If virtual reality becomes everything we are hoping for, there is a market that will have to adapt quickly or suffer the consequences. It is cinema, which in its traditional development depends on defined frames and static angles. 3D was nothing more than a flashy visual trick, but virtual reality demands the creation of more advanced and complex tools. Visionary Focus is one of them.
The challenge of interactive storytelling
Thanks to the two-dimensional structure of a film, a director can always focus their efforts on the frame where the action takes place. For example, if we are watching a shootout in an alley, it doesn’t matter that a taxi is passing on one of the nearby streets, because at that moment the main point is the shootout, and the director has all the resources to tell the story as it should be. The problem is that in virtual reality that structure is not applicable. If a film were truly virtual and interactive, the viewer could walk away from the events in the alley, walk a bit, and see that taxi go by. The focus of the story would no longer be controlled by the director, but by the viewer and their will. Needless to say, this has the potential to pulverize a film and turn the virtual experience into something very boring.
How Visionary Focus works
New challenges require new tools, and that is how Visionary Focus appears. In simple terms, it is a video editor with all its main functions inside the virtual environment, where a director can cut frames, modify audio, and add cameras. However, the most important thing about Visionary Focus is that it allows the director to maintain the focus by establishing active, passive, and interactive regions. While the viewer keeps their gaze on the active region of the film, it will advance like any other, but if they look away toward a passive or interactive region, the events in the active region will pause, so they can explore the environment without missing any of the main material. In other words, Visionary Focus wants to assume the role of a bridge between the linear aspect of a film and the broad interactive component of virtual reality.
Current limitations and future compatibility
For the moment, Visionary Focus only works with scenes rendered under Unity, but it is a matter of time before its creators at Visionary VR extend its compatibility to live footage obtained with 360-degree cameras. On the other hand, the fact that Visionary Focus is one of the first tools of its kind does not mean that it will become the best. I don’t know how attractive it will be for a director to cut scenes making karate moves, but we have to be patient. After all, all virtual headsets continue to be prototypes, and there is nothing commercial out there.
