”VR Animation The Sick Rose Was Selected into Venice Gap - Financing Market Selection 2020
HTC VIVE ORIGINALS108/07/26
As the leading brand of VR content creation, HTC VIVE ORIGINALS keeps on making breakthroughs and innovations. After launching the first immersive VR animation Gloomy Eyes in 2019 in collaboration with French VR production company Atlas V, which won high acclaim at international film festivals like Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France and Sundance Film Festival in the U.S., HTC VIVE ORIGINALS will venture into animation creation again by collaborating with Turn Rhino Original Design Studio whose works have been recognized at foreign film festivals in Italy and France. The joint venture is The Sick Rose, the world’s first frame-by-frame animation with VR technology which goes beyond the experience of the traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation. The story is told through VR camera movement, and the experiencer with a VR headset wanders through the plot with the characters, exploring and diving into the “real environment” in the story.
A new era of frame-by-frame animation is inaugurated with such innovative technology and vivid content. The Sick Rose was selected into Virtual Reality Immersive Story Projects in Venice Gap – Financing Market Selection 2020 of the 77th Venice Film Festival. Liu Szu-ming, the general manager and producer of HTC VIVE ORIGINALS, said, “We use the panorama of virtual reality to produce frame-by-frame figure animation full of “handmade” aesthetics and humanistic touch. Through this work, we not only attempt to represent a brand-new experience of immersive figure animation, but also want to show the beauty of Taiwan’s traditional handicraft, and the special warmth of integrating technology.”
Moreover, in Virtual Reality Immersive Story Projects, The Sick Rose is the only shortlisted work entirely self-made in Asia. At the upcoming Venice Gap – Financing Market held in early September, it will be evaluated by a jury composed of top directors, producers, and corporate investors along with other works from France, the U.K. and Germany, and hopefully obtain the support of overseas investors. On that point, Turn Rhino Original Design Studio stated, “Our work has drawn attention just in the initial stage of the project. The expression mode of frame-by-frame animation should be reinvented. This time, we tried to incorporate VR technology to allow the viewer to enter a world of flow in a different time. The audience is entirely surrounded and wrapped by all the performances and emotions, and glimpse the new style of frame-by-frame animation.”
The Sick Rose tells the story about a frightening infectious disease that befalls a beautiful town. The little girl Rose wants to give a birthday gift she made to her mother who works in the hospital. But, on unknown way of uncertainties, the fear for the disease has made people selfish and terrifying, and Rose is even teased by the ghosts of animals. The way to find her mother becomes even harsher. The work is expected to be launched in 2021.
