CGI Robots Dance on an Alien Planet in a 360° Video

While some virtual reality creators are working on developing the sonic potential of immersive sound, the medium really hasn’t been fully exploited. Dutch creative coder Sander Sneek, creator of the VR synthesizer Soundscape, is an exception. For him, the virtual realm is as much about the sounds that put users into unique digital spaces as the visuals.

In his latest project, Life in 360: A Tribute to Ludovico Einaudi, Sneek uses sound as the starting point. In this case, it is the music of Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi, whose evocative works range from the minimalist to the highly rhythmic and cinematic. The 360° VR video opens with a minimalist Einaudi number, with two robots rising from the ground of an alien planet’s rocky and icy surface. Beyond the planet’s jagged, geometric mountains is a moon so close it looks as if it will collide with the alien “abstract planet.” After rising to their feet, the two robots, seemingly alone on the planet, begin to dance to Einaudi’s music.

“The videoclip tells the story of two robots waking up on an abstract planet,” Sneek tells The Creators Project. “While hearing amazing music they start to dance. Soon they realize they are not alone on this planet.”

Sneek works here with a limited color—blue, magenta and purple hues, as well as black. The robots’ movements illuminate the ground beneath their feet, while the movements of their hands sketch luminous trajectories through the air. While Sneek’s CG imagery is enough to impress, the fusion with cinematic music and dance gives adds to the sense of multimedia immersion.

“Music has always been a great passion of mine and I try to combine this with the new medium,” Sneek tells The Creators Project. “Mr. Ludovico Einaudi is a big inspiration for me and my work. Last year I visited a concert of him and was really moved by his performance. As a tribute for his amazing work I have been working on a 360° videoclip for the last couple of months in my spare time. My intention is to bring people joy and experience Mr. Ludovico Einaudi amazing music via this new medium.”

Though Sneek created the 3D modeling in Cinema 4D, he says the video is the result of many small technical experiments conducted in Unity 3D. He used audioreactive shaders that change with specific audio frequencies—a high frequency for the pink robot, and a low frequency for the blue one. In another moment, the robots stare at the viewer, while trail renders create the luminous ribbon effects around the pink robot's fingers and character profile effects yield the rain drop effect around the male robot.

Sneek says that he doesn’t feel he is a very skilled 3D modeler, so as a result abstract art influenced the look of the 360-degree video. He says that this approach works because the viewer is quite focused on the dancers’ performance.

“I wanted to combine the great music with dance after seeing a performance of Scapino Ballet Rotterdam,” says Sneek. “When you watch the video in VR you will see the dancers are pretty close to you. This really gives you the feeling of getting a personal performance.”

Click here to see more work by Sander Sneek.

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