Ultramagic

Ultramagic

by | Jan 18, 2024

Ultramagic

Balloon flight simulator

Project Info

Client:
Fondation de l’Espace Ballon

Year:
2023

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Summary

Have you ever looked up at a hot air balloon and wondered what it would be like to be a passenger in one of them? Or even better, to pilot a balloon by yourself over the beautiful mountainous Swiss landscape? You will no longer have to wonder.

Hop into the one-person basket, put on your VR headset, and take control of your very own balloon, taking off from Château-d’Œx and traversing the beautiful Pays-d’Enhaut. Based on a highly detailed 3D scan of the region, you’re transported into a realistic virtual representation of the area. Using nothing but your burners and parachute valve, you’re able to fly an accurately simulated hot air balloon across the landscape, while marveling at the sights and sounds the region has to offer. Don’t get too distracted though, you’ll still need to land safely.

The accuracy of the simulation allows for experienced pilots to hone their skills, while novice users can take a risk-free flight, and attempt to make a safe landing at the end of their experience. A variety of gamified flight modes challenges even the most experienced pilots to be precise not just in terms of navigation, but also their use of fuel. Follow the leader, land on a sequence of targets; the better you perform, the higher your score will be. And when joining the experience as a group, you’re able to not only see your fellow pilots, but you can also communicate with them through the radio in your basket.

The experience opens in January 2024 at Espace Ballon in Château-d’Œx.

Credits

Project direction
Frédéric Daenzer, Christophe Moinat – Fondation de l’Espace Ballon

VR platform, experience backend, user checkin, 3D content creation, gameplay and R&D
Artanim

3D landscape acquisition
Uzufly

Balloon flight simulation
Haute Ecole d’Ingénierie et d’Architecture de Fribourg (HEIA-FR)

Ticketing and cloud API
Cashflow and Webforge

Sound environment
Alain Renaud

Haptic devices
Raphaël Anderegg

Escalade: The Darkest Night

Escalade: The Darkest Night

by | Nov 12, 2023

Escalade

The Darkest Night

Project Info

Producer:
Artanim

Year:
2023

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Summary

December 1602 – the Duke of Savoy is about to send his troops into Geneva. Right as the ferocious Brunaulieu is the first to reach the top of the city walls, the shot of an arquebus echoes in the night, sounding the alarm. Thus begins a series of acts of bravery which will shift the tide of the battle – a humble cooking pot, thrown from an open window. A fiercely kept door, or a portcullis crashing into the ground with a thunderous roar… Those are but a few of the events you will witness during your turbulent journey through the Geneva of 1602!

With this VR installation, users will relive the events of this fateful night of December 1602 during which, as the citizens were sound asleep, the city was attacked by the troops of the Duke of Savoy. They will find their way through the dark streets and treacherous rooftops and, standing side by side with legendary figures of the Escalade, face the enemy!

This extraordinary experience is an invitation to travel back in time and was created in partnership with the Compagnie de 1602 who provided their expertise in historical reconstruction.

Permanently exhibited at the Dreamscape center in Geneva, level-1 of Confederation Center. Check https://dreamscapegeneva.com/ for more information and to get tickets.

More information on the VR technology here.

Credits

Production, project direction, scenario, 3D content creation, gameplay and VR platform
Artanim

Music and sound design
Alain Renaud

Scientific committee
Jean-Marc Barberis, Claude Bonard, Matthieu de la Corbière, Michelle Joguin Regelin, Daniel Villa, Museum of Art and History of Geneva

Motion capture actors
Jean-Luc Borgeat, Paolo Dos Santos, Medhi Duman, Sophie Gabus, Karim Kadjar, Olivier Lafrance, Delphine Lanza, Michaël Martin, David Obrist, Dorian Rossel

Stunts performers
Maxence Arendrup, Thibault Brunschwig, Olivier Lafrance, Thomas Laffet, Matteo Mancuso, Michaël Moser, Cyprien Raemy, Kilian Ruchti

French voice actors
Maxence Arendrup, Ségolène Bouët, Thibault Brunschwig, Célestin Casetta, Alessandro Capozzi, Fabien Coquil, Stefano Grasso, Antoine Heer, Mickaël Krebs, Jacques Perrot, Kilian Ruchti

English voice actors
Tony Behnam, Alexander Brown, Alessandro Capozzi, Medhi Duman, David French, Stefano Grasso, Peter Gould, Weston Heflin, Karim Kadjar, Sami Kali, Frances Favre, Jonathan Machen, James Miners, Gemma Parkes, Benjamin Otway, Max Otway, Mina Rauschenbach, Alain Renaud, Bill Sage, Shishir Sanghvi, Olivier Sidore

Decors and haptic devices
Raphaël Anderegg, Marc Wettstein

Smells creation
Leandre Lorson, Till Noack, Monica Sanchez Pozzo

Main partners
Compagnie de 1602

Other partners
DSM-Firmenich, Museum of Art and History of Geneva

Main supports
Artanim, Ernst Göhner Foundation

Other supports
CCIG, Synergix

Limites VR

Limites VR

by | Sep 16, 2023

Limites VR

Immersive story

Project Info

Producer:
Tell me the Story

Year:
2023

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Summary

In an immersive exhibition where fragments of forest are displayed, two ecosystems interact, and sometimes in opposition: on one side the nature, with its fauna and flora, and on the other side a museum space with its spectators, its protocols, its rules and its staff. In this context, the user is asked to navigate between the two ecosystems and to play a dual role, moving in turn from the position of viewer or of being watched. This invitation to live the museum experience by transgressing the traditionally imposed limits leads the user to discover a series of poetic, ironic, disturbing and spectacular narrative paintings, and to question at the end of their journey their relationship with nature and its showcase. By being thus projected inside the museum system, the user will be able to truly measure the scope of the shock produced by the meeting of the two ecosystems.

For this immersive experience, we were in charge of the motion capture and retargeting of animations on the 3D characters, as well as of the VR application development.

Credits

Written and directed by
Simon de Diesbach

Producer
Hélène Faget

Writing collaboration
Olivier Vonlanthen, Marine Hugonnier

Production and direction assistant
Yael Golan

Illustrations
Caroline Murphy

Actors
Corinne Soland, Clovis Kasanda

Illustrations
Caroline Murphy

Modeling and animation
Simon Ott, Tristan Siodlak

Motion capture and characters animation
Artanim

Interaction consultant
Benjamin Botros

Sound design
Tobias Herzog

VR application
Artanim

Support by
Federal Office of Culture, Cinéforum, Loterie Romande, Virtual Switzerland

Basement Drawing

Basement Drawing

by | Nov 27, 2022

Basement Drawing

Art Basel 2022

Project Info

Client:
MacInnes Studio

Year:
2022

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Summary

Developed with VIVE Arts, the Serpentine and MacInnes Studio, Oehlen’s work Basement Drawing transports the viewer to the center of his artistic practice to create an interaction between the viewer and the artist. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director at Serpentine as part of an ongoing partnership with VIVE Arts, the work is accompanied by music composed by Oehlen and alongside his highly realistic avatar. Audiences can observe Oehlen’s creative process through a Focus 3 headset that showcases the latest VR technologies.

For this project, we performed the body motion capture of Albert Oehlen. The VR experience was showcased at Art Basel 2022 from June 16th to June 19th, 2022.

More info here.

Credits

VR production
MacInnes Studios, Vive Arts

Actor, music
Albert Oehlen

Motion capture
Artanim

3D scanning
Human Engine

MoRehab XR

MoRehab XR

by | Aug 3, 2021

MoRehab XR

Motion tracked rehabilitation through extended realities

Project Info

Start date:
August 2020

End date:
December 2024

Funding:
–

Coordinator:
Artanim

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Summary

After a stabilization surgery or a traumatic accident, physical rehabilitation is often required to restore the joint’s normal function. This process requires very regular and repetitive training sessions. The regularity and involvement of the patient being critical for success of the procedure, maintaining them interested and motivated while repeating similar exercises over and over is one of the main challenges of the physical therapist. During these sessions, it is also difficult to objectively monitor small progresses or the lack of the latter. On the other end of the spectrum, some video games have proved to be very effective in motivating people to perform pretty repetitive tasks on their controllers in order to travel through a story or a challenge.

The goal of this project is to use the captivating capabilities of video games to entertain and motivate the patients through their rehabilitation, by designing a set of “exercise games” (called exergames) that will be won by performing the correct routines required for a proper physical rehabilitation. Through the use of modern motion tracking technology, the exergames will also be able to track the evolution of the physical recovery of the patients on a session per session basis, to adapt the challenges that the patients will face based on their needs and actual capacities, and if need be to alert the medical personnel early if some problems persist, or if no progresses are observed.

In this project, Artanim is in charge of building a platform suitable for these exergames, as well as designing and developing these exergames, and implementing the tools for a standard assessment of the patient’s performance. On the other hand, the medical usability and validity of the setup and exergames will be tested and assessed by the clinical team of La Tour Hospital over a large set of voluntary patients. Both teams will also work together to develop metrics to evaluate and adapt the patient’s performance during the sessions, thanks to the extended capabilities of the motion tracking system with respect to the data available in conventional physical therapy.

Partners

Artanim
Conception of the exergames and of a platform adapted to perform them, development of a set of medical scores adapted to the extended capabilities of the motion tracking system

La Tour Hospital – Division of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery
Clinical tests, co-design of new physical evaluation metrics adapted to the motion tracking capabilities

Related Publications

Mancuso M, Charbonnier C. Technical evaluation of the fidelity of the HTC Vive for upper limb tracking, 42nd International Conference on Biomechanics in Sports, Salzburg, Austria, July 2024.
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