State Your Name:

Nathalie Mathe @NatJauntVR

What is your current Job / Role ?

Director of Creative Technology at Jaunt. I create 360 stereoscopic video experiences s as well as design tools adapted to spherical compositing.

What are you most famous for ?

Digital Environments I created for “Fast and Furious 6” (tank chase sequence over the bridge in Gran Canaria canyon) and for “The Dark Knight Rises” (stadium explosion). More recently, the “Paul McCartnay Lie and Let Die”VR experience which I composited for Jaunt.

What is currently on the desk in front of you ?

My laptop, headphones, hard drives, notes, papers files, DVDs, books, etc.

What was your first VR experience ?

At the first SFVR meetup in San Francisco in July 2013, I tried ZSpace stereoscopic display with a 3D stylus, and Condition One first 360 video in the Oculus Rift. Quite impressive. I was hooked.

I also remember trying the Data Glove in Jaron Lanier lab years ago when I was working at NASA.

Did you feel any sim sickness or do you ever feel any sim sickness ?

Yes I am fairly sensitive, especially when real or simulated body movement is involved.

What’s the longest amount of time you have spent in VR in one play session ?

About 15 minutes, watching a fiction documentary DMZ : The Forbidden Zone by InnserspaceVR. The story is inspired by the testimony of a former South Korean soldier scouting mission through “no man’s land,” the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea. The story is told from the first person point of view, and graphics are beautiful.

What’s the strangest experience you have had with VR ?

What is really special about VR is that your body feels that it is there in this alternate reality. So in a game where I was playing with Leap Motion bouncing balls in my hands, after a few minutes I could feel tingles when the balls were touching my palms in VR, as if they weren’t truly there… really strange. It’s called synesthesia.

What’s the funniest experience you have had with VR ?

Painting in 3D with TiltBrush, an application in the Oculus Rift that lets you paint while moving your body and using hand controllers for stylus and palette. I tried an early version last winter. Just amazing.

What game or hardware device are you currently working on ?

An immersive video experience with mountain climbers.

Do you have a release date in mind for your project ?

Sorry I can’t say more about it.

What is the biggest surprise you have had since you started to work in VR ?

How everything has accelerated so fast. What started as a small independent project 2 years ago has now attracted major media and technology players who want to be part of it. I hope there will still be a place for independent and creative projects.

If you could only choose one game from your childhood to be remade for VR what would it be ?

Sorry, I was never a big game player. Legos maybe ??

Besides games what do you think will be the most useful application for VR ?

Definitely education and training using immersive videos or games. VR is the medium to put you into someone else shoes, show you the world from a different point of view. Immervise journalism seems very interesting as well.

What advice would you give to people on how to get into VR development ?

Learn Unity, go to lots of VR meetups in your area, it’s the best way to make connections, experiment and be flexible.

What is your favorite VR related movie ?

Inception, you never know what is reality or dream. Plus many of my friends at Double Negative worked on it.

If you had a crystal ball and could see 10 years into the future what developments in VR do you think will have happened?

The experiences I find the most compelling personally are the ones where you have an emotional immersion, not just a “waou” kind of experience. I would love in the future to be able to have an experience where I participate in the life of someone else, in another country, a different culture, being able to experience how they think, how they feel. The second thing that I am really looking forward is natural body inputs, hand gestures, gaze, even biofeedback or things like skin temperature, heart rate. Being able to move your body and feel present in VR. And finally, I would like to see more women working and creating in VR, right now it’s not even 10%. Major cultural changes are needed to make it happen.

Outside of VR what do you do to relax ?

Swim, hike, and walk on the beach. Nature still feels more real in reality J

What’s your current favorite VR experience that you have not developed your self ?

TiltBrush, for painting in 3D with hand gestures. I just saw 3D paintings and demos made by artists at Gray Area exhibit this month in San Francisco, I can’t wait till I can paint with it myself, and create all kind of worlds in VR.

Sum up how you feel about Virtual Reality in 6 words or less ?

Awesome immersive and creative potential.

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