i3 - January/February 2017 - 49

By Bronwyn Flores

Policy

FAC E S O F I N N OVAT I O N

Tom Sanocki, CEO, Limitless

 E

nthusiasm for emerging technologies is driving the
consumer technology sector and virtual reality (VR) is
an overwhelming leader for the industry. But how can
content creators use this tech to reach new audiences?
A former Pixar and Bungie employee left the film and videogame
industries to help studios use VR in a new way - to create content.
The first project from his startup,
Limitless, is an interactive short film
about a seagull trying to steal lunch
called Gary the Gull.
"I've always been able to blend technology and art in a way that lets you do
something you can't normally do with
just those disciplines," said Limitless
Founder and CEO Tom Sanocki, "and
VR was just the perfect fit."

DEBORAH COLEMAN/PIXAR

Why did you create Limitless?
Limitless is a cloud-based platform for
building interactive characters in VR.
We started Limitless in the spring
of last year. After spending some
time figuring out how to best solve
a problem in VR, we hit one in particular - emotional engagement with
characters which means making them
interactive. Characters need to respond
to what you say; you need to respond
to what they say. They need to be part
of your story, just like you are part of
theirs. And that means we have a lot
of fundamental technology to build to
help our customers and partners extend
their creative reach. We're pushing the
boundaries of VR to let people build
rich stories using characters in a way
that they can't in any other medium.
Characters in VR feel real and you
want to engage with them, talk to them
and expect them to talk back. You are
not tempted to talk to Mickey Mouse
or Keanu Reeves when you see them
on your flat screen, but you do in VR
because they feel real.

What do you envision for
the future of VR?
C TA . t e c h / i 3

VR will change other mediums
fundamentally in a way TV and radio
haven't. It is clear to us the future is
going to be interactive. Even in early
tests for Gary the Gull when voice recognition wasn't working, 50 percent of
people still talked to Gary. That showed
us an important part of VR is to engage.
We believe interactivity is a key part of
VR and, if you want to interact with
something, the most interesting "thing"
to interact with is a person - that cuts
across all demographics and all verticals.
We see a world where people will interact
with virtual characters in movies and
games, and that's going to be amazing.
People will interact with characters in
training VR experiences such as surgery
simulations, police training, becoming a
part of a history lesson, in e-commerce,
advertising - the list goes on. We have
the opportunity to build interactive
characters in all of those verticals.

What's next for Limitless?

Limitless is
a cloud-based
platform for
building
interactive
characters in VR.

We are excited about the next year.
It's going to be great to see VR
emerge in the mainstream even
stronger, especially with the launch
of the PlayStation VR - one of the
main platforms for Gary the Gull
- along with Oculus and Vive. We
announced VR Animation in October
2016, a product which allows users
to build stories directly in VR using
motion controllers. Now, learning
that software is no longer a barrier
and making a story in VR is as easy
as playing with toys. And that is an
amazing thing. Just like we created
stories with our toys back when we
were kids, we can now build professional quality content. The only
difference between a professional and
amateur is the quality of ideas and the
amount of time and effort put forth.
We are looking forward to more people
using VR animation as we go out of
closed alpha to closed beta in 2017. n
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

49
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i3 - January/February 2017

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