This week at the Sundance Film Festival, we showcased several incredible new VR films coming to Oculus in 2016. In addition to new CG and live-action VR movies, we also introduced a new type of illustrative filmmaking with Dear Angelica.

Developed by Oculus Story Studio, Dear Angelica is the story of Jessica, a teenage girl looking back on the stories her mom told her as a child. As she recreates these vivid landscapes in her mind, you’re pulled into the magical and dreamlike worlds of her memories.

Everything in the film is rendered in real time. When you move your gaze in VR, the scenes and characters come to life around you.

To create this illustrative look and feel, the Story Studio team built an internal production tool called Quill that allows the film’s illustrators to paint entire scenes in VR using Oculus Touch. This technique frees artists from the traditional flat canvas of pen and paper and lets them create directly in VR.

Dear Angelica is coming to Rift later this year.

The film community continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in VR, from live-action documentaries and films shot with 360 camera rigs, to the beginnings of interactive cinema using Oculus Touch.

Here’s a look at a few of the creators who are helping to pioneer VR storytelling:

Today, we’re also excited to announce Story Studio University, a new initiative designed to inspire and educate the next generation of VR filmmakers.

On February 13, Story Studio is kicking off a series of VR filmmaking workshops with New York University and the University of Southern California, followed by masterclasses in April. We’ll be sharing more details soon, including an ever-growing library of new technical assets, video tutorials from Oculus and other leading VR studios, as well as details on how to register for the upcoming workshops.

It’s been amazing to see the community embrace VR as a medium for storytelling. We can’t wait to see what’s next for VR movies on Rift and Gear VR this year.

– The Oculus Team