Animating in virtual reality may be fun, but it is an undeniable challenge for even experienced animators, and often the process can be time-consuming as animators dash between the VR environment they are creating and the computer software they use to create it.
Limitless, a Bellevue, Wash.-based virtual reality startup, hopes to reduce the hassle of animating in VR with a new animation toolset for creating VR characters in real time, in a VR environment, with no special training necessary.
Limitless Founder and CEO Tom Sanocki, a veteran of both Pixar and game studio Bungie, said in a news release that creating characters is the biggest need the current development of VR. “Forming a deep emotional connection with the characters we care about hits the core of mainstream entertainment,” Sanocki said. “Our platform solves the tricky task of creating interactive characters in VR, and now makes it easy for anyone to animate those characters in real time.”
Using the new toolset, users can animate a character in a previously created VR environment, using VR equipment to interact with the characters and animate them in real time. Check out this video to see the tech in action:
The tools will be released to a small group of studios and partners for a dry run this month, with a wider launch anticipated in the future.
Sanocki founded Limitless in April of 2015, with the goal of making VR characters more lifelike and engaging. Limitless debuted its initial technology, which creates more VR characters, earlier this year.
