‘WHAT IF…? AN IMMERSIVE STORY’ is a new VR experience that lets you interact with the characters from the what-if universe, including new ones in an all-new story.
I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to speak to Indira Guerrieri (technical art director for What If…? – An Immersive Story) and Joe Ching (lead experience designer for What If…? – An Immersive Story) from ILM Immersive, the studio that made the experience.
What were some of the hardest challenges in making this mixed reality experience?
Indira: For me, translating the 2D artwork into a 3D spatial experience was a unique challenge. Making the transitions between mixed reality and full VR, while feeling natural and intentional, was important. We knew we needed to get everything from the characters to the colors in the environment right in order for it to feel like an organic experience.
Joe: Whenever there is a new type of technology it also presents a lot of new types of opportunities and learnings. We really got to experiment with being able to create interactive gestures that feel natural but are also not difficult and that the Vision Pro would be able to easily recognize. Since this story is in the “What If…?” Universe, we also wanted the gestures to be ones that Marvel fans would recognize as well.
When did work first start for “What If…? – An Immersive Story”?
Indira: From concept to delivery, it was about over a year. When we were approached to be a part of announcing Apple Vision Pro at WWDC last year, we started to think about the type of experience we wanted to create for that product.
Were there any characters who were off-limits for this project?
Joe: When we started to create this story we explored many different characters, but our writers David Dong and Phil McCarty really shaped the story that we followed. We were all in agreement that this was the best storyline for what we wanted to accomplish and tell in this new format, but there weren’t any characters that were off limits throughout its conception.
Why was a VR experience chosen for this project?
Joe: At ILM Immersive, it’s part of our DNA to create stories within the mixed reality space. The Vision Pro felt like the perfect opportunity to bring this story to life in a way that had never been done before, and that felt a natural fit for us. You can now really be a part of a story in a way that feels real due to the visual fidelity offered with Apple Vision Pro.
Were there any mechanics you wanted for the experience that ended up getting scrapped?
Joe: We certainly began with exploring multiple types of gestures. We didn’t fixate on any specific ones, but from that experimentation we chose the ones that we felt fit our characters and stories the best. It wasn’t that we left any out, but more so that we went with the ones that felt the most organic.
Indira: Art wise, we were exploring a lot of different transitions. There was one in particular that I remember thinking that we maybe shouldn’t keep, but we kept experimenting with it and it ended up looking great in the finished experience. I’m really happy that we were able to follow our initial instincts and continue that experimentation.
Joe: To follow that, those types of things always happen at ILM Immersive, where someone says something isn’t working and then someone else on the team goes “give me a chance to see what I can do” and they find a way to make it happen and the results are always incredible.
‘WHAT IF…? AN IMMERSIVE STORY’ releases tomorrow for the Apple Vision Pro
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