VRMag Issue 30 is online

We had promised you a special issue and - finally! - the 30th is online, with exclusive contents.

What will you discover within VRMAG?

First of all, our special coverage: Speed Racer. Speed Racer is the most expansive use of VR's in cinema history. In its pages, VRMAG hosts contents and interviews which directly come from Hollywood. Award winning special effects guru John Gaeta (Matrix trilogy) takes you behind the scenes and the film making of Speed Racer, in a walkthrough loaded with explicative contents, such as 3D animations, bubbles and CGIs. His team - and namely Dennis Martin, Lubo Hristow and Jake Morrison - take you in in-depth coverages on the ways to create a poptimistic photo anime, which sets a new tread for VR industry and is set to become a new benchmark for all future film production.   http://www.vrmag.org/speedracer

360Icon, with its panoramas of abandoned places is another great example on how a virtual experience can go beyond reality's limits: extreme HDR allows you to see more than your eyes could in everyday life. Grasp the colors that your brain does not usually process!

The world seen from the sky is always a breathtaking view. For that reason, Bernd Dohrmann, Tabb Firchau, Scott Haefner showcase their best shots, to confirm Leonardo Da Vinci's famouse quote that "For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return". Probably he did not take into account that the humankind would have then overshot the atmosphere...We did, and either the NASA or Yoshito Takagi takes you within the modules of ISS and MIR.

Something should be noted here: since we care about pollution, we'd like to inform you that Scott Haefner kite is - as the name implies - a zero emission..."transport mode". On the same wave, Tabb Firchaus's RC heli doesn't leave any carbon imprint, given that it is powered by lithium batteries!...And if you're packing your luggage to explore the world, ask Willy Kaemena about the best trains to jump into: you do not need to go by car!

Our columnist Pat St. Clair reviews the ultimate stitcher Stitcher Autopano Pro while Michel Thoby explains how to create a pano head out of your toolbox.

Looking for romantic skies? Look no more. Bernd again, did shot the one. Wondering what you teeth see? Wonder no more. Dr. Riley has the answer. Otherwise, check Paul Stewart's site to get advices on the cruises along the Mekong. Geoffrey Morelle will accompany you to the art exhibitions which take place inside a swimming pool.

Are you in search of dramatic experiences? Your adrenaline will rush with Tristan Shu's action packed images, and with Aloha Dean's scuba diving missions. And you know what? You've just been invited to a wedding, which has immortalized by Mike Jensen (and no, you do not have to stay for hours long dinners!)...

Sarah Kenderdine talks about the Eye of the Nagaur, a pioneering interactive digital multimedia installation made with state of the art photographic and visualisation technologies.

In this issue we have 4 outstanding guest artists:

The duo Wright-George, who created - with its Godin's sphere - what we consider as being a breakthrough in the field of immersive visual concept art. As well, enjoy Will Pearson's transfiguration of the commonplaces while Timothée Eisenegger takes you on a world trip in VR and finally Dennis Martin, one of the world's leading expert on using spherical photography in virtual locations for movies, talks about his Speed Racer experience: shooting 10'000 panos in 6 months.

VR Industry:

Since when Zoomify VR was discontinued, we were waiting to know the possibilities that KRPano is offering: we had a conversation with Klaus its developer, to discover that...Henning Kramer talks about the MKpanomachine and Roberto Mancuso shares his tutorial on the Quick Pan Professional.

On the technical side, we updated VRMAG's media viewer, which now delivers Flash VR to non QT systems, and we added comments below the articles. Oh yes, we hope to see lots of them ;-)

For the first time, you'll see ads on VRMAG. Be indulgent, since this fact has 2 reasons: first the steadily increasing traffic (in order to guarantee worldwide fast viewing of the multimedia content of the articles we activated a CDS - content delivery system - which creates additional costs) and second we need to raise funds for an upcoming community project, that we'll launch in the next months.

... And don't forget to write us about your VR projects and ideas, VRMag is the right place to reach a wider audience. At the time I'm writing this newsletter we are linked from the homepages of BoingboingTV, Slashdot.org, CGSociety, 3DTotal and many more.

More explosive than ever, issue nr. 30 marks our jubilee. Are you ready to party?

You're just a click away from enjoying the new VRMAG issue!

Your
Marco Trezzini and the VRMag team