LOS ANGELES, April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OTOY Inc. today
announced "Render the Metaverse," a virtual reality art competition
for 360-degree VR images, giving artists the chance to win up to
$35,000 for bringing fantastic
virtual worlds to life. Sponsored by Oculus, the panoramic VR
contest invites artists to explore virtual reality rendering,
arming them with OTOY's free OctaneVR rendering software and
letting them produce stunning 360-degree panoramic images that can
be explored in Oculus and OTOY apps on the Samsung Gear VR
Innovation Edition for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S6, and
Galaxy S6 Edge.
Here's how the contest works:
- OctaneVR – the industry's leading GPU renderer, free to all
contestants: Download OTOY's OctaneVR software for free during
the competition to produce your entry if you are not already an
OctaneRender customer. OctaneVR is the easiest way for CG artists
to become familiar with the world of virtual reality rendering.
OctaneVR employs the same pipeline OTOY has used to develop
exceptional VR experiences for Hollywood studios and brands like Warner
Bros.
- Experience and publish your VR images through the Oculus
Platform: Approved OctaneVR's 360-degree panoramic renders will
be viewable in the Oculus 360 Photos app as well as OTOY's ORBX
Media Viewer app, both of which are available for download on the
Oculus Store today.
- Share your renders on OTOY's forums for feedback:
130,000 artists on OTOY's forums at render.otoy.com offer a huge
knowledge base to new users and provide a great feedback mechanism
for artists at any level of experience. Once your render is ready
for submission, you can upload your entry to vr.otoy.com where
you'll also be able to track winners and see comments from the
judges.
- Impress the experts: The contest will be judged by
legendary comic artist Alex Ross,
Oculus CTO and VR pioneer John
Carmack, and OTOY CEO Jules
Urbach, and who will evaluate entries based on a number of
criteria including their originality, creativity, technical and
visual details, and overall render quality among others.
- A chance to win every month: The contest spans three
30-day periods running April 27 to May
26, May 27 to June 26, and
June 27 to July 26. First-, second-,
and third-place winners will be named on the contest website and at
vr.otoy.com at the close of each 30-day period, and the three
first-place entries will go up against one another for the grand
prize.
- More than $70,000 in prize
money: First-place winners will receive $10,000 in prize money, second-place winners will
receive $5,000 in prize money, and
third-place winners will receive $2,500 in prize money. The grand prize winner
will be awarded an additional $25,000
for a total payout of $35,000 for
their stunning VR panorama.
- First access to OTOY's light field cloud rendering
service: Contest winners will be able to upload their VR ORBX
scenes to the recently announced OctaneRender Cloud at orc.otoy.com
and leverage OTOY's next-generation light field rendering service,
for navigable VR volumes and animations.
Full contest rules and eligibility details are available at
http://vr.otoy.com.
"I have long been inspired by the concept of living
photographs," said Alex Ross.
"Virtual Reality on the Gear VR has made this possible in a form I
expect will eventually be appreciated by millions. This competition
encourages artists to advance this nascent medium even more
quickly. I'm thrilled to be participating as a judge with Jules and
John, and I look forward to seeing the creativity and talent of our
contestants."
"One of the rewards of years of technology development is seeing
artists work on the canvases I have helped create, and I am always
left amazed by the vision brought to bear," said John Carmack, CTO at Oculus. "Stereoscopic
panoramas are powerful, but they are a peculiar medium that is
difficult to author for with conventional photography or
rasterization based rendering. OTOY's Octane VR makes it
trivial to emit optimal media for today's displays, as well as next
generation formats for the future."
"When I saw our first renders on Gear VR, I was blown away by
the amount of detail I was seeing in the scene," said Jules Urbach, founder and CEO, OTOY. "I
understood in that moment no traditional 2D display would ever
match this fidelity. It was a profound revelation which convinced
me that VR can change the way CG artists work and create content.
We want OctaneVR and this competition to enable as many artists as
possible to experience this for themselves. I think it will be hard
for them to go back to 2D rendering once they do."
About Oculus
Oculus, a Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) company,
is revolutionizing the way people experience video games and other
digital content. The company's first product, the highly
anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows
players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive,
stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and
super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit:
www.oculus.com.
About OTOY Inc.
OTOY Inc. is the definitive cloud
graphics company, pioneering technology that is redefining content
creation and delivery for media and entertainment organizations
around the world. OTOY's Academy Award®-winning technology is used
by leading visual effects studios, artists, animators, designers,
architects, and engineers, providing unprecedented creative
freedom, new levels of realism, and new economics in content
creation and distribution powered by the cloud. For more
information, visit www.otoy.com.
Additional Resources:
- See all of the contest details and follow along on the contest
website here.
- See screenshots of panoramic VR photos on OTOY's blog
here.
- Read more about OctaneVR on OTOY's blog here.
- Read more about OctaneRender Cloud on OTOY's blog here.
- Follow OTOY on Facebook and Twitter.
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SOURCE OTOY Inc.