Category: Nightsss

VR Nightsss at the Camera Action Festival in ?ód?

VR Nightsss by Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak will be presented the Camera Action Festival at the Film School in ?ód?

October 13-16, Szklarnia Gallery, New Media Building

“Noccc” is a virtual, erotic poem in which the audience is invited to an interactive experience of poetry and dance. The starting point for the experimental VR animation was a slam poem by Weronika Lewandowska. The artist uses sounds characteristic of the Polish language, creating onomatopoeic landscapes that cross language barriers. To create the artist’s experience, she was inspired by a research project devoted to the perception of dance and movement in virtual reality, which they carried out at the SWPS University while writing their doctoral dissertations on art. “Nightsss” is the first Polish VR production that premiered at Sundance – the most important festival of independent cinema in the world.

To read more follow the link.

 

 

 

“Nightsss” at the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival in London!

The VR “Nightsss” directed by Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak will be presented on March 10-13 at the 20th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts ICA in London.

“Nightsss” is a virtual, erotic poem, which was created in less than half a year in our VR/AR Studio. An artistic animation with ASMR and interactive elements, which immerses the viewer in a sensual experience of poetry and dance. The script was based on a work by a spokenword poet, Weronika Lewandowska. The artist uses sounds characteristic of the Polish language, creating onomatopoeic landscapes that cross language barriers.

For more details visit the Polish Film Festival Kinoteka programme.

Nightsss/Noccc with an award for the best sound design!

We are happy to announce that the Nightsss/Noccc project (dir. Weronika Lewandowska, Sandra Frydrysiak), created by the VR/AR Studio, won the Best VR Sound Design Award at the Cinequest independent film festival in San Jose, USA!

Responsible for the creation of the audio space in the virtual environment of the Nightsss/Noccc experience are: Przemek Danowski (his algorithms sculpted the sound space of the piece) and Marcin Macuk (composer of the ambient soundscape of the experience).

Congratulations to the creators!

VR/AR Studio vnLab

Nightsss – a sensual VR experience of poetry, dance and nature  

VR piece Nightsss is a virtual erotic poem. A few minutes of artistic animation with ASMR and interactive elements immerses the viewer in the sensual experience of poetry and dance. Nightsss’s script was based on a piece of the spoken word poet Weronika Lewandowska. The artist uses sounds characteristic of the Polish language, creating onomatopoeic landscapes that cross language barriers. The spatially composed poet’s voice takes the immersant to a virtual night environment in which one meets a dancing character. The dancer’s organic movements blend with her virtual body. 

The character is once a poem and loses its materiality, and in a moment splits into other forms. Other times – it condenses so that hundreds of drops can illuminate the flora and bring out the color from the night scenery. Still another time – it takes on a human form that “passes” through the body of the immersant, and then disintegrates into particles of fluidized substance with unreal behavior. The night pulsates with a rhythmic space of sounds and movements, it is looped in words. Immersant sees his/her hands in the created world which serves as an anchor, allowing for small interactions. 

Kadr z do?wiadczenia "Nightsss/Noccc", re?. Weronika Lewandowska, Sandra Frydrysiak
Kadr z do?wiadczenia “Nightsss/Noccc”, re?. Weronika Lewandowska, Sandra Frydrysiak

The creators have used the potential of combining different qualities that can be applied to virtual space – generative forms that have organic movement, and organic forms that exceed the limits of predictable motorics, gravity and matter (just like imaginary objects). Nightsss integrates many sensual experiences with metaphor and language game – thus playing with the perception of the immersant and constructing a synesthesia environment. Dance and choreography in a transmedia spirit transform the poem, exploring its new dimensions. The character “dances” the poem, but also builds up new meanings to it. The relationship between the immersant, the poem, interactive sound space, dynamically changing image, movement of the character and objects of the night – creates a unique experience. 

Rhythmic transformation ends in a daytime environment that brings meditative space for reflection on one’s body and movement in virtual space. After many transformations we can stand for a moment in front of the large virtual Sun and absorb its heat, resonating not only in our virtual body. 

Nightsss explores the possibilities of VR storytelling and dance in the context of the changing perception of technologically created spatial experiences and the development of the kinetic empathy of the immersant in the embodied experience of virtual space. The animation was made in 6 DOF on Oculus Rift S as part of vnLab projects at the Film School in ?ód?. 

Premiere of Nightsss/Noccc at Sundance Film Festival 2021!

The first year of operation of the Virtual and Augmented Reality Workshop brought a worldwide success – the Nightsss/Noccc project directed by Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak will be officially presented during this year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

In the context of the current pandemic situation, the event will take place virtually, via the SUNDANCE platform.

For more information, please visit the links below, and we congratulate the filmmakers!

Tickets
About the project

 

VR/AR vnLab

Meet the creators of Nightsss!

The VR experience Nightsss/Noccc is a project that, already in its first year, was recognized by the Sundance Film Festival – the largest international festival of independent film productions. Nightsss/Noccc will have its official premiere on January 29th and you can get tickets to immerse yourself in the virtual space of this erotic poem by following this LINK.

A group of experienced creators, artists specializing in the field of audiovisual arts, contributed to the success of the project. We are proud to present to you the full composition of the team:

Weronika Lewandowska – director, screenwriter and executive producer of the Nightsss/Noccc experience. She is interested in interdisciplinary projects that combine art, science, technology and the artistry of digitized storytelling.

Sandra Frydrysiak – director and scriptwriter of the Nightsss/Noccc experience. Researcher of dance perception, Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at the SWPS University in Warsaw.

Piotr Apostel – programmer of integrated 3D environment on Unity engine for the Nightsss/Noccc experience. Author of games. When creating games and VR environments, he is most interested in building a multi-level world combining narrative with interaction.

Kaya Ko?odziejczyk – choreographer, dancer, and movement director for the Nightsss/Noccc experience.

Marcin Macuk – musician, instrumentalist and composer of the ambient soundscape of the Nightsss/Noccc experience.

Przemek Danowski – soundscape creator, composer of music for computer games, theater performances, films and other multimedia. His algorithms sculpted the sound space of the Nightsss/Noccc experience.

Arkadiusz Zub – graphic artist, animator and VJ. One of the designers of the visual environment and animation of Nightsss/Noccc experience.

Marek Straszak – visual artist with extensive experience in creating responsive multimedia installations and narrative data visualizations. One of the designers of the visual environment and animation of Nightsss/Noccc experience.

Nightsss/Noccc in the XRMust database!

Nightsss/Noccc – a project realized as part of the VR/AR Studio’s program was honored by being placed in the XRMust database – an international archive of immersive productions offering an overview of current events promoting XR/VR/AR/MR. Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak’s experience was included in the list of premiere titles of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Huge congratulations to the whole Team!

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BEHIND THE SCENES: Nightsss/Noccc – motion capture rehearsals

VR Nightsss/Noccc is a several minutes long artistic animation, which sublimates the properties of erotic poetry into the structure of virtual reality. The original work of a female duo – Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak – created within the scope of activities of the VR/AR Workshop, expects its world premiere on 29 JANUARY at the international festival of independent film productions – Sundance Film Festival.

Work on the Nightsss/Noccc project began in 2019. Since then, the team has participated in numerous sessions – regular meetings organized by the VR/AR Studio, during which the male and female filmmakers consulted their visions with the Studio’s Management – Pola Borkiewicz, Jacek Naglowski and the audiovisual arts specialists they invited. The performers were also accompanied by a PhD in film studies from the University of ?ód? and the head of the Film Education Department at the National Film Culture Center – Micha? Pabi?-Orzeszyna. In the VR/AR Studio he is responsible for conducting qualitative interviews with the project teams, thus realizing one of the methods of the complex research process that runs parallel to the experiments.

The following materials present activities on a key element of the Nightsss/Noccc experience – motion capture. S?awosz Tejkowski and Roman Savchenko were responsible for translating the dancer’s posture and movements into virtual space. Rehearsals took place in the television hall courtesy of the L. Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in ?ód?.

Nightsss team during motion capture rehearsals / photo: Magdalena Wo?owska
First attempts to capture real movement / photo by Magdalena Wo?owska
S?awosz Tejkowski and Roman Savchenko during their work on the actual shot of the dancer / photo: Magdalena Wo?owska
Directors Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak coordinating the work / photo by Magdalena Wo?owska
A harness securing a dancer while performing a choreography / photo: Magdalena Wo?owska

BEHIND THE SCENES: Nightsss/Noccc – production/post-production

During the pre-production stage, the winners of the competition take part in regular sessions organized by the VR/AR Studio Management. During this time, the artists verify their visions and, based on the suggestions of experts in new media and audiovisual arts, clarify the necessary technical needs. The next stage – production – is the time when the artists realize their projects. In the case of Nightsss/Noccc, production activities took place parallel to post-production work – the final stage of creating an audiovisual work.

The realization of the Nightsss/Noccc experience was accompanied by constant rehearsals. The directors Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak used the space of L. Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in ?ód? (TV hall) for the purpose of testing kinect equipment recording the dancer’s figure and movements. The effect, in the form of an anthropomorphic avatar, was embedded in prepared assets (ready-made elements of the virtual world presented) and the visual environment. The process of animation followed along with the correction of assets and expansion of the virtual space.

In the next phase, interactions were added and a visual representation of the imersant’s hands was introduced into the environment. The interaction mechanism for sound was also tested during these activities, and when the presented world took on clear structures work on sound design began. The final phase of the project included the preparation of menus, opening and closing credits.

Creating a visual environment for the experience Nightsss/Noccc
Creating textures for the experience Nightsss/Noccc
Creating assets for the experience Nightsss/Noccc
Embedding the avatar in the visual environment of the experience Nightsss/Noccc
The creators of the Nightsss/Noccc experience together with VR/AR Studio managers Pola Borkiewicz and Jacek Nag?owski during postproduction

BEHIND THE SCENES: Nightsss/Noccc – pre-production

The VR/AR Studio’s competition application offers future creators two possibilities to realize the experience – 3DoF (Degrees of Freedom) and 6DoF. The former allows you to move around your own axis, while the latter allows you to make specific movements in space. Making this choice is the first step towards proper structuring of the scenario.

The Nightsss/Noccc project is, according to the directors (Weronika Lewandowska, Sandra Frydrysiak), an interactive dialogue between the imersant and the work, in which the former explores his sensitivity parallel to the exploration of his surroundings. The artists found it fundamental to think of the imersant as an “actor” playing his “part”.

What the immersed person feels at any given moment, what movements they can make and what interactions they choose, and what kind of internal dialogue they can have in response to objects and spatial events – this kind of dialogue was introduced by the authors and became an important starting point for the development of the scenario and the work on virtual reality. Other important elements around which the script was developed included the embodiment of the imersant in the virtual world – the hands, their apparent and actual causality, as well as the visual and audio interaction with the environment, the movement and transformation of the character and its relation to the poem.

Work on the movement element also began at the script stage, and motion capture rehearsals and tests influenced its final shape. A 360° camera recording of the choreography was created during this time. It turned out to be a key visual reference in production and post-production, as I know this recording allowed for creative modifications of the choreography in virtual reality.

A fragment of the moodboard of the prototype version of the Nightsss/Noccc project
A fragment of the moodboard of the prototype version of the Nightsss/Noccc project
A fragment of the moodboard of the prototype version of the Nightsss/Noccc project
A fragment of the moodboard of the prototype version of the Nightsss/Noccc project
A fragment of the moodboard of the prototype version of the Nightsss/Noccc project