Baobab the Virtual Reality movie “Namoo” by Erick Oh with the Oculus viewer

Baobab Studios, the independent interactive animation production company, today announced its latest project: People, a virtual reality experience written and directed by Korean director Erick Oh. The now completed movie was created entirely in Facebook's VR animation tool, Quill, with all props, characters and environments hand-painted directly in VR. Baobab will release People on Oculus platforms in 2021.

A narrative poem made like an animated film in virtual reality, People (which means “tree” in Korean) is an ode to the death of a grandfather and follows the journey of a budding artist - and his tree of life - from start to finish.

“Erick Oh is an exciting emerging director in animation and from the moment he shared his vision for the first time People with us, we knew we wanted to work with him. Her wonderful artistic sensibility naturally fits with what we do at Baobab, as she makes deeply personal films that connect with viewers both emotionally and universally, ”said Maureen Fan, co-founder and CEO of Baobab Studios. “We are very proud of People and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the public very soon. "

“Baobab Studios are a great place to make films because they are willing to push boundaries in the name of art. I think that's why their films resonate so well with both audiences and critics. Manufacturing People it was a joy because they were true collaborators who listened and gave me the creative freedom to realize my vision for the film, ”Oh said.

Based in California, the celebrated director / artist debuted his work at prestigious film festivals such as Annecy, Zagreb, SIGGRAPH and Anima Mundi, and has garnered awards and nominations for the Oscars, Annies and others. With his background in fine arts from Seoul National University and film from UCLA, Oh was an animator at Pixar Animation Studios from 2010 to 2016, working on films such as Backwards, The keeper of the dam e Courageous. He then joined Tonko House with his fellow former Pixar artists and directed PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems, which won the Annecy Cristal in 2018. Oh is currently working on a number of projects with its partners in film and animation, the VR / AR industry and the contemporary art scene in the United States and South Korea. .

Founded by Fan, Eric Darnell and Larry Cutler in 2015, six-time Emmy Award winner Baobab Studios is the world's leading independent interactive animation studio. With a mission to inspire you to dream and bring out your sense of wonder by making yourself important, Baobab Studios has released five projects to date: Invasion!, Asteroids!, Jacks, Crow: The Legend e Bonfire, all with critical success and commercial success. The most recent Baobab project, Baba Yaga —With Kate Winslet, Daisy Ridley, Jennifer Hudson and Glenn Close - it made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will debut exclusively on Oculus Quest in early 2021.

www.baobabstudios.com

People