Ocean of Light – Dolphins VR

Converting 'Ocean of Light – Dolphins VR' to stereo was a unique experience for the DNEG Stereo team, giving the opportunity to work on a more intimate experience that presented new challenges for the team. The result was a very special viewer experience that takes audiences to a place most people have never had the opportunity to experience - until now.

Converting 180-degree 60fps 4K footage with 6500 frame takes to be viewed in the Meta Quest headset as opposed to a theater required master planning and alternate workflows for DNEG’s conversion and review pipelines, as well as a new creative approach. The team needed to break up the content to account for artist and render times, and intricately reassemble it to ensure continuity and fluidity in sculpture, scale, and depth animation over the course of these very long shots.

DNEG focused on achieving comfort and authenticity so that the piece could be watched over and over without any fatigue while bringing the viewer on location with the dolphins. Details in corals, sea fans, flotsam, schools of fish, volumetric lights, and underwater particulates were extracted to bring to life the realism of what was captured in 2D. The result is a breathtakingly immersive underwater experience that lives within an innovative exhibition inside the Horizon Worlds aquarium. We could not be more proud to have been a part of bringing this experience to the world.