In the first of a series of speaker profile blogs, we bring a few questions to Dan Efergan of legendary animation studio Aardman. Daniel will be speaking at VR World Congress on April 13th, joining a range of film, animation and production specialists from companies like Framestore VR, Alchemy VR and more. You can view Dan's talk on the official VRWC17 agenda, grab your VRWC17 tickets now, or read on to learn more about Daniel, his talk and his interest in VR.
1. What do you do?
Aardman’s interactive team is on a mission to tell great stories… but outside of the classic linear format. We make games, we make VR, we make really weird murky stuff that isn’t really any format. Our drive is the same as the wider company, create characters people fall in love with, tell stories that change and affect people. As Group Creative Director I run the creative team, a load of clever bods that help conceive and produce the ideas.
2. Who is your talk aimed at and what will attendees gain from it?
There’s been a lot of talk around story over the last year. Story and empathy. This is similar, but in an attempt to be take the conversation further I want it to be based on practicalities – real lessons learnt from making real stuff. We’ve made a couple of productions now, not loads but enough to have made a few mistakes, learned a few things… so we’re sharing those.
If you’re planning on telling a story in a production, and want to know some things to do and avoid, hopefully this talk will help.
Aardman created 'We Wait', a VR documentary concerning the ongoing refugee crisis, in association with the BBC.
3. What do you see as the biggest innovation in VR right now?
It’s all innovation, right? Every single production offers up something new right now. A new mechanic that helps you move, and a little interaction that just feels right.
I guess that with the tech, I’m looking forward to untethering my head from a cable. But I’m more excited by the eye tracking systems. Not just the performance benefits, which will be amazing, but more so the ability to understand where a player is truly looking, and then further into understanding their emotional responses to stuff. Story telling is all about emotion, so if we can start interacting backwards and forwards between character and audience using emotions then boom… we can make some pretty amazing stuff.
VR World Congress is fast approaching, bringing over 2000 buyers, sellers and developers from VR and its surrounding industries from across the globe to Bristol, UK. VRWC17 is set to feature a huge range of world-leading and unique speakers, a huge VR expo and plenty of meeting and social opportunities.
Interested in seeing Dan speak at VRWC17? Grab your tickets for the event right now!
