From Stop Motion to VR on Rival: My Journey into Immersive Storytelling - Kris Theorin
Maxon Steampunk from Spark of Life
I come from a background in stop motion animation and as a result, my earlier 3D works were inspired by that kind of work. Mainly, I loved macro photography and making small things appear much larger than they are. So you may notice that a lot of my work consists of small characters walking around a giant world. Whether its a tiny guy stealing a hamburger or a samurai fighting a horde of cereal monsters on the breakfast table, I loved framing up the world in that kind of way. Since then, my style has broadened and now it lives in more of a Pixar realm. With stylized, cartoony characters mixed with realistic materials and settings.
The Stories That Drive Me
When it comes to certain narratives I tend to do, I find the "dark fairy tale" narrative to be extra appealing to me. Coraline is one of my favorite films and ever since I started doing 3D animation, I've wanted to create my own film in a similar vein. So a child finding a magical world only to realize it is filled with dark undercurrents. While this particular narrative only shows hints of itself in my more recent short films, I'm always working on a short film or two that attempts to tackle that subject!
Cereal Samurai
Experiencing My Work in VR for the First Time
After seeing my 3D animations on a two dimensional screen for so long, it's honestly amazing to transfer that work into the world of VR and see it up close and at full scale! When a giant skeleton monster I created is standing right in front of me at fifteen feet tall, it's just an incredible sight. And then to see these various short films and clips I made animating right in front of me is honestly just a very rewarding experience and it just feels like the natural evolution for this type of content.
"Spark of Life"—A Project Built for VR
One piece of artwork that I think was tailor made for this type of platform (Rival) would have to be "Spark of Life." This short takes place in a single room and centers around a steampunk inventor rummaging around her workbench in order to create a robot version of her childhood dog. It combines everything I love about VR. It has a ton of details that you can absorb from around the workshop environment, it features a stylized full scale human character acting only a few feet from your face, and it ends on a poignant note. I'd love for anyone who sees it to walk away with a feeling of awe when they see all the detail that went into making the short, and maybe even a tear or two when the the purpose of the inventors creation is revealed.
Watch Spark of Life in 3D on Rival
Working with Rival: Taking My Work to the Next Level
Working with Rival was ultimately a very seamless and rewarding process! One that I would recommend to any 3D artist looking to take their work to the next level!
When I got into doing 3D animation, my goal from the start was to create a longer form animation with a more driving narrative. Like I said before, Coraline is one of my favorite films and its always been my dream to create my own version of that kind of dark fairy tale narrative. But to do it in my own way and with my own style. Doing something like that certainly is no easy task, so my 3D animation career so far has really been trying to build up to that one short film at a time!
The Hamburger Thief
Advice for Artists Exploring VR
Whenever someone is trying to break into a new medium, it's important, especially for beginners, to tailor your content to the strengths of it. VR can be unforgiving to content that wasn't made with it in mind. A moving camera, something happening too close to the viewer, or even just a chaotic composition can cause most VR users to be visually disoriented very quickly. When I converted my own work into VR, I had to make a number of these changes to prevent someone from getting motion sick while watching it. This involved moving the action further away from the camera, removing camera motion, and cleaning up the scenes so that the scenes were visually coherent and enjoyable to watch in VR.
An Artist I Admire
One 3D artist that I've always admired is Pedro Conti. His work always takes on a "stylized photorealism" that I've been trying to imitate for years. I love the way he's able to create a character that looks so stylized, but then imbue it with these realistic textures. Giving his work a very unique visual aesthetic. It's very reminiscent of the Pixar look, but a few years ahead of them if I'm being honest. And it must be said that creating a character that looks as photo real as his does without making a viewer recoil in horror from the uncanny nature of it is no easy feat.
You can watch Boneyard Brawl, Cereal Samurai, Spark of Life, The Peppermint Mine, The Hamburger Thief, and Space Nomblers on Rival
