsidiary that produces TV commercials and other video content, but 1-10 does not include it in its PR materials. “We are branding ourselves differently,” explained Lam. “But we can call on their expertise when we create video content using our own IP.”
One use of the technology that 1-10 is contemplating is a VR theater featuring music and live performers, but with audience viewing the show through VR headsets. The theater would be circular, but instead of facing the center, the audience would be facing outward and revolving as the show progresses.
The experience would be somewhat like being inside a Zoetrope, watching a live performance in a VR setting. “We would provide the technology and leave the contents of the show up to others,” explains Lam. “There are all sorts of creative possibilities.”
