By Marissa Blanchard @MarissaBlanch As someone who wants to enter the sports communications industry, I researched how virtual reality is being implemented in sports and what the future will hold. You can find the full presentation here: Virtual Reality and Sports NextVR  has created a system for capturing and live streaming virtual reality experience in real time and in broadcast quality. Though this experience is limited to Gear VR and Samsung, it shows the power that virtual reality can have on how fans watch and experience live sporting events. STRIVR, stands for...

For my additional learning requirement, I did the "Unity 5: 3D Essential Training" Lynda.com tutorial, to try and get a better grasp on how Unity works. It was very useful to be able to go a little more in depth with what Unity can do, as well as the valuable ability to pause and rewind the lesson, so the many times I got lost, I was able to go back. Some big things I learned were things like being able to alter an object's visual properties with greater detail. I...

Here in the United States many news companies started to invest in virtual reality and specifically in 360 video production. New York Times VR, Discovery VR, and the recent acquisition of Ryot by the Huffington Post showed an increasing in interest in this new technology. In my home country, Italy, virtual reality has yet to become a prevalent medium. However, one company called Finegil (controlled by Gruppo L'Espresso) produced one of the first 360 videos for a national publication. Andrea Iannuzzi, director of Gruppo L'Espresso, collaborated in the realization of...

As with all final things the end of our project is something that is bittersweet. On the one hand I'm pleased that the final version of the project is something I'm proud of. Its incredible to see something that myself (and everyone that was a part of Supergroup) spent so many hours on come to fruition. On the other hand the project represents my final 360 Project with Newhouse and with my friends which of course is a cause for little melancholy and of course self-reflection. Its on the latter...

I read "Slay the Dragon" as a part of this class and I'm trying to apply some of its principles to my current Unity project (on post-war life). I'll be honest, a good amount of the book was not relevant to what I'm trying to do with my project, but it's good knowledge to have for future VR storytelling adventures. I know how to write a story and I can even film a not-so-bad short. But throw a character who can interact with things within the story and I get...

In the past few months I've become completely immersed in virtual reality and its seemingly infinite possibilities. Because it's still a growing field, I've been able to engage with others who have thrown themselves into the adventurous (and often glitchy) field of virtual reality. Gaming in VR Most people associate VR with video games. While the gaming world is not even close to the only field in which VR will have an immense impact, the link seems natural. One of the main trends I've noticed is a tendency to stick to comfortable...

Slay the Dragon was a particularly interesting read, mainly due in part to the fact that it really hit home on the idea of story driven titles, at least for me.  There are a lot of obvious rules to making a great video game, but these rules can be overlooked and taken for granted unless one pays close attention. I learned that the characters drive the story, no matter what type of game--whether it's a first person shooter, fantasy RPG, survival/horror, etc.  Characters and story give the player something they can invest...