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Gravity Sketch isn't the first artist's tool for VR. That honour went to Google's Tilt Brush, the VR painting app that the greatest number of us will have tried - which allowed us to roughly paint with strokes and sparkles in three-dimensional space like a toddler with their first art set and no canvas.

Oculus itself followed its own 3D modelling app, Medium. This has a simple toolset - at least compared to traditional modelling and sculpting software - though it hasn't prevented some artists from creating some very high quality work (check out these models by ex-ILM/Valve character artist, now-in-house Oculus employee Giovanni Nakpil.

Gravity Sketch is a different class of application. Starting out as a VR sculpting tool for car and shoe designers, there's a potential for grace and solidity to the models you create that's lacking from Google and Oculus' tools.

You can draw freehand in 3D space using smooth curves, then extrude surfaces into 3D space - or extrude as you draw around a central access. You can grab and move points to adjust splines.

And you can use both controllers together to create a surface like pulling a ribbon through the air.

While the startup behind the app is based in south London, I first encountered Gravity Sketch at the launch of the iMac Pro in New York in December. Apple was demoing the software to show the VR capabilities of its new all-in-one workstation when connected to an HTC Vive (on Windows the app works with both the Vive and Oculus Rift).

Back in London I spoke to Gravity Sketch co-founder Oluwaseyi Sosanya and ILM senior concept artist Jama Jurabaev about why the former wanted to create it, and what the latter's been using it for.

Oluwaseyi - Seyi for short, pronounced 'Shay' - comes from a background in manufacturing, working at Taiwanese white-label electronics manufacturer Pegatron that produces items like PlayStation and Xbox controllers. Seyi came to London for a joint masters course at what's now the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College, where he met Mexican industrial designer Daniela Paredes Fuentes. The two decided to create a tool that could bridge the gap between sketching in two dimensions and 3D output.

"Sketching [objects] in 2D is a three-dimensional idea represented through the laws and principles of perspective," says Seyi. "The clearest, easiest way to navigate any kind of three-dimensional idea is to actually see it in 3D. And that's what virtual reality and augmented reality offer."

This was in the early days of VR - before the Vive let us get off our chairs and walk around in virtual space. While waiting for VR technology to catch-up - and to fund the development of Gravity Sketch beyond a modest grant from the James Dyson Foundation - Seyi and Daniela worked at Jaguar Land Rover.

With this beginning, it's no surprise that Gravity Sketch was initially aimed at car designers (as well as footwear design, which has similarities in its creative process to that of car chassis). Its tools draw on the traditions of automotive design - tapping into long-standing techniques including the tape drawing that underpins ribbon-like dual-controller sculpting process.

However, the tool has also proved popular with artists and designers working in the industries Digital Arts covers, creating models that will stay digital forever in films, games, TV shows, ads and animations. Jama Jurabaev is a concept artist at ILM London, where he's worked on Avengers and the forthcoming Ready Player One and Jurassic Park 2. He's also created tutorials about creating art in VR, which you can purchase from his website.

In the video below, Jama takes you through the creation of a mech in VR.

Jama first heard about Gravity Sketch through a friend.

"I was immediately intrigued," he says, "as it looked very promising and close to the workflow I wanted to have [for creating models in VR].

"It was super easy to learn. The interface is clean and very intuitive. On top of that, the Gravity Sketch team is very quick at responding to any requests or improvements.

"Having a strong 2D and 3D background, it was very easy for me to pick it up - and having some VR experience helped me too."

Jama has a strong belief in the use of VR in general as a modeling environment, saying "VR is definitely the next step in the evolution of concept art."

For him, VR - and Gravity Sketch in particular - combines the benefits of creating concept art in 2D and 3D: the swiftness of sketching using pencil and paper (or tablet and stylus) and the ability to create your work in 3D space and look at it from any angle.

Jama also notes that working in VR, you can experience the model at the same scale as real-life, something not possible on screen unless you're working exclusively on models smaller than a shoebox.

"It allows you to sketch in VR space and to be fully immersed in the scene experiencing the scale," he says. "This is something that will dramatically reduce the cost and the time of prototyping any kind of designs such as movie sets, prop designs and etc."

You'll still need to zoom in and out on models to sculpt anything larger than the reach of your arms, notes Seyi - aware that the tool has to be as "capable for Jurassic Park dinosaurs as for cars" if they want the broader creative market to embrace it.

Of course I asked Jama if he'd been using Gravity Sketch at ILM for any film projects, but he was unable to say.

Looking to the future, Seyi wants to refine Gravity Sketch's creative tools further, enhancing it to the point where it's easy to attain what he calls 'creative fidelity' - the point at which what you create indistinguishably matches what you had in your head originally.

He's also very interested in augmented reality using the headsets that follow on from the Microsoft HoloLens (above, modelled by me). Right now Gravity Sketch exists as a VR app and a mobile app for the iPad- which is a creative tool using the Pencil but also allows people without VR headsets can view models and scenes. Part of the appeal of Gravity Sketch to the car industry is that unlike clay models, VR sketches can be easily viewed from any angle from anywhere in the world.

Augmented reality - or as some call it, mixed reality - would let you see the world both inside and outside of the space you're creating in. This some different possibilities to VR - and Seyi says you'd use them in different ways.

"If I'm creating a new world, planet or scenario, I don't really want to be in AR," he says, "I want to be in VR because I have a blank canvas that I can just do whatever I want in without distraction.

"If I'm meeting with the engineering team and I have the chassis of a vehicle sitting in front of me, AR is completely necessary there because then I can just sketch right on top - and everyone can see exactly what's happening."

Seyi's example is automotive focussed, but you can see the possibilities in other areas of creativity - drawing in 3D space on top of an actor to create a monster or sketching props live on set. And that would be the first true mixed-reality creative process.

Gravity Sketch costs US$24.99 for a limited version, $29.99 per month for the Pro version, or $99.99 per month for the Studio version that adds the ability to import environments and export files to Rhino.

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Gravity Sketch is the first pro-level VR app for artists

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Gravity Sketch isn't the first artist's tool for VR. That honour went to Google's Tilt Brush, the VR painting app that the greatest number of us will have tried - which allowed us to roughly paint with strokes and sparkles in three-dimensional space like a toddler with their first art set and no canvas.

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Year 10 - iMedia - Unit R091: Designing a game concept

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London Design and Engineering UTC - James Culley

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From Game of Thrones Season 7 to Blade Runner 2049, we take a look at the hard work of VFX houses around the globe including MPC, Method Studios, Territory Studios and more. Over the year we've featured breakdown reels of popular television series, successful films and title sequences, including Oscar-winning VFX for The Jungle Book. We've interviewed Territory Studios for its work on Ghost in the Shell and Patrick Clair's title sequence for American Gods.
If you're already working in VFX, see Axis Animation's tips on how to create the perfect showreel and portfolio.

This year also spoke to VFX Legion on how it brings the blood and guts to Hollywood films and TV shows and how Oats Studio is re imaging the look of monsters.

If you're in need of assets, check out five best websites for 3D models, or download 3D scans of real objects with this new online store.

Here's our roundup of the best VFX showreels from 2017.

Game of Thrones Season 7

See the VFX work of Image Engine, Iloura Studios, Mackevision, Zoic and more as we go behind-the-scenes on season 7 of Game of Thrones.

Rushed, plot- and action-heavy - and more than a little silly in places - Season 7 of Game of Thrones concluded in August, and the visual effects houses who worked on the series are still publishing breakdowns of their VFX work.
See how specific episodes were created, cities, castles and of course, the dragons.
More: If you're a massive GoT fan, also see how the epic Battle of Bastards was created from Season 6.

MPC: Blade Runner 2049

Rachael's tragic reappearance in Blade Runner 2049 is the latest high-profile 'digital double', bringing a CG-enhanced version of an actor from a previous film into a modern production - following Rogue One's recreation of the deceased Peter Cushing and a younger version of the then-still-alive Carrie Fisher.

The modern, re-created Rachael materialises on-screen due to a stuntwoman's performance on set, a 3D capture of the head of actress Sean Young (who played the character in the 1982 original) and some painstaking modelling, texturing and animation by VFX house MPC.
Read on to see how MPC created the digital double of Rachel for Blade Runner 2049. More: How Territory Studio created screen graphics in Blade Runner 2049.
Territory: Ghost in the Shell

London-based VFX studio Territory created a huge amount of 3D elements for the cityscape of the hugely anticipated dystopian sci-fi film Ghost in The Shell.

Based on the Japanese manga by Masamune Shriow, the new film directed by Rupert Sanders follows cyborg counter-cyberterrorist field commander The Major (Scarlett Johansson) as she fights against criminals, hackers and terrorists.
See our interview with Territory. More: How Framestore created the small yet complicated underwater CG sequence for Ghost in the Shell, paying homage to the 1995 anime.
Union: T2 Trainspotting

Adam Gascoyne from London VFX company teamed up with director Danny Boyle once again for work on more than 400 VFX shots in the Trainspotting sequel T2 Trainspotting .

Adam has worked with Danny on numerous films, including , and conjuring a collaboration history of 16 years. Similar to the original Trainspotting film, the VFX in the sequel are subtly built into real footage to depict Irvine Welsh's written fantasy in a way that resonates with audiences whilst staying true to the book.
See Union's work here.
Method Studios: Thor: Ragnarok

Regular collaborator with Marvel, Method Studios, has created VFX for the major fight sequences, characters, beasts and environments for Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok, based on the Marvel Comics character Thor. The narrative puts Thor (Chris Hemsworth) against death goddess Hela (Cate Blanchett) to save Asgardian civilisation from obliteration.

Acting as one of the major VFX vendors for the film, Method studios delivered more than 450 shots, including the opening scene scene in which Thor battles Surtur and his fire demons in a rocky underground hellscape of Muspelheim, and a major fight sequence that sees Hela take on an army of hundreds of Asgardian Guards. Method Studios also fleshed out Surtur, the dragon, fire demons and the E-Guard soldiers.
See its work here.
Patrick Clair: American Gods' title sequence

Patrick Clair is the director of some of the best TV title sequences in recent memory. His titles for the likes of True Detective, The Night Manager and Westworld have received acclaim as works of art in their own rights - as has his latest sequence for US TV channel Starz' highly anticipated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
Check out the title sequence and see how Patrick made it here.
Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

The latest film based on J K Rowling's Harry Potter universe, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, features many incredible creatures, a number of which were created by visual effects studios MPC, Framestore and Rodeo FX.

Here we take a look at how three animation studios created beasts for the film, including Niffler, Erumpent and Bowtruckle, goblin Gnarlak, Demiguise, Occamy, Billiwig and Jacob's apartment.
See the full feature here.
Oscar-winning VFX for The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book picked up the coveted Oscar for Best Visual Effects this year's ceremony in Hollywood. Here we go behind-the-scenes on how those VFX were created, including VFX breakdown videos. We also look at the VFX of the other nominees including Kubo and the Two Strings and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and more.
See the VFX breakdown reels here.
MPC: A Monster Calls

MPC worked on the close-up scenes between main protagonist Conor O'Malley and the titular monster in A Monster Calls, modelling and adjusting the monster's facial expressions and anatomy, as well as the environments for Conor's neighbourhood and rooftop of his house.

A Monster Calls, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, is based on the original novel written by Patrick Ness. It follows Conor's (Lewis MacDougall) moving journey of dealing with his single mother's terminal illness with the help of a tree monster. Watch the trailer here.

MPC Montreal VFX supervisor Ferran Domenech oversaw the team's work on more than 180 shots.
Explore MPC's work here.
Method Studios: Taboo title sequence

Floating bodies in a vast sea of blue may not be particularly inviting, but it sets the scene of the title sequence by Method Studios for new (and rather dark) BBC drama series Taboo.

Taboo is based on a story written by Tom Hardy, who has a hand in directing it and also plays the star of the show. Created by his father Chips Hardy and Steven Knight, with big names such as Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe involved, the new series first screened on January 7 in the UK.

Establishing the criminal nuance to the series, the opening titles involve people and objects eerily bobbing upside down in a dimly lit body of water - a "creepy underwater waltz" as described by the international VFX group.
Check it out here.

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From Game of Thrones Season 7 to Blade Runner 2049, we take a look at the hard work of VFX houses around the globe including MPC, Method Studios, Territory Studios and more. Over the year we've featured breakdown reels of popular television series, successful films and title sequences, including Oscar-winning VFX for The Jungle Book.

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The Best Art Vinyl competition is back - with 50 LP artworks vying for a place as the best album art of 2017. See this year's nominees here - including Lorde, Beck and Queens of the Stone Age.

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These fresh, talented under-30 graphic designers & illustrators are killin' it

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US non-profit, The One Club for Creativity, has named 32 young creatives from 2017 to watch out for, including Jing Wei and Hattie Stewart.

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Google can now add 3D assets provider to its list of services, as it announced a new platform called Poly last night (UK time) much to the delight of VR and AR developers. Poly is a platform where anyone can browse and download free 3D objects and scenes.
Google created Poly specifically with VR and AR apps in mind, such as its own Tilt Brush and Blocks (Poly is fully integrated with both of these). However, the objects are all in OBJ format, so can be downloaded in applications from Cinema 4D and Maya to Adobe's new Dimension software (neé Project Felix).

See how it works in the video below.

Google hopes Poly will make it easier to create and develop in 3D, according to Google's blog post published last night. You can search thousands of free models to use in your VR and AR apps - everything from a robot or ice-cream cone to entire 'Alien World' or 'Winter Island'. Users can create a profile to keep track of uploads or "likes", and can sift through helpful categories such as animals & creatures, architecture, places & scenes or technology, to name a few.

There's also an option to 'remix' or manipulate many of the models you find too, so if a robot needs more arms, you can add some in.

Click like to import a remixable object into Tilt Brush or Blocks and make changes; Poly will automatically credit and link to the original creation when you publish your remix.

Poly allows direct OBJ file upload, so whether you're creating "an intense space walk in VR, or a serene garden of AR flowers, you'll find the ingredients you need", Google says.

Google suggests Poly for developers building for VR, Google's ARCoreor Apple's new ARKit.

But don't assume Poly is only for developers - anyone can use Poly to view 3D objects in a mobile or desktop browser, and once you find something you like, you can create a GIF and share it, or view it in other VR applications.

Google's Poly announcement follows Adobe also releasing 3D assets to Adobe Stock this year, as well as 3D editing software Dimension, announced at Adobe Max.
For more websites where you can download 3D assets, see our 5 best websites (paid) for 3D assets or our 7 best websites for free 3D models.

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Download thousands of free 3D models from Google's new platform

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Google can now add 3D assets provider to its list of services, as it announced a new platform called Poly last night (UK time) much to the delight of VR and AR developers. Poly is a platform where anyone can browse and download free 3D objects and scenes.

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Mixed reality (MR) expert Mark Knowles-Lee may be labelled an idealist, or self-described "very optimistic" dreamer, but he's got exciting visions for the future of MR, with progress moving much faster than you might imagine.
Mark is the chief executive of Fracture Reality, a studio solely dedicated to creating and designing MR and augmented reality (AR) applications within the Microsoft HoloLens. Mark lives and breathes the partnering of a virtual and real world, selling ideas to companies with access to lots of data that can be visualised using MR, in areas of architecture, transportation, aviation, energy systems and heritage sites.

There has always been confusion over whether mixed reality is any different to augmented reality, or if it's just a term brought into the spotlight by Microsoft to make it seem like a different technology. It's important to clear this up first, so I posed the question to Mark. He defines MR as technology that is "embedded into the real world", rather than AR, which he describes as "putting a layer of digital content over the world" (essentially saying the MR digital illusion is harder to break).

As an example of Fracture Reality's work, here is a MR visualisation showing proposed changes to London's city skyline using the HoloLens, and shot from an external camera with live HoloLens content superimposed.

Although Fracture Reality doesn't strictly design apps for entertainment, the team develops visual concepts specific to the HoloLens, making them experts in MR and capable of making predictions of its future potential.

For more on what the HoloLens can do for designers and artists specifically, take a look at our earlier feature on 3D modelling and CG rendering in MR using Maya and Autodesk animation software.

There are numerous developments happening at the moment with mixed reality and the Microsoft HoloLens specifically, with the most recent announcement being Ford's designing of cars in MR.

And with the recent democratisation of AR available on smartphones in the form of Pokemon Go, Google Tangle and the new Zenfone (which can facilitate both AR and VR) there has been huge development in immersive technology in general. But what's the next step for MR?

Lightweight hardware

Mark is a huge fan of "all the realities" - MR, AR and virtual reality (VR), and he believes all of these technologies will merge into one lightweight pair of glasses for everyone within the next few years.

"There won't be a real distinction between real, mixed or augmented reality. A small number of hardware companies will have cracked it - a very lightweight headset - probably not too far off a pair of glasses, that can do mixed reality, probably VR too, and some combination in between," he says.

Most industry experts won't dispute this idea, but will estimate different timeframes. Mark estimates five years, but he says this doesn't necessarily mean the technology will be accessible and affordable to the public by then - the Microsoft HoloLens currently sits at £2,719 for the development edition.

The current Microsoft HoloLens aesthetic

Mark isn't concerned with the price of the HoloLens though. His business clients will always be able to afford it if they choose, and he's not even sure if mass market adoption will ever happen. He says everyone might not want to walk around with a headset - even if it's as subtle as frame glasses - for vanity reasons. He says accessibility is more of a question of human economics.

Holoportation

I asked Mark what he would love to design in MR if there were no constraints whatsoever.

"I think the holy grail in the immediate future, is for us to have a hologram sitting in Paris at the table with us [in the UK], talking in real-time. We click our fingers and there's something we're all interested in floating in space, and there's no friction to that - it's just a natural experience," he says.

"I think that will be a reality sooner than people think."

And he's not speaking out on a limb - Microsoft is already making advancements in this area. If you take a look at Microsoft's progress videos of Holoportation, you can see the beginnings of this concept already happening in the back of a moving car, proving holoportation is already mobile, however still with the use of a clunky VR headset and some fuzzy edges around the human.

Microsoft researchers disclosed in July that the next generation of its Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) will support Deep Neural Network processing with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence. This means the new HPU chip, one of the signature features of the HoloLens, will be totally programmable and self-contained, but what it will actually recognise is not quite clear yet. Microsoft's current HPU - and by extension, HoloLens - does a good job of recognising surfaces and edges and projecting virtual objects on top of them. Whether Microsoft can begin to interpret what those real-world objects are remains to be seen.

This would be a huge step up from the MR experiences Fracture Reality provided me with, such as the heritage site demonstrated in the video below, but these were still impressive, if a little simplistic in concept.

Merging MR and VR for design

Currently Fracture Reality is working to blend both MR and VR to improve design processes. Mark demonstrates this concept with the architectural design of a football stadium. For example, two architects wear the Microsoft HoloLens to look down on the stadium design like 'Gods', and one person wears a VR headset to experience what it would feel like to be standing on the ground of the football pitch.

It would facilitate a much more detailed design discussion from within the office, while still getting insight into the ground experience of the football pitch in realtime. Mark says this wouldn't just change one industry, it would change everything, including entertainment-based sectors like gaming.

Here's an example of how architectural design can take place between two architects viewing the design as 'Gods'.

Although Fracture Reality doesn't strictly develop apps for the entertainment industry just yet, Mark sees it as a possibility if there was a "decent hardware base".

"Fracture is not in the gaming space now. There's not a large enough install base in the devices just yet. Entertainment is dependent on access to hardware. You can't make money making a video game if there isn't a decent hardware base."

So if low-power hardware is preventing the HoloLens from working in entertainment markets, what other design constraints does Fracture Reality deal with?

What are the constraints of MR right now?

Mark and his team of designers come from a background of creating video games, but they've learnt to work around the constraints of MR design. Differing to VR, mixed reality can only be experienced if your eyes remain in level with the headset.

In the early days of the company, Mark and his team imported HoloLens devices from the US (before they were available from Europe), deconstructed what they thought the hardware did, then in VR built an emulator.

"So we built a room, and then we got field view, we put a VR set on and started building MR apps in VR. It let us discover a lot of interaction problems early on."

He says designing apps for the HoloLens means to find "elegant ways around these constraints", making sure the user has a refined experience, especially if they're experiencing MR - or "the brave new world" - for the first time.

"The last thing you want is to put a device on your head and have some software that is clunky to use.

"The experience should be leading the way, so we obsess a little about the quality of the interaction, and guiding people through this new space very carefully," says Mark. As an example of this visual flow, here's a video of Fracture Reality's airport command and control visualisation created for SITA Lab (in collaboration with Helsinki airport).

Fracture Reality relies on user testing and simple analytics to understand what works and what doesn't. This helps the team to analyse people's behaviour to finalise app design.

Although in VR you can render pretty much anything without worrying about brightness, there are still teething problems in terms of using the HoloLens outside, such as glare, contrast and brightness. But Mark says within a few hardware cycles these problems will vanish.

"We found there are certain types of contrast levels we like to use to make complex menus nice to read, that don't give you eye strain. We want everything to be a gentle, released experience.

"Brightness, stability, size of device - all of that will vanish very quickly because people can reiterate hardware very fast now."

Should I be concerned about the future of MR?

Discussion about mixed reality, AR and VR becoming accessible and subtly integrated into our daily lives is probably Mark's, and many others, dream - but what about those who are deeply concerned for this projected hybrid future of humanity?

Mark says with every technological change there will be backlash, but that's not a bad thing.

"It's right and healthy that people call out the problems, and there are undoubtedly problems with all technology, I think we have to be aware of them," he says.

"Standards and legislation are a good thing. We're having these discussions right now about data and privacy anyway. But if I'm in the near future, able to 'see' the ubiquitous internet data-sphere, that needs some careful thought and consideration."

Mark puts the onus on governments and companies to figure out a set of ethical standards, but says this will cause difficulty with globalised sales.

Fracture Reality's data visualisation for SITA

How do I get into design for MR?

There are lots of opportunity to design for MR, VR and AR, but a good designer needs to understand people first and foremost, along with understanding spatial awareness. Technical skills would require a background in either UI design, 3D design, coding or developing.

"What people are looking for are also designers who've thought about how this technology can be used," says Mark.

"A development team can make content to any platform, but what we're trying to do is lead the way, so we have to solve problems that people possibly didn't know existed.

"If designers can come to the table with some thought through ideas would make them stand out from the crowd."

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Where VR, AR and mixed reality is going next

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Mixed reality (MR) expert Mark Knowles-Lee may be labelled an idealist, or self-described "very optimistic" dreamer, but he's got exciting visions for the future of MR, with progress moving much faster than you might imagine. Mark is the chief executive of Fracture Reality, a studio solely dedicated to creating and designing MR and augmented reality (AR) applications within the Microsoft HoloLens.

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Combining the balancing of physical objects with in-app world-building gameplay, Beasts of Balance is Jenga for a new generation - with beautifully designed low-poly creatures as both physical pieces and digital characters.

You can watch how it was created - from concept and mechanics to its look and characters, across both the tabletop game and accompanying app - in this video, or read about it below.

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How Sensible Object Designed 2017's Best Board Game

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Combining the balancing of physical objects with in-app world-building gameplay, Beasts of Balance is Jenga for a new generation - with beautifully designed low-poly creatures as both physical pieces and digital characters. You can watch how it was created - from concept and mechanics to its look and characters, across both the tabletop game and accompanying app - in this video, or read about it below.