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T obias Stärk is a creative technologist with experience in a broad spectrum of media creation, including extended reality, visual effects, real-time rendering, virtual production and interactive media. Having worked on acclaimed projects as a VFX artist, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and 1899, he has a long-term fascination with virtual and mixed reality, and how to interact with digital content in the physical world while keeping a close eye on developments in the field of AI. Stärk sits down with LIVE to discuss his career to date, as well as his thoughts on the future of this innovative tech.
How did you first get involved in the world of VR? I have been interested in these new technologies from the very beginning. I studied film back in 2007 and in 2009 I started my bachelor’s degree at the SAE University College in Australia, around the time Avatar was released. So there were some stereoscopic films already happening, and I was impressed by how you could show 3D content on a screen. In the phase before this, people had been experimenting with these different-coloured anaglyph glasses. I was really interested in using this for film, and my bachelor’s thesis was on pre-production for stereoscopic films. My first real VR project came when I moved to Berlin and worked on a stereoscopic 360° commercial for Samsung and BMW, filmed in Portugal with a go-kart loaded up with cameras. Back then, this was for the Samsung Gear VR, which you need to connect your phone to. It was fun learning all the ins and outs of filming and doing post-production in stereoscopic 360° with almost no resources. I also bought an Oculus Rift DK2 headset around that time, so my interest in VR took off. You’ve worked extensively with real-time rendering. Could you talk us through your experience? For many years, I was a VFX artist, working as a compositor on film, TV, adverts and all sorts of media. I was interested in real time and XR, and got into Unreal and Unity. I launched a VR pet project for an art exhibition, combining VR and analogue printmaking to create a photo darkroom that could show people how it was originally done. Nowadays, it’s hard to access a lab where you can learn this if you don’t live in a big city, and it’s good for understanding where some of the tools in Photoshop, like Dodge and Burn, come from. The process is very analogue; for example, you need to be careful about when you can turn on the lights again, and there’s a proper order of steps to follow to achieve a good result. I made a few conscious decisions to make it more immersive, which
Interview Oliver Webb
One of Stärk’s first virtual reality projects: a darkroom render for an art exhibition
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