VR animation "Feather"

Now, a cute VR animation Feather is being screened at Konica Minolta Planetaria Tokyo, a planetarium in Yurakucho, Tokyo.

This is a new generation planetarium that opened in December 2018. It has a multipurpose digital dome theater that can enjoy high-resolution dome images up to 8K, a planetarium dome theater, and a VR theater VirtuaLink. If you come here, you can watch the beautiful starry sky in the middle of the big city.

Different movies are shown depending on each theater and time of day, and you first check the screening schedule with the ticket vending machine and select the movies you want to watch. This is almost the same as a normal movie theater.

Feather is a VR animation created by 3DCG / VR artist Keisuke Ito. It was invited to the VR section of the 2019 Venice International Film Festival. Later, it was invited to the Busan International Film Festival, the Geneva International Film Festival, and the Gangneung International Film Festival, and was highly regarded by the audience.

This is VirtuaLink, where Feather is shown. Here, multiple audiences can watch the same VR content simultaneously.

VirtuaLink uses HTC Vive. Here you can watch interactive VR contents, and HTC Vive makes the experience meaningful. Of course, a motion controller will be used, the staff will carefully teach you how to operate before the screening.

The staff are also responsible for directing and guiding before the screening. They distribute such a picture book to the audience before showing Feather and read it aloud. It doubles as a prologue of this.


The main character of this is a girl who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. What impressed me was that, despite the fact that it was a VR animation, there was no scene where the audience looked around 360 degrees. In front of the audience is a doll house, in which small dolls move around and the story unfolds. It doesn't have dynamic actions, but it's familiar to VR beginners. Also, it was very cute that the dolls moved smoothly in the small doll house.
And the great attraction is that the audience can be involved in the story that unfolds in the little doll house. In this, Feather is a symbol of encouragement. Each time the girl is frustrated, feathers appear in front of the audience. The audience can support her by handing it to the girl. By the way, Most of the story unfolds inside the dollhouse, but it's actually a hint of the last scene. Check it out by actually watching it.

When the picture book was opened again under the guidance of the staff after the screening, the white feathers that were not present before the screening were interposed between the pages.

It costs 1500 yen(900 yen for kids) and English and Chinese are supported.

Info
https://planetarium.konicaminolta.jp/planetariatokyo/program/virtualink/autumn_19/

Schedule
https://planetarium.konicaminolta.jp/planetariatokyo/schedule/

Website
http://keisukeitoh.com/feather.html

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/FeatherVR

Twitter
https://twitter.com/FeatherVR

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/feathervr/