Chromosphere is an Emmy Award-winning international design and animation studio that forges new creative frontiers using artists who believe in unconventional ideas and aren’t afraid to experiment with new techniques.

Under the leadership of Creative Director, Kevin Dart, Chromosphere created, “Sinclair Snake: Museum Mischief,” the seventh story for Wonderscope, Within’s critically acclaimed augmented reality reading app for kids. The detailed mystery-adventure featuring a slithering reptile who slimes objects in a museum, is the app’s most playful and active story to date.

Within caught up with Dart to talk shop about how his team achieved the amazing level of detail in the story, including the moody lighting and the clever sound effects. You’ll never guess which room at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles Dart used as inspiration.

As a father himself, Dart’s experience creating “Sinclair Snake,” stoked his enthusiasm about the potential of AR for teaching children to read.

Check out our Q&A below for more interesting details about Dart and Chromosphere’s process.

Q. First, introduce yourself and tell us what you do at Chromosphere

I’m Kevin and I’m the Creative Director and also Founder & CEO of Chromosphere. I do my best to guide the studio in fun and creatively satisfying directions, and also try to keep our artists motivated and inspired to do rad things.

Q. When growing up, did you have a favorite storybook? Are there stories that continue to inspire you to this day?

I love the “Spider” books by Robert Krauss, like “How Spider Saved Halloween.” Those are some of the first books I remember reading, and I just recently passed them onto my son who loves reading them too. I also loved, “Be Nice to Spiders,” by Margaret Bloy Graham, about a spider living at a zoo. I don’t know why I liked spider books so much. I think I like any book that encourages relating to and appreciating animals.

Q. Is Sinclair Snake the first story you’ve created using augmented reality? What’s behind the decision to make the story fully immersive?

Yes it’s our first project using augmented reality, but we’ve had a fair bit of experience doing VR projects, which made it natural to imagine this story in an immersive way. I think I’ve also always loved the idea of being able to transport to a completely new environment, so AR & VR lend themselves nicely to that.

Q. What kind of team do you bring together to create an interactive story for kids? Are you leaning into your experience with linear storytelling, gaming or both?

We’re really lucky to have a very technically & artistically diverse team at our studio who are super excited to adapt and problem solve on any new project. Everybody has a wide range of skills and backgrounds, from games to movies and TV series, so there’s a lot of different expertise we can call on to help us when we find ourselves in uncharted territory.

Q. The lighting of Sinclair Snake is extraordinary, with beautiful ambient occlusion and reflections that fully immerse you into the world of the museum. What was the creative thought process that led to this achievement, and the technical hurdles the team had to overcome?

We put a lot of thought and care into making sure that each room in the museum had a distinct feeling in the light and color scheme, which were designed by our art director, Jasmin Lai. These colors create moods & atmosphere which help accentuate the flow of the story and enhance the emotions. I think because the museum is so detailed and filled with objects, the way we approached the lighting was essential to making sure everything was readable. There were so many technical hurdles to overcome, such as the flashlight effect in the Egyptian room, or the laser & reflection effects in the gem room, but our technical guru, Theresa Latzko, absolutely triumphed over all of them.

Q. Were you inspired by any real life spaces when designing the immersive exhibits in Sinclair Snake?

Yes, we really wanted it to look and feel like a classic museum so we looked at lots of reference of places like the London Museum of Natural History with its grand arches and windows. We were also inspired much closer to home by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, in particular their incredible gems & minerals exhibit, which had a big influence on the climax of the story.

Q. How do you tap into your experience of being a Dad when it comes to designing an interactive story for kids?

We play so many simple and silly games at home using our imaginations, and I think I wanted to create something that felt as fun and silly as those games and stories we make up. The kids also love really simple sound-based jokes, which is part of why we attached so many varied and wacky sounds to everything in the museum. My son’s favorite is the squeak that Sgt. Salamander makes when you tap on him. We were really fortunate to work with composer Simon Panrucker who came up with the incredible score and the plethora of silly noises for all the objects in the museum.

Q. As the studio’s first AR experience, what was exciting to you about telling a story in this new medium?

We were super excited by the potential to break away from linear storytelling traditions and really embrace the interactive potential of the medium. I think that aspect is what really draws people into the experience and getting to know the characters, is having that chance to be a part of the story and help them out in a real way.

Q.What did you want kids to feel when they played through Sinclair Snake? What do you hope kids take away from the story?

I hope that it sparks their curiosity and imagination. I used to always fantasize about being able to step into the books I read when I was a kid. Now that kids have books they can step into and play with, it makes me really excited to think of what they might dream about doing next that will be even cooler.

Q. What are your favorite moments in this story?

It kills me every time when Sinclair says “A job? With a ssss-alary?” I like that he is so worldly and sophisticated yet so practical at the end of the day. I also really enjoy tapping the diplodocus skeleton. It’s very satisfying.

Q.What can AR do for animation that other mediums cannot?

I think it definitely offers an opportunity for imaginary characters to share a real world space with us that can lend a specific kind of believability that’s probably hard to achieve elsewhere.

Q. Anything else?

I really hope you all like it!

For more on Wonderscope, visit us in the App Store.

Eventually VR will be just one part of a much larger picture when it comes to building interactive worlds, says SOKRISPYMEDIA co-founder, Sam Wickert

Virtual reality felt like a nascent technology in 2015 when Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh created their first VR video, Channel Surfer. Four years later, with the help of MWMi, the founders of the popular YouTube channel SOKRISPYMEDIA are navigating a whole new world when it comes to the entertainment potential of VR.

Even more exciting, says Wickert, is the fact that VR is just a start when it comes to the types of technology that can help further enhance the reality of immersive worlds. He sees the future of VR as blending seamlessly with artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other burgeoning digital-era technologies, including machine learning, to build truly fantastical immersive worlds the likes of which humanity has only imagined in science fiction stories.

“VR and AR are seen as singular units,” says Wickert. “But they are immersive elements that heavily supplement the interactive world.”

Wickert’s experience with interactive worlds is steeped in his love of video games and gaming culture. SOKRISPYMEDIA’s first viral video, Chalk Warfare, depicted a video game that sprang to life after players found they could create workable weapons out of pictures they drew in chalk on pavement.

Since then, many of the team’s videos have been inspired by video games, including the series of five 360-degree experiences collectively titled, SOKRISPYDREAMS, that recently debuted on Within, and was made in partnership with MWM Interactive (MWMi), a division of MWM.

For this reason, Wickert, tends to ponder the ways VR will mold the gaming world when he thinks of the future of the medium. And, indeed, VR is more present in that world than in perhaps any other save film festivals and art exhibits.

“We’re very accustomed to the traditional view of a rectangular video,” says Wickert. “I think VR will be heavily enhanced by AI to make the realism feel so much greater than it already does, and to create that experience that people truly dream of, and see in movies like ‘Ready Player One’.”

Until those technology platforms seamlessly merge, Wickert would like to see VR used to enhance already existing video games. For example, wildly popular games like Fortnite and Minecraft, could come loaded with companion pieces in VR.

“For the time being, I think VR is beneficial as a supplemental experience, or a one-off experience to promote a brand or build a better storyline,” explains Wickert. “So the audience can learn something new or feel something new.”

“…VR lays the groundwork for the kind of unprecedented creativity that drives every artistic and technological revolution.”

The purpose of VR is to create an experience that feels entirely new to a viewer or user, not to simply regurgitate the same type of information that can be picked up in 2D, so the challenge becomes how to transmit novelty each and every time, Wickert says.

That’s where VR lays the groundwork for the kind of unprecedented creativity that drives every artistic and technological revolution. That creativity, Wickert believes, will eventually lead to a seamless blending of many technologies and the awakening of a truly immersive universe.

Wickert and Leigh intend to stay on the cutting edge of filmmaking as these things develop, and Wickert says that SOKRISPYMEDIA will continue to push the envelope when it comes to developing unprecedented new experiences for its viewers.

After creating SOKRISPYDREAMS, Wickert says he and Leigh have a bunch of new ideas up their sleeves.

“Our YouTube channel is lucky to receive millions of unique viewers each month,” says Wickert, adding that those numbers are thanks, in part, to the rewatchability factor of their content — which can be seen in their VR works as well, where there is always something new to see depending on where you look.

In other words, there’s no going back now.

View SOKRISPYMEDIA’s SOKRISPY DREAMS series today on Within.

Created by Within collaborators jonobr1 and mr.doob, the interactive video lets users create a singular track out of Dear’s elusive shapeshifting beats

You’re in the center of an oscillating sphere that functions like a compass. Above you is a pulsing liquid orb that beams the words to avant-pop artist and DJ Matthew Dear’s single, “What You Don’t Know,” off of his latest album, “Bunny.” An elastic band encircles you, like a sonic waveform, it bounces and sways to the beat.

This enveloping universe of sound is yours to control. Choose from one of eight vertical lines to manipulate the track — make it speed up, slow down, mute it, or scratch it like a DJ at a midnight dance party. Zoom in to the center of the orb and the music becomes louder, speed away from it and the sound fades.

The possibilities are endless as you create your own virtual reality remix. The three-minute song is set to loop, so as soon as it finishes you can start all over. Each creation is ephemeral. No two tracks will ever be the same.

This technological feat — one of only a handful of real-time immersive experiences created with WebVR — is a Within original, and was created by Within collaborators, jonobr1 (Jono Brandel) and mr.doob.

The possibilities are endless as you create your own virtual reality remix.

Brandel, who is grounded in the disciplines of graphic design and computer programming, called “What You Don’t Know” a dream project in a recent interview with Within.

“Matthew Dear has been an awesome collaborator because he’s given us his heart and soul and source files to work with,” Brandel said.

He means that last part literally. Dear, who is a mainstay on the label Ghostly International, which released “Bunny,” handed over the stems to the single, “What You Don’t Know,” which in turn allowed Brandel and mr.doob to break the song up into its various parts — drum sounds, melody, vocals, etc. — in order to enable the user to deconstruct and rebuild the song according to their own creative whims.

“We were given eight WAV files that are the length of the full song,” Brandel says, explaining that he cut up each verse and chorus into 5 and ⅓-second chunks, which are on beats of four. “And so for the experience we’re loading 63 discrete mp3 files that represent every section of every instrument in the song, and that’s what makes it possible for you to manipulate it as you see fit.”

The experience is naturally democratized because it was created on the web, which means that it can be accessed using a VR device, a smartphone or a computer.

This is powerful, says Brandel, because it gives users the tools to understand what immersive content can deliver even if they don’t have a VR headset. That way a user can become grounded in the technology before actually trying it.

At this point in time, WebVR is still a burgeoning technology for creators. You can watch 360-degree VR videos online without a VR device, but those experiences don’t allow you to alter them in real-time, like you can with “What You Don’t Know.”

Currently Within is the only distribution platform that hosts experiences made in WebVR, which makes this particular Within Original even more exciting.

“Right now in the web community this is a specialized niche,” says Brandel, adding that he hopes this project raises visibility for WebVR and inspires other VR creators to take their skills to the web, or interested filmmakers to consider using web technologies to realize upcoming projects.

It’s challenging to create portability in the virtual space, Brandel says, which is why he considers WebVR an ideal mix: practitioners can create engaging interactive real-time experiences that can be used anywhere at any time. It’s a philosophy that Within also supports.

“Within is using the most cutting-edge tools in all of their platforms to harness and empower the creator,” Brandel says.

Check out “What You Don’t Know” for yourself at http://with.in/wydk/. For more information on Matthew Dear and his latest album, “Bunny”, head over to Ghostly International: https://ghostly.com/products/bunny. Finally, if you’re interested to learn more about WebVR check out the informational page http://webvr.rocks/ and join the discussion with other creators on Slack: https://webvr.rocks/slack

Sam Wickert is obsessive when it comes to his craft. The 23-year-old co-founder of SOKRISPYMEDIA will not put anything online unless he feels it’s near perfect. That, he says, has been the secret of his YouTube channel’s immense success.

It is also key to SOKRISPYMEDIA’S more recent forays into the world of VR. Last month Within debuted four of the channel’s most elaborate VR endeavors to date: a group of experiences collectively titled SOKRISPY DREAMS, which was made in collaboration with MWM Interactive (MWMi), a division of MWM.

Taken as a whole, the 360-degree experiences, “Channel Surfer,” “Internet Surfer,” “Do Not Touch,” “Video Game Vehicle” and “Tiny Tank,” display a witty, fun-loving, game-driven sensibility marked by a technical edge that indicates the extremes Wickert and Leigh are willing to go to when it comes to getting their videos just right.

“I took a lot of cross-eyed experiences for the team, making sure everything fits in the right depth,” Wickert says during a recent interview.

He’s referring to his penchant for repeatedly donning his VR headset to make sure that the extensive composite work he was doing had all the visuals in each film in the best possible place in order to make the items pop in stereoscopic 3D.

VR, says Wickert, is still in its infancy, so the tools get better every month. He wishes he had the same tools for his first video that he had for his final video. But the technical innovations keep coming fast and furious, so makers have to be flexible in how they approach each new project.

They also have to be quick learners when it comes to adapting to new technology. Wickert has the benefit of having a strong background in visual effects, so he has a leg up when it comes to a media landscape that often feels as if it’s moving at warp speed.

A prime example of Wickert’s aptitude at picking up new knowledge can be seen in “Do Not Touch,” a joyful romp through a museum that features actors leaping into the canvases of famous works of art.

To create simulacrums of the art, without committing copyright infringement, Wickert turned to a program that a group of engineers in Germany had coded. Using a command-line plugin, the group had succeeded in creating models out of famous paintings using artificial intelligence and then applying those models to already shot footage in order to essentially transfer the style of art to the finished product.

“We Utilized these filters to be able to reference artworks in popular styles,” Wickert explains. “It creates such a cool look. You can hand the computer any reference painting and it will do its best to replicate it.”

Wickert acts as the visual effects supervisor for all of SOKRISPYMEDIA’S projects because it is important to him that his team is responsible for the visual effects that viewers see onscreen or in their headsets. This involves a lot of 3D-rendered objects and a lot of camera tracking.

The nature of the latter has notoriously caused nausea for viewers — a problem that VR has had to contend with since the beginning. It was also a problem that Wickert was bound and determined to completely eliminate in SOKRISPY’S films.

He brought his formidable creative problem-solving skills to bear on the matter when his team made “Tiny Tank.” The experience brings a war-themed video game to life, taking viewers on a trip through an explosive combat scene as viewed from the first-person operator of a small tank.

The constant motion of the tank was an issue when it came to nausea so Wickert opted to shoot the experience at 60 frames per second, twice the frame rate of a traditional VR video. This gave the experience a more fluid feel and put it in line with what a user might feel when playing a video game.

“We wanted you to embody this tank and move throughout the battlefield with the actor without having motion sickness,” Wickert says. “What are the frame rates that don’t make you feel sick? We did tons of testing in the field with our cameras.”

“Video Game Vehicle,” which finds a couple of actors cruising through a variety of familiar video games, proved another challenge this way. The experience, Wickert said, is a “huge experiment” in how to achieve the speeding motion of the car without the attendant car sickness. In traditional film, you get the speeding effect by adding background elements going much faster than the car. That option doesn’t exist in VR, Wickert explains.

“We had a fun time building out those worlds and rendering everything in them,” he says.

SOKRISPYMEDIA’S devotion to technical perfection, paired with its high-caliber creative vision, proved a perfect fit for MWMi, says MWMi associate producer, Brandon Padveen, who brought Wickert and Leigh’s work to the attention of his company.

“Where is the cutting edge? And how do we pair with creators who have these giant dreams?” Padveen says, explaining that SOKRIPSYMEDIA provided the answers to those questions.

“Our immersive department is growing,” he adds. “VR is a tough industry but with SOKRISPY we’ve planted a flag in the ground.”

Talk to any kid today and they’ll likely tell you how cool it would be to become a YouTube star. Many of them already have YouTube channels set up. The dream is real, but the reality is that creating a successful YouTube channel is not easy at all. So it was a crazy dream come true when Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh became overnight YouTube sensations in high school.

Wickert, 23, and Leigh, 22, who run the popular YouTube channel SOKRISPYMEDIA, met in Greenville, South Carolina in the fifth grade. The pair shared a love of movies, TV, video games and the internet, and established their YouTube channel in 2009 when they were still in junior high.

“I got my hands on a camera when I was very young, and all I wanted to do was coordinate action scenes,” recalls Wickert. “Computers weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, so I was fortunate to have access to the technology and realized I could edit two clips together. It was just magic to my eyes.”

Wickert and Leigh uploaded 10 videos over the next three years, most of which were inspired by video games they enjoyed (“Grand Theft Auto,” 2011) (“Traffic Rush,” 20011) or real-life quandaries they could poke fun at (“Homework,” 2010). Then, in 2012 they posted the video that would go viral and change everything for them.

The two-minute short, “Chalk Warfare,” was a live-action film featuring teens shooting at each other in a video game that comes to life after they draw weapons in chalk on the pavement.

“We uploaded it online, and it just erupted,” remembers Wickert. “So we immediately made a second one, ‘Chalk Warfare 2.’ That just erupted as well, and we were able to make some money, and we had an audience.”

Wickert and Leigh were still in high school at the time, but they were granted a clear vision of what the future could hold for them as filmmakers and visual effects mavericks. When it came time to go to college, both teens carefully considered their options before deciding on Chapman College in Orange County. They were intrigued by its proximity to Hollywood and its stellar reputation.

They continued to run their YouTube channel while they attended college, and one day they hit on a fantastic idea for a new short while they were sitting in the back of an Uber. The idea would become, “Channel Surfer,” and it was the pair’s second-ever foray into 360-degree virtual reality filmmaking.

“If you’re not getting something completely unique out of the VR version, why bother making it in VR at all?”

It was 2015 and Wickert recalls that VR was just becoming a big deal at the point. The hurdle, they decided, would be to create a film with their signature style, but that wouldn’t make sense in a format other than VR.

“If you’re not getting something completely unique out of the VR version, why bother making it in VR at all?” Wickert remembers thinking of the challenge they placed upon themselves at the time.

Channel Surfer proved to be the culmination of everything they had learned about filmmaking and visual effects up to that point, and it passed their VR litmus test with flying colors. The nearly 3-minute experience shows a teen being sucked inside his grandmother’s antiquated TV screen only to find himself occupying the worlds of various TV shows (“Cops,” “South Park”) as he navigates life inside the tube.

Thanks to the magic of VR, the viewer is sucked into the TV screen alongside the hapless traveler.

“Someone I was with said, ‘You need to check out this kid’s video,’ and I remember smiling really big and thinking this is the best 360 video I had ever seen.”

Wickert and Leigh entered “Channel Surfer” into a festival at the University of Southern California, and to their great surprise they ended up taking home first place. It was at the same festival that they were discovered by Brandon Padveen, an associate producer with MWM Interactive’s (MWMi) division.

Padveen immediately fell in love with “Channel Surfer,” and sought to recruit SOKRISPYMEDIA for collaborations with MWMi (the same collaborations that are now screening on Within).

“Someone I was with said, ‘You need to check out this kid’s video,’ and I remember smiling really big and thinking this is the best 360 video I had ever seen,” Padveen remembers. “It was just a total delight to be in the headset.”

The first collaboration between MWMi and SOKRISPYMEDIA was a sequel to “Channel Surfer” called “Internet Surfer,” which updated the original idea to show the protagonist jumping into the Internet instead of into the TV. Wickert says that it was essentially “Channel Surfer” fully realized as they originally intended it to be.

“The tools get better every month,” explains Wickert. “The tools we were using for the last one, I wish we had for the first one. But they just didn’t exist at the time.”

MWMi, went on to collaborate with SOKRISPYMEDIA on a trio of unique, visual-effects-driven, VR videos. “Tiny Tank,” and “Video Game Vehicle” both take viewers inside of video games. In the former it’s an elaborate war game, and in the latter the protagonists drive through a series of video games including Super Mario Bros.

“Do Not Touch” finds museum-goers jumping inside the frames of great works of art and running amok in various renditions of masterpieces.

Wickert and Leigh had to leave school at Chapman due to the rigors of creating these videos, School might call them back one day, but for now they are enjoying being fully immersed in an industry that is just beginning to thrive.

“I like to think I’m a lifelong learner,” says Wickert. “It was hard to make a decision about what I wanted to emphasize in school, because when you’re on YouTube, you’re a jack of all trades.”

The video series SOKRISPY DREAMS is available now on Within. Click HERE to watch.

Virtual reality gets seriously fun this month when Within partners with MWMi to release five irreverent, wildly creative and highly entertaining experiences created by MWMi collaborator, SOKRISPYMEDIA: Channel Surfer, Internet Surfer, Do Not Touch, Video Game Vehicle and Tiny Tank. All videos — billed collectively as SOKRISPY DREAMS — will be available for streaming September 12th.

SOKRISPY was founded by Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh as a space to experiment with up-and-coming immersive filmmaking techniques in conjunction with cutting-edge visual effects. The result? Amusing VR creations that tap into a youthful zeitgeist of video games, internet memes and new media.

This month, we invite you to follow along as we roll out a series of behind-the-scenes stories featuring Sam and Eric on the Within blog. We’ll pick their brains about their krispy creations, and learn about the complicated VR wizardry that makes their work so unique. Until then, here’s a closer look at their videos:

Channel Surfer

“Channel Surfer” helped put SOKRISPY on the map as VR creators. It was the piece that caught the eye of MWMi, which soon offered to partner with Sam and Eric in order to produce the series of immersive shorts, collectively known as, SOKRISPY DREAMS, which is featured alongside “Channel Surfer” on Within.

In “Channel Surfer” a hapless TV viewer gets sucked inside his grandmother’s television set and begins appearing in his favorite shows and movies. Spoofs on “The Walking Dead,” “Back to the Future” and “South Park” ensue.

Internet Surfer

The premise of “Internet Surfer” is simple, but the results are hilariously complicated. A young man fumbles with his grandmother’s antiquated desktop computer before somehow hurtling inside the internet itself. He quickly locates a 3D mouse cursor, which he carries around with him into various nooks and crannies of the world wide web.

At one point he morphs into a cartoon character before popping up inside a female YouTube influencer’s bedroom while she explains a cool new jacket to her fans. Meanwhile his grandmother is desperately trying to locate her lost grandson, and the email she types pops up in real time just behind him, launching him back out of the internet in the form of a handy “You’ve Got Mail” paper airplane.

Do Not Touch

The protagonists in this colorful experience miraculously figure out that they can enter the canvases at their local museum. One by one they step inside various pictures before running from one to the other, taking on the color, texture and hue of whatever masterpiece they happen to occupy at the time.

Swirls of pigment and layers of thick paint crack and pop as the interlopers frolic inside the frames and the characters inside each react to them accordingly. One woman posing for a portrait gives an intruder a swift slap across the face, while a simulacrum of “American Gothic” falls off the wall in a scuffle and the pitchfork, quite literally, hits the gallery floor.

Video Game Vehicle

The popular VR pastime of gaming gets the SOKRISPY treatment in “Video Game Vehicle,” which finds two young gamers rounding the corner into a deserted alley in their car. The driver explains to his bewildered passenger that a controller on the dash has the power to transport them to some very unexpected places.

In the blink of an eye they are inside a video game on a digitized city street.

“We’re from another dimension,” they announce as a giant soldier tries to blast them with a bazooka. This scenario is too frightening for the passenger, so his guide drops them into another, less threatening game: Super Mario Brothers. Mario and Luigi are nowhere in sight, but the gamers find that they can use their car to bop the bricks containing the magic coins and power mushrooms that regulate time and energy in the game.

This fun-loving scenario doesn’t last long. Soon the friends find themselves back in the alley dodging bullets fired by a Terminator-like behemoth while their car morphs into an armored vehicle equipped with a pair of very lethal-looking machine guns.

Tiny Tank

This four-minute experience was shot using a Yi Halo camera with the aid of pyrotechnics, a 100-foot motion control track and a stunt team. The result is a stunning 360-degree video in ultra HD 3D with specialized audio (read: you really should watch these in a good VR headset).

The short cuts back and forth between two scenes. The first is a living room where three guys play a video game in VR headsets. The second is inside the actual game where the guys fight in a chaotic desert battle. We see the guns they are wielding from their perspective as explosions crash around them and enemy combatants ambush them and are quickly obliterated.

The conflict collides with real life as the video game suddenly appears to be happening to the gamers in the flesh. The players are now real, as is the landscape of old stacked tires, abandoned shipping containers and bleak dirt.

The gamers in their living room decide to “Never sign out. Not ever.” Which is kind of how you might feel after watching the SOKRISPY creations.

Fine art is the focus of two new August releases from Within. “Condemned to Play (August 22nd),” a North American premiere; and “Space x Girl (August 8th),” a world premiere, bring paintings to vivid life in wildly unexpected ways.

“Condemned to Play” allows viewers to wander inside the canvas of the painting “Die Kinderspiele,” which was created by the famed Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1560. Bruegel’s masterpieces remain among the best examples of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. They are weird and wonderful, filled with intricate details and revelatory moments that are extremely telling about life in the 16th century.

“Die Kinderspiele,” translates to “Children’s Games” and features more than 230 children playing 83 different games. In “Condemned to Play,” directors Gordon and Andrés Jarach animate the children, speculating that they look more like “miniature adults condemned to play for eternity.”

The viewer is transported into the unfurled 3-D canvas, and is suddenly the same size and scale as its diminutive inhabitants. The children are given voices, and their anxiety mounts to a cacophony as they fret about the games that Bruegel has forced them to ceaselessly engage in.

Stilts become a prison sentence, jacks a monotonous task and riding a stick horse a pleasureless activity. It’s an eerie world, and the viewer has a front-row seat to the looks on the children’s faces. This unprecedented vantage point allows for speculation about Bruegel’s intent as a creator. Is the painting meant to serve as commentary on the ultimate uselessness of all human activity?

Trapped in limbo, the figures in the painting begin to disappear. The crisis is existential, but the art that creates that crisis is a transmedia triumph.

A different kind of landscape is examined in “Space x Girl,” a short experience from South Korea directed by Minhyuk Che. This landscape is thoroughly modern, created using the Google VR app Tilt Brush, which allows creators to paint in three dimensions.

“Space x Girl” is an abstract story rendered with abstract art. It tells the tale of a young girl who experiences space in a uniquely visceral way. Early on in the film, we are told that the girl spent most of her childhood inside of a suitcase. This may sound scary but in the experience the suitcase is depicted as a safe, womb-like space: warm and comforting and filled with the ambient sounds of the outside world.

The girl is a live actress, but the spaces she inhabits are painted around her as she moves through and by them: The rain outside her living room window, the warm glow of a TV set, a floor rug, a beaded curtain, a house plant, the suggestion of something looming outside the frame. A freeway, perhaps?

The experience finds the girl occupying the spaces of her past. A kitchen cupboard, a baby’s crib. The colors of the painting are mottled shades of deep blue, green and yellow. Hues, like memories, helping to fine-tune a thought or a gesture.

Virtual reality may be an art unto itself, but it is a transcendental treat when the medium treads into another creative realm entirely.

Download the Within app today.

For more information visit www.with.in.

Within’s Catalog of News Docs Aims to Find Out.

It’s no secret that news consumption has gone digital. Print newspapers and television outlets alike place premium importance on digital-first strategies, and recent statistics from the Pew Research Center show that 85 percent of U.S. adults now get news on a mobile device.

Like so many news outlets, our latest partner, CNN has paid attention to these trends, and in 2017 it announced the launch of a virtual reality unit called CNNVR, which produces 360-degree news stories.

This cutting-edge journalism unit has since covered major news events and stories in VR, lending an immediacy and enhanced sense of urgency to stories of crucial importance to our tumultuous times.

“There is a grand historical precedent for journalists seeking to bring viewers and readers closer to the stories they tell.”

In May, we began expanding our catalog of documentaries by rolling out a series of CNN’s most stunning VR documentaries. And, this month, that promise has continued with the release of “Extreme Rescues with the NYPD” (June 6) and “Iceland is Melting” (June 20).

For those used to viewing their news on a flatscreen TV, suddenly having it come to life in VR can be absolutely breathtaking. The emotional impact of each story surges in tandem with the immersive qualities of the filmmaking.

“Iceland is Melting,” for example, is a tour de force in shades of white. The 360-degree cameras swoop and soar over the snow-covered landscape of Iceland, which narrator and senior investigative reporter, John Sutter, informs us is melting at an alarming rate.

We have seen these vistas in 2D on calendars, on our computer screens and in the pages of glossy magazines, but very few of us have seen them in VR. The impact of being immersed in an otherworldly land that is shaping the future of life on earth is astounding.

Stories like these don’t just make people sit up and take notice, they make people actively work for change. A recent study by Stanford University found that VR can help people to become more compassionate. Researchers invited subjects to view a VR piece which put them inside the experience of losing their jobs and their homes, and found that these subjects showed more compassion toward the homeless than people who were exposed to the same experience through other forms of media.

“Experiences are what define us as humans, so it’s not surprising that an intense experience in VR is more impactful than imagining something,” the co-author of the paper, Jeremy Bailenson, told the Stanford News.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that VR is reshaping the news. There is a grand historical precedent for journalists seeking to bring viewers and readers closer to the stories they tell. When newspapers were first printed, the available technology only allowed for the written word, but when it became possible to include engraved illustrations and diagrams, journalists jumped at the chance. Similarly, when photography entered the scene in the late 1800s, newspapers were among the earliest adapters, and photographs became crucial to how we consume the news.

Radios, newsreels, television, and finally, the advent of the internet, all drastically changed how journalists told news stories, and how the public consumed them. These days, the idea of immersive journalism is gaining currency, and scholars and journalists alike are seeking to understand the effect this daring new medium will have on our modern media landscape.

In 2015 Within co-founder Chris Milk and award-winning filmmaker Gabo Arora continued to drive the conversation about VR and empathy with their doc, “Clouds Over Sidra.” It was the first film ever shot in VR for the UN and it was initially created to help call attention to the need for international partnerships in support of vulnerable communities like the one shown in the film as a 12-year-old Syrian girl guides viewers through a refugee camp in Jordan.

Soon after, consumer VR began its monumental rise to widespread accessibility, and virtual reality became a powerful new tool employed by journalists seeking to add immediacy, impact and clickability to their stories.

When U.S. relations with North Korea dominated the news last year, CNNVR created two of its most impactful documentaries: “Enter North Korea,” and “An Ordinary Day in North Korea,” both now available on Within. The experiences explore the endlessly fascinating, and often terrifying reality of life in North Korea, showing in graphic detail how the country’s citizens are programmed to accept a brutal and secretive regime, while shunning any affinity for democracy and western civilization.

Even when a story is not directly in the spotlight, VR can highlight its importance on the world stage. In “Extreme Rescues With the NYPD,” for example, viewers learn about the daring tasks that 350 officers of the city’s elite rescue team, the Emergency Service Unit, perform on a daily basis. And in “Toro Bravo” (July 6) we are invited to join some of Spain’s most daring bullfighters as they engage in one of the world’s most controversial sports.

The New York Times has also been a leader when it comes to using VR in service of its storytelling, and four of their most interesting news documentaries are available on — and created in partnership with — Within. “The Displaced” is the crushing story of three children driven from their homes in South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. “Walking New York” shows the creation of a monumental piece of street art by famed French artist JR. “Take Flight” is a cinematic dreamscape that allows viewers to fly above New York City with the likes of Rooney Mara and Charlize Theron. And, finally, “Smile More” follows the creation and performance of a new song by Syd and the Internet.

Similarly, the Wall Street Journal, PBS, VICE and the Guardian have all experimented with ways to enhance the power of their reporting through VR. Examples of a number of these, including Vice News VR, are available on Within.

Meanwhile, those seeking to view what else CNN, or other outlets have to offer can download the Within app to experience a wide variety of documentaries, all of which will expand your view of how virtual reality is changing the face of news in the tumultuous modern age.

Visit us at www.with.in/experiences to learn more.

This May, June and July, Within rolls out a series of hard-hitting documentaries by CNNVR, whisking viewers to the front lines of some of the world’s most vital news stories.

Beginning May 9th, a total of five documentaries are scheduled to be released, with the final segment scheduled for July 6.

Here’s what to expect:

“Enter North Korea” | Available 5/9

Arrive in the heart of Pyongyang during North Korea’s biggest celebration of the year: Day of the Sun, which marks the birth of Kim Il-sung, founder and “Eternal President” of North Korea. Hundreds of dancers spin and whirl in massive Kim Il-sung square in a display of reverence for their beloved leader. The doc shows additional intimate details of civic life in the world’s most mysterious country.

“An Ordinary Day in North Korea” | Available 5/23

Watch North Korean’s go about their daily business inside this notoriously secretive country. Visit crystalline waterfalls near the intimidating DMZ that separates North Korea from South Korea, scale the summit of the country’s most cherished mountain, peruse the wares of a brand-new high-end electronic shop and watch flag-waving performers start each workday with a patriotic dance.

“Extreme Rescues with the NYPD” | Available 6/6

Survey the New York skyline from a helicopter alongside the NYPD’s most elite rescue team, the Emergency Service Unit. During the unit’s training exercise you’ll see how team members slide down ropes to skyscraper roofs and scale the summit of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.

“Iceland is Melting”| Available 6/20

Travel to Iceland, the island nation that many researchers consider ground zero for climate change. Soar over the pristine glaciers that could vanish in as little as 200 years, a travesty that would signal devastation not just for this lovely place, but for the future of the planet itself.

“Toro Bravo” | Available 7/6

Explore the fascinating and controversial sport of bullfighting via this intriguing doc that takes you inside the famous running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and introduces you to the brave sportsmen who consider bullfighting an art unto itself.

Story time has sprung to life this month as hundreds of Los Angeles school children are receiving the chance to interact with a wild and wonderful assortment of characters through the magic of augmented reality. The extraordinary experience comes courtesy of Within, which has teamed up with Los Angeles Public Libraries and LA’s BEST afterschool enrichment program for the Wonderscope Los Angeles Community Reading Initiative.

Currently offered at various LA’s BEST school sites, the initiative features 30 iPads loaded with Within’s award-winning AR children’s app, Wonderscope. The iPads will rotate between nine schools over a period of three weeks. They will also appear at seven library branches per day during the week of April 15th, which marks Los Angeles Unified School District’s spring break.

Since it launched late last year, Wonderscope has attracted attention from educators for its unique ability to get kids excited about reading. The free app currently features three stories — A Brief History of Stunts by Astounding People, Little Red the Inventor and Wonder’s Land Ringmaster Wanted — that encourage children to read aloud in order to help a variety of fascinating characters overcome obstacles to achieve big goals.

Children actively engage with the stories, using their bodies to move around and looking through — rather than at — their screen as adventures unfold in real time, set in whatever room a child happens to occupy at the time.

“I see the most excitement taking place when the children see and hear the stories come to life,” said Caitlin Quinn, a children’s librarian at the Eagle Rock branch of the LAPL, who facilitates a variety of STEAM programs throughout the year. “Many of these programs offer participants of all ages and backgrounds an opportunity to experiment with new technologies hands-on and a space to use their imaginations to take things to the next level.”

Since AR is a new technology that many educators have not yet had access to, Within is providing a variety of support materials to aid in the learning process, including an AR 101 video, as well as suggested lesson plans complete with reading comprehension questions. Within employees will also attend select sessions in order to answer questions, observe and support the learning process.

“Being able to pilot this AR storytime program is a great learning opportunity for staff and the participants — both parents and students,” said Vivienne Byrd, Librarian III, Lead on Full STEAM Ahead & Citizen Science Initiative, LAPL, Exploration & Creativity Department. “Within has been very helpful in every possible way to make this a program that is suitable for a public library setting.”

Eric Gurna, president and CEO of LA’s BEST said that children need to practice reading in different ways: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and through the use of engaging technologies.

“The important thing for us at LA’s BEST is that children are engaged in the process and enjoy reading — that they see it is as fun and useful, not simply a chore,” Gurna said. “Our staff are endlessly creative at finding ways to engage children in the joy of reading, and we are always happy to find partners who share and feed that creativity.”

Ninety percent of the kids that LA’s BEST serves daily qualify for free lunch at school, Gurna added, which is why it’s especially important that they have the same access to new technology as their more affluent peers.

“Teachers are doing this, libraries are doing it, they’re finding real value in it,” said Daniel Coplon, Within’s Senior Business Development Manager. “It’s simple to execute so we see Wonderscope as a great confidence building tool.”

Coplon has spent time talking to teachers about their biggest challenges, and one of the things he has gleaned is that they are particularly focussed on what is called “differentiated learning,” which means that not every student learns in the same way, and that educators need to be flexible in their approach to teaching.

Wonderscope hits the right notes for a variety of learners since it is experiential, has plenty of visual cues and champions learning through doing, in this case, by actually reading words aloud to drive the action of a story.

The host libraries in this initial effort are located throughout the city, including branches in Watts, Wilmington, Chinatown, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Eagle Rock and Lincoln Heights. The LAPL system serves the largest population of any public library system in the country and has a remarkable track record of community outreach.

Hundreds or enrolled studentes are expected to engage in the initiative through LA’s BEST, which serves 25,000 kids daily across 200 locations, with a focus on helping children in underserved communities.

For full details, dates and locations participating in the Wonderscope L.A. Community Reading Initiative, please visit the Wonderscope website.