Cartoon Brew
It’s a fairly safe bet to say that animation in a few decades will be a different experience than the current one of passively viewing content on a screen. But you don’t need to wait decades to get a taste of that future. The Storyscapes showcase at the Tribeca Film Festival is currently presenting 10 virtual reality and interactive installations that hint at this not-so-distant future.
Among the pieces I experienced, Oscar Raby’s The Turning Forest was perhaps the one that convinced me VR will radically transform entertainment-based animation. Turning Forest drops you into the middle of a mystical forest, and shortly thereafter, the viewer comes face to face with a friendly beast. There is not much complex interaction with the beast, yet the experience is absolutely exhilarating, especially during one scene where the viewer gets on the beast’s back.