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Twitter buys would-be Slack competitor Quill
You may not have heard of messaging service Quill, but it was positioned as a Discord- or Slack-style app for team communications that tried to be less noisy and more structured. The platform only launched this past February, but today Twitter has announce it is purchasing Quill and shutting it down this weekend.
Facebook hands over VR painting and animation app Quill to its creator
The app has been rebranded and the original version will leave the Oculus Store next month.
VR puzzle game 'Moss' gets new missions for the Oculus Quest
To celebrate the release of wireless VR headset Oculus Quest, Polyarc is releasing new content for Moss, the adorable puzzle adventure that's made waves on the VR gaming landscape. Our swashbuckling mouse heroine Quill will now be able to explore the Twilight Garden, a new chapter that unveils vast new chambers, a fresh realm of puzzles, unknown enemies and unique weaponry. The Twilight Garden, along with the rest of Moss, will be available for Oculus Quest when the headset launches on May 21st. Players on other platforms, including PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift/S, HTC Vive and Windows MR will get the update for free in June.
‘Wired’ is a multi-scene movie painted and animated in VR
Movies that have been painted and animated with a VR headset are nothing new. Most, however, are single scenes that loop like an animated GIF. The camera might move around, highlighting small details, but there isn't much of a story. Wired, meanwhile, is different. It's one of the first pieces of VR animation (that is, created inside VR) with multiple scenes and a discernible narrative. The gorgeous short follows a boy exploring a world that doesn't have wireless technology. He falls from a cable above some enormous skyscrapers, provoking nearby residents to look up and appreciate the sky. The film was created by a single person: Zeyu Ren, a design student and motion graphics artist in New York. He started the project after watching Alex's Sci-Fi World, a jaw-dropping loop created by Matt Schaefer with Oculus Quill, a Facebook-owned 3D painting and animation package. Intrigued, he started experimenting with the Rift headset owned by his college, the Rhode Island School of Design.
'Alex's Sci-Fi World' is a beautiful piece of VR animation
Hand-painted VR animation isn't new. Oculus developed Quill, a 3D painting package for the Rift, back in 2015 for its now defunct Story Studio. It was released to the public in December 2016 and updated with a slew of filmmaking features three months ago. Since then, a small community has blossomed with VR artist Goro Fujita -- the man behind the incredible A Moment in Time -- at the helm. There are many impressive shorts online, but my favorite is Alex's Sci-Fi World by Matt Schaefer. It's a neon-soaked delight that you should absolutely watch on YouTube or using a Rift and the original Quill file.
Facebook's Quill tool now lets you animate VR
For those interested in creating 3D art directly in VR, the update to Facebook's Quill released today should be good news. The update includes new animation tools like free frame-by-frame redrawing, copy-and-re-pose animation and an animation brush that let artists bring their drawings to life directly in Quill. "These tools open the door for a whole new kind of storytelling, with VR characters who move and perform in scenes and environments that are more alive than ever," Facebook said in a statement. "Inspired by the early hand-drawn animation of the 1920s, but powered up with modern technology and native VR workflows, Quill animation brings a new level of freedom to artists in this rapidly emerging medium."
'A Moment in Time' shows the charming potential of art in VR
Quill, like Google's Tilt Brush, is an artistic tool that lets you paint in virtual reality. Designed for the Oculus Rift, it's a liberating way to draw and view art in 3D space. The next step? Animation. Goro Fujita, art director at Oculus Story Studio, has created a small but beautifully detailed street which you can explore with the Rift. It's all hand-drawn, and positional audio means you can hear birds chirping in the trees, as well as cars rushing by and a nutty engineer building robots in his store. He's uploaded a guided tour to YouTube, which I highly recommend checking out.
Oculus' free VR painting tool Quill arrives in December
Oculus is giving away a virtual reality painting tool, but you'll still have to pony up some of your hard-earned dollars to be able to use it. The company will release the beta version of Quill for free on December 6th, the same day its Touch motion controllers start shipping out... because you need the $199 controllers to do any actual art.
iPad apps: creativity unleashed
We love to create things: drawings, movies, photos, songs, and, on occasion, stunning literary imagery with the help of text styling. While Apple didn't necessarily blow us away with its offerings on this front for the iPad (no GarageBand, iPhoto, or iMovie, for instance), 3rd party developers are naturally happy to oblige. We were frankly surprised at some of the depth and functionality we discovered in the App Store, but while what we have here is a nice start, we're even more curious to see what sort of creativity these developers can coax out us with a few months of iPad experience under their belts and a better handle on the strengths and weaknesses of the system. For the time being follow us after the break as we run you through some of our existing favorites. Not enough apps for you? Check out some of our other roundups!
Nintendo offers bribe for Zelda opinions
Nintendo really wants to know how you feel about The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Or, rather, if this survey is anything like the Brain Age 2 survey, they want to know if there are any non-gamers in the house to whom you can evangelize the game. In any case, they're willing to pay handsomely in single pieces of plastic for the information.Registering your game and filling out the survey will make you eligible for this cute "Feather Pen Stylus." Really, it's a free thing requiring minimal effort, so why not? You can choose whether or not to poke at your DS with it.
