Adrift a 360°animation
created in Unreal 4
Animated polar bears in a feel-good spot that aren’t in a Coke ad! Adrift is a story of a bond between mother and son in an uplifting Christmas-inspired three minute film that also doubled as an excuse for our relentless team to experiment rendering a 360° animation using the Unreal 4 game engine.
![vr_adrift_1](/img/vr/adrift/vr_adrift_1.jpg)
The film tells a story of a baby cub being separated from his mother and witnesses a variety of playful animal encounters on a floating piece of ice. All the action is set to a John Williams-style music composition created by ARU Chicago’s Tom Haigh.
Creative Director Scott Ownbey remarked, “For the 360° format it was helpful to keep the ever changing environment surrounding one location, as this allowed for a more immersive experience if viewed in VR using the Google Cardboard.”
![vr_adrift_2](/img/vr/adrift/vr_adrift_2.jpg)
![vr_adrift_3](/img/vr/adrift/vr_adrift_3.jpg)
"We have vast experience stitching 360° video footage, and also
rendering 360° animation in programs such as Maya, and After effects.
This came in handy with this project as we encountered various errors
with real time rendering such a vast scene in 360°. The water
environment was extremely render intensive—even for UE4. So we
approached the project like a standard 360° video rendering 6 different
camera views and stitching them together; however we did encounter a bit
of artifacting using this solution. Right as we were about to go live
the amazingly responsive team at UE4 support gave us a plugin that
allowed us to finally export our liquid scenes, seam free along with no
artifacting."
AnimaticmediaVR, Technical Director
Angel Nieto
![vr_adrift_4](/img/vr/adrift/vr_adrift_4.jpg)
Branded Google cardboard glasses were sent to select clients that allowed them to experience the 360° video in VR. A variety of social media tools encouraged sharing and interaction as the battle for hearts and minds becomes increasingly digital.