House of Secrets

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  • APEX

    APEX

    [vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”1270″ img_size=”medium” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

    Step into a surrealistic and darkly beautiful vision of a fiery urban apocalypse; one populated by skeletal ghost animals, abstract shapes, maniacal smiling giants and, of course, you.

    [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]H[/dropcaps]ouse of Secrets’ new realtime animated VR music video is called APEX.

     

    It tells the story of realities colliding, throwing the viewer in the midst of chaos. Within fire and destruction, the viewer experiences something violent yet beautiful.

    Being confronted with a power so great, all you can do is watch the world burn.

    Finding beauty in destruction, accompanied with ear-shattering electronic music. APEX means to overwhelm and inspire.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/4″][blockquote text=”Best VR Music Video
    – Wearable” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#f47607″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][blockquote text=”Best of Tribeca
    – The Verge” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#ea7704″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][blockquote text=”Awake in a dream
    – Shoot” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#ef8b09″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][blockquote text=”Experience the Apocalypse Firsthand
    – Observer” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#e5790d”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][service_table title=”Credits” title_tag=”h3″ title_background_type=”background_color_type” icon=”” icon_size=”fa-lg”]

    • Direction & Music | Arjan van Meerten
    • Technical Direction & Programming | Sven Neve
    • Production & Animation | Ruud Renting
    • Executive Production | Anthony Batt, René Pinnell
    • House of Secrets Interns | Wessel Baay, Anja Jansen, John van Engelenburg
    • Additional Modeling & Animation | Floyd Angenent, Gurkan Yilmaz
    • Made possible by | Wevr, Kaleidoscope VR

    [/service_table][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][service_table title=”Details” title_tag=”h3″ title_background_type=”background_color_type” icon=”” icon_size=”fa-lg”]

    • Year of Production: 2016
    • Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival, April 2017
    • Press contact: Daniëlle de Jonge
      danielle [at] houseofsecrets [dot] nl

    [/service_table][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner el_class=”button” width=”1/2″][button icon=”” target=”_blank” hover_type=”default” text_align=”center” text=”Download info sheet” link=”https://mega.nz/#!NfxABbqI!lrKZn24G5KIn7r8-wmecDkC8rYehJAyKrYd3ysgFTzk”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][button icon=”” target=”_blank” hover_type=”default” text_align=”center” text=”Download presskit” link=”https://mega.nz/#F!EbQywRSD!-o55ZDZ9kyjibnH-NiKeFg”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Cruise Patrol online!

    Cruise Patrol online!

    [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/125673986″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator type=”transparent” position=”center” up=”8″ down=”24″][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]A[/dropcaps]fter a nice long run on many festivals, you can now enjoy our latest animated short film Cruise Patrol from your own cozy couch at home.
    So head on over to the Cruise Patrol project page or our Vimeo channel and enjoy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • House of Secrets interactive

    House of Secrets interactive

    [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/125555690″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator type=”transparent” position=”center” up=”16″ down=”16″][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]W[/dropcaps]hen we first heard the announcement of the Oculus Rift, everyone in our studio got really excited. Finally we are able to create worlds which we could explore in Virtual Reality!
    We got ourselves an Oculus Developer Kit and started out creating Uncharted Territory. A small demo of a desolate desert on a foreign planet. Not only was this our first Oculus project, this was also one of our first Unity Projects.

    The biggest challenge was creating a real sense of presence. The sound design, sense of scale and the atmospheric effects create a believable immersive world. This project got us so excited that we chose to focus more of our time on interactive virtual worlds.

    It ended up on the Oculus Rift store where it was featured and was downloaded over 8000 times. We received a lot of great comments and hopefully we can expand on this demo in the future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator type=”normal” position=”center” up=”8″ down=”32″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]W[/dropcaps]e then started on Lava World. A demo which was used in NuFormer’s marker-less motion tracking studio. The studio consisted of a 6×6 meter green screen room with an effective tracking area of 5×5 meters, which was capable to track up to 4 people at the same time.

    We created multiple 5 by 5 meter areas in which you can move around in Virtual Space. The objective here is simply to jump from stone to stone and get across to the other side. Unity was used to build the scene.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”976″ border_color=”grey” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator type=”transparent” position=”center”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”1104″ border_color=”grey” img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Another demo for the motion tracking studio was the Infinite Hallway. In this demo you walk around in an endless corridor aboard a spaceship. We scripted it in such a way that you can walk around forever in an area of 5×5 m. The code behind it randomly generates chambers and corridors to keep you within the dimensions of the tracking studio.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator type=”normal” position=”center” up=”8″ down=”24″][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]T[/dropcaps]o this day we’ve created various VR experiences and game prototypes, while testing various engines for various hardware. At the moment we have settled on using 2 engines, Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5.
    Stay tuned for more interactive projects from House of Secrets in the future.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Surge in Virtual Reality

    Surge in Virtual Reality

    After a year of hard work in his spare time, our own Arjan van Meerten has created a stunning VR musicvideo for the Oculus Rift called Surge. After being released on the Oculus Share page, it has received a lot of positive comments and is currently featured on Oculus’s share page.

    If you own an Oculus Rift, go check it out !
    [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][button size=”small” text=”Download from OculusVR share page” icon=”fa-eye” icon_color=”#ffffff” link=”https://share.oculus.com/app/surge” target=”_blank” color=”#ffffff” hover_color=”#262626″ border_color=”#262626″ hover_border_color=”#ff5500″ background_color=”#262626″ hover_background_color=”#ff5500″ margin=”2px”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • New site online!

    New site online!

    It’s finally online, our new site, all nice and shiny in HTML5 and fully compatible with pretty much every modern device and browser (let’s face it, our Flash based site was getting a bit long in the tooth)

  • R&D : Infinite Hallway

    R&D : Infinite Hallway

    [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/125587113″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator type=”transparent” position=”center” up=”8″ down=”24″][vc_column_text][dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]I[/dropcaps]nfinite Hallway is a project we did along side Lava World and a virtual zero gravity ball pit to test the applications of VR in combination with real-time full body motion capture.
    The idea for this came forth after pondering whether or not it would be possible to give a player the illusion of walking around in an endless virtual world while being constrained to a small area in the real world (in this case NuFormer’s markerless motion capture studio which at that time had an effective capture area of 5×5 meters.)

    The project as it is now is a prototype in which a scene is procedurally  generated consisting of rooms connected with hallways.
    The trick however is that the hallways and rooms are generated in such a way that a structure arises that intertwines into itself, however, the intertwining is done in such a way that the player won’t notice the structure is actually intertwining into itself (you will for example never actually see hallways or rooms accidentally intersect or cross into each other.)

    On top of the procedural generating of rooms and hallways, the program also has a kind of template support, meaning various types of hallways could be used, the program would then choose when it would be a good time switch up templates in order to prevent boring repetition.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Behind the scenes of: CG Car commercial

    Behind the scenes of: CG Car commercial

    [dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’#ffffff’ background_color=’#262626′ border_color=’#262626′]T[/dropcaps]oday, We’d like to take you back a couple of years to this automotive project. This animation was an in-house commissioned R&D project.

    Instead of key framing the motion of the car, it was performed real-time using an Oculus Rift DK1 for maximum immersion, along with an Xbox 360 steering wheel and Unity.

    The motion data of the car was fed into Maya for use with the high resolution geometry, after which the scenes were lit and rendered using V-Ray. Enjoy: a highly detailed, shiny new car, smoothly moving and with lighting on point at every turn!