Virtual Reality of the Day: See a Disney Animator Draw Ariel and Beast in Three Incredible Dimensions

Virtual reality is coming, y'all. And it's going to do crazy things.

As another example of the ways we haven't even explored yet, filmmakers gave Disney animator Glen Keane an HTC Vive virtual reality headset and some painting software. Keane worked on some of the most classic cartoon films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. But now he gets to virtually step inside of his drawings and create them in a 3D space.

Completely wild and beautiful.

Engadget goes into some more detail about it.

The film, directed by Ashley Rodholm, shows how virtual reality allows Keane to finally bring his characters to life. "When you draw, you're expressing something that's real, visceral," he says in the short. "By making a line, it's sort of a seismograph of your soul."

Instead of a paper and pencil, Keane draws life-sized versions of Ariel and Beast in the short with an HTC Vive headset and the 3D painting app Tilt Brush app (which is now owned by Google). And rather than just being static on a page, he's able to walk around his characters as if they were fully three-dimensional.

I mean, look at this. It's something out of a magical fever dream.



The future can't get here soon enough.