Academy Award-winning animation studio teams with Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects team to release interactive video compatible with Android phones; non-interactive 360-degree video version available for iOS or web users.
Academy Award-winning studio Aardman Animations and Google ATAP’s Spotlight Stories have debuted their first original short together, a holiday film called Special Delivery, on YouTube. The interactive video is compatible with Android phones, with a non-interactive 360-degree video version also available for iOS or web users. A collaboration with U.K. studio Aardman, the project is another small step towards turning a Google experiment into a new artistic medium.
Directed by Tim Ruffle, Special Delivery follows the adventures of a humble caretaker disturbed by a mysterious rooftop stranger who is always one step ahead...leaving behind a trail of gifts.
Watch the non-interactive version in the player below:
Google Spotlight Stories is a new form of storytelling made specifically for mobile and VR. In these 360-degree, interactive stories, users’ phones become a window to a world all around them. The sensors on users’ phones allow the story to be interactive; when users move their phone to various scenes, they are able to unlock mini-stories within the story. Users will encounter 10 subplots, three potential ways to see the end, and 60+ moments where they can decide to follow the story in different ways.
Check out concept art and stills from the project in AWN’s gallery HERE, and Watch the making-of video below:
Source: Google ATAP
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
