Flipside Studio is live on Steam Early Access!

- by John Luxford

Flipside Studio is now available on Steam Early Access, and we couldn't be more excited to welcome more creators into the Flipside Creator Community.

This has been a long time in the making. When we first set out to create Flipside, we had trouble even conveying what a piece of software that helped people make "shows" using VR was or did. We called it things like a "social performance platform" that often left people scratching their heads.

Now we can just show you.

Our message has become much clearer too. Flipside Studio is real-time animation software that lets you be inside of your animated shows like a TV or movie set. Press record and act your parts by being your characters.

In working with actors, we've found that we can often reduce the time it takes to produce animated content from around 1 minute produced per week, to 1 minute produced per hour, including editing and post. That's a 40x efficiency boost. That's an order of magnitude in time savings that is going to change the way people make animated shows.

And it's only just the beginning.

We have so many ideas, many from talking directly to creators like yourself, that Flipside Studio is going to also become not just the fastest but also the most powerful way to make animated shows. Our priorities are to give you the most creative agency by bringing in your character to make your shows your way, and to provide the right tools to make the best shows you can, in both 2D and 3D.

Flipside Studio captures your movements, just like a motion capture suit, so you can replay and record as many takes and new camera angles as you want. We also capture them this way so your YouTube shows today can one day be shared in 3D too. One show for all screens.

We're still on the road to 1.0 and there are lots of bugs and features that aren't perfect, or even complete yet. But Flipside is improving rapidly, and becoming something really special for us. It's a privilege to help people make their art, something we take very seriously inside of all the ridiculous fun we have making this app for you.

We hope you love it too. We hope you make lots of great things with it, and we can't wait to see those things.

Click here to download Flipside Studio on Steam.

Sincerely,
The Flipside Team

 

The Animator's Dilemma: Beating the YouTube Algorithm

- by Lesley Klassen

At the end of each year, YouTube creates their Rewind video that celebrates the videos, people, music, and memes that hit big. For the first time, YouTube featured animators in their Rewind video

In fact, animation is really growing on YouTube and you can see this at conferences like VidCon, that are seeing more programming devoted to animation. 

You may be saying to yourself, “What’s the big deal? Animations are becoming more popular on YouTube, so what.” It all comes down to the YouTube algorithm and the added challenges that animators face over live-action content creators.

If you have an hour or more to spare watch this enlightening video on the YouTube algorithm by the Fine Brothers and MatPat from Game Theorist. There are some great insights to take from this video. Primarily, creators need to post regularly and have videos with longer watch times, preferably over 10 minutes long.

Creating 10 minutes of live-action video is challenging enough, but it’s not nearly as tough as it is to create 10 minutes of animated content on a regular basis. It’s actually damn near impossible. Animation takes a long time. 

YouTube made it even harder for animators with the new changes to their monetization policy. Now you need 1000 subscribers and at least 4000 hours of viewership over the last 12 months in order to qualify for their YouTube Partner Program. This means that animators need to create 10 minutes of content or longer on a frequent basis, preferably 2 - 3 times a week, and build a subscriber base of 1000 before even turning on monetization. For many animators, why bother?


Channel Frederator represents over 3000 animators on YouTube and provide services that help YouTubers market their animations.  They felt the need to respond to the new YouTube monetization policy. "Channel Frederator Network has decided to allow members of the network, who have been kicked out of YouTube's Partnership Program, to stay and use our tools & resources to help them reach new audiences," states Director of Networks Kenneth Ash. 

Animators really do have a dilemma.  Especially those up and coming channels who haven't reached monetization. That's the thing about animators, they are so passionate about animating that they will persist for the love of the art. But persistence won’t change the YouTube algorithm, however technology can help. 

Flipside Studio is a real-time animation studio. We simulate a film set or TV studio inside virtual reality to allow an animator to use filmmaking techniques along with real-time motion capture to make animated content. Because it’s real-time, it takes about the same amount of time to make a Flipside animation as it takes to record a live-action video. We make it easier to make longer animations more frequently so animators can start competing against live-action creators for subscribers and watch time.  

There are multiple strategies animators are using to currently keep pace with the demands of the YouTube algorithm, and we know Flipside can help. 

  • Interstitial content
    Many animators release monthly, which is not optimal. Interstitial content can be created with Flipside and released in between the larger monthly releases to keep a channel freshly updated.
  • Add to an already existing animation format
    Augmenting an already produced show with new elements made in Flipside will speed up the process. For example, Liam the Leprechaun is using Flipside to introduce his gaming channels. 
  • Create new animations
    Use Flipside to make a new show that satisfies the YouTube algorithm by taking advantage of the real-time nature of Flipside. FunPack is an example of this.
  • Live stream an animated show
    Real-time animation is great for live streaming.  Each stream can be captured and re-edited too.  Take advantage of connecting with a live audience while making content well suited for YouTube. 

We believe that real-time animation technology will play a big role in the future of animation. This is especially true on competitive platforms like YouTube that have algorithms that play a role in surfacing content. Animators have it tough but new technologies like Flipside are emerging to level the playing field. Sign up for our private Alpha to give Flipside a try.  

 

Flipside Alpha Update #5

- by John Luxford

This weeks' update has a number of features we're really excited to share, so I'll jump right in!

More new characters! Meet Jess, Phillip, and Meg

Jess, Phillip, and Meg round out our set of default human characters, and they couldn't be happier to join the others in Flipside to help you make your shows.

Texture fixes on imported props

We were having issues with textures loading properly on the custom props being imported, which hampered the usefulness of our custom prop importer. We've made some big improvements that should make this much more useful.

Major improvements to our character importing process

The Flipside Creator Tools got a massive overhaul with this update that we've been working on for the past few weeks. In addition to fixing some issues with shader importing, there are three big areas of improvement:

1. The workflow has been made much simpler, with a new panel placed front and center that walks you through each step in the process.

2. You no longer have to match Flipside's exact list of blend shapes for facial expressions and lip syncing, because the Creator Tools now let you map our list to yours, including skipping missing blend shapes and mapping one of ours to multiple blend shapes on your characters. This means less time tweaking your characters in Blender before bringing them into the Creator Tools.

3. You can now hit Play in the Unity editor with your character's scene loaded and then you can hop into VR to see your character standing in front of you to check for scale and other issues.

This is just the start, and we have lots more planned to make character creation faster and more fun.

Roadmap to 1.0

I mentioned we were working on a public roadmap in the last update post, and that's ready now too! Head over to our Roadmap page to see what we're currently working on, what's already completed, and what is coming up on the road to Flipside Studio 1.0. There's also a Roadmap link in the Creator Community so it's always just a click away from the discussions.

Misc changes & fixes

  • Scaling the set in Set Builder mode now goes down to 25% size and up to 1:1 scale, making it easier to place big objects quickly.
  • The puppet was able to grab itself, causing a puppet inception bug that was neat but ultimately still a bug. That's been fixed too.
  • Improved colliders and interaction points on props. Still lots of work to be done on improving prop interactions, but they should interact with each other a bit better now (e.g., setting an object on the desk).
  • We've enabled Oculus Dash support for our Rift users.

Try it out, then head over to the Creator Community and let us know what you think!

 

Flipside Alpha Update #4

- by John Luxford

Starting with last week's update, we decided to try for weekly updates as we approach Flipside Studio 1.0.

With that in mind, each update will be smaller and mainly focused on these areas:

  • Bug fixes
  • Stability
  • Performance
  • Usability
  • Finishing incomplete features

We're also working on a public roadmap that we can share with the community to better understand where we're going, not just for 1.0 but for future versions as well.

Meet Ruth and Steve, our newest avatars!

Ruth and Steve (internal names only, since Flipside characters don't have visible names) are the newest members of our built-in character set. They're an elderly couple who just don't understand what all the fuss is about with this new technology.

Highlighting objects

One big usability change with this update are objects that you hover over will highlight if they're grabbable. We notice a lot of newcomers to VR don't reach out far enough to grab things, so this is meant to provide a visual cue to show that you're within reach. This should also help to know which object you're grabbing when several objects are close together.

Bug fixes

  • Hand interactions could sometimes get flipped on the Vive controllers (but not anymore!)
  • Fixed more bugs in the character importing process
  • Minor visual fixes

As always, the updates should happen automatically via Oculus Home or Steam. Looking forward to seeing your feedback and creations in the Flipside Creator Community!

 

Flipside Alpha Update #3

- by John Luxford

Hot on the heels of update #2, we have a fresh batch of bug fixes for our Flipside creators. You should see the latest version automatically updated on Steam or Oculus Home.

Slideshow video issues fixed

The slideshow had some issues playing video files, which should now be fixed. For users that still have issues, see our Installing Flipside help page for a link to download additional video codecs from Microsoft.

Eye movement fixes

In the process of getting our Flipside Creator Tools ready for everyone to import their own characters, we ran into some snags that left our eyes less expressive than they used to be. Eyes should once again be naturally looking at points of interest, which we call eye targets. This includes other characters as well as things like the coffee mug, which the eyes will focus on briefly as the cup is picked up.

Magic pencil default colour is now black

It used to be white. Now it's black. Watching how people are using Flipside, this was a small change that should have a big positive impact :)

Unity upgrade and misc fixes

There were several other behind-the-scenes fixes, including updating the project and Creator Tools to Unity version 2017.3.1p1. If you're using the Creator Tools to import your own characters, you'll need to ensure that you're using that version of Unity or you may run into issues like your character's textures showing up wrong. You can find the correct version of Unity on their Patch Releases page.

As always, please post any fixes, feature suggestions, or things you create over on the Creator Community.

 

Flipside Alpha Update #2

- by John Luxford

We're excited to share our second big update to the Flipside Alpha! Existing users should see the latest version automatically updated on Steam or Oculus Home.

This update features too many little improvements to name them all, but here are the highlights:

In-app tutorials

We spent a lot of time designing an in-app tutorial system to help new users get started and to make sure existing users have a clear overview of Flipside's controls and interface.

Audio synchronization fix

A performance optimization we made in the last update caused audio playback to be off by a small but noticeable amount. We're happy to say this is now completely fixed.

Blue screen

When you have lots of green on a set or in your characters, it can be hard to key them out correctly using a green screen. We added a blue screen option to the skies so you now have a choice of green or blue for keying out your backgrounds.

Slideshow supports Dropbox links

Dropbox links are now automatically converted to the direct photo or video link, so you can paste Dropbox links into the slideshow and everything will just work.

New and improved hands

We completely redesigned your hands so it's easier to press the right button and interact with objects.

Many bug fixes and improvements

Some bug fix highlights:

  • Thinner lines on the magic pencil make it easier to draw finer details
  • Numerous fixes to the custom character importing process
  • Improvements to our HTC Vive Tracker support for full body tracking
  • Improvements to the teleporter, puppet tool, and calibration process
  • Improvements to the UI, camera system, and director tools
 

The Making of the Interface for Flipside Medium Post

- by Lesley Klassen

The Making of the Interface for Flipside

Today we posted an article on Medium about the making of the interface for Flipside.  The process was a team effort.  We explored many idea and now as we ready Flipside for public release on early access for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift we wanted to share the process and give people a sneak peak at our palette interface.

 

Flipside Alpha Update #1

- by John Luxford

Our first big update to the Flipside Alpha is out! Alpha users will see the option to update on the Flipside Steam page and in the Oculus Home app (or if you have auto-updates enabled, you should automatically have the latest version).

Since this is a big update with lots of improvements, let's start with the highlights first:

Highlights

Simplified and consolidated user interface

Based on your feedback, we made several changes to the user interface:

No more wrist menu

This felt too video game-like and also had accessibility issues for single-handed use.

As a result, the following user interface elements have been added:

The teleporter has been moved to your right hand joystick/thumbpad

This falls in line with many other VR apps and games, and should make it easier for users to pick up.

The camera and puppet tools have been moved to your waist

We created a utility belt (more like floating holsters) by your waist where you can always grab these common tools.

The main menu has been moved to the bottom of the palettes

The palettes have also been unified to act like a single menu system for the whole app.


Menus are now a more app-like colour scheme

This helps distinguish the Flipside user interface from show elements like props and sets.

Wrist watch stop button while recording

To stop you can either press the usual A/X on Oculus Rift or Application Menu on HTC Vive, but you'll also see a wrist watch appear on your left wrist while recording is underway that has a stop button on it. We decided to keep that bit of skeumorphism :)

Character improvements

Import your own custom characters!

We've released the first public release of the Flipside Creator Tools, which enable you to import your own custom characters from 3D models, complete with full-body movement, hand animations, facial expressions, lip syncing, and natural eye movement. Now you can be anything you can imagine in Flipside!

Height calibration

We've added a calibration button found on the underside of the Characters palette. This measures and stores your height, shoulder height, and arm span and uses these to provide more accurate motion capture.

Foot planting improvements

The first alpha release had a bug where your character's feet would lift too easily off the floor. The calibration as well as some other character changes have made big improvements to how the feet feel and connect with the floor.

Improved neck movement

Looking up, down and all around doesn't cause your character's body to move nearly as much, which helps convey body language that much better.

HTC Vive Tracker support

Flipside now supports both 2 and 3 Vive Tracker configurations, tracking either both feet or both feet and your waist. This opens up whole new possibilities for physical acting in Flipside.

Camera improvements

Handheld camera streaming fix

The handheld camera had a bug where it wasn't projecting to the 2D output, which made it impossible to capture handheld shots. Now whenever you grab the handheld camera from your side, it will become the active camera.

Non-selfie mode fix

The handheld camera defaults to facing outward. A bug had it defaulting to selfie mode, but this makes the camera way more useful for quickly capturing the right shots for your shows.

Steadicam smoothing effect

We've improved the handheld camera's steadicam smoothing effect, helping you capture more stable footage of your shows.

Other fixes

  • Adjusted the weight of all built-in props to feel more natural.
  • The puppet's inactive arm feels more natural.

We can't wait to hear your feedback on these changes and see what you guys make in Flipside!

 

That's a wrap! Where Flipside has been in 2017

- by John Luxford

This year started with the decision to focus exclusively on Flipside as a company. That was a hard decision because up until that point we were a bootstrapped company relying on service-based income to survive. It was even harder because it meant deciding to cancel our then-imminent plans to release Lost Cities on the Oculus Rift. But far and away it was the right decision.

Sign up for early access!

Our first show

We were just starting the art production on our first Flipside show, Super Secret Science Island, in collaboration with the super creative comedy duo Bucko. Super Secret Science Island is an improv comedy set on a deserted island which really stretched our multiplayer and avatar capabilities. It also taught us reams and reams about what actors need to perform well in a virtual environment (see our 3-part acting in VR series).


Maximum acceleration

We had also just been accepted into Tribe 9 of Boost VC, a startup accelerator focused on frontier tech companies like us working in areas like VR, AR, AI, and Blockchain. Boost VC believing in our vision was all the proof we needed that we made the right move. Throughout the program, we made some amazing relationships and connections, learned a metric ton, and moved our product forward by leaps and bounds.

While at Boost VC, we were connected with San Francisco comedian Jordan Cerminara, who became the writer and actor in our second Flipside show, Earth From Up Here. This show made extensive use of our camera system, our teleprompter, and our slideshow for delivering SNL Weekend Update-style news. In the show, Jordan plays Zeblo Gonzor, an alien newscaster who makes jokes about how crazy Earthly news must seem from the outside.

Learning and growth

Having produced a complete season of two shows, we went back to the drawing board and determined what it would take to provide the same experience for creators who could work on their own, without our help troubleshooting issues on the fly. We talked to lots of creators, and really honed our vision for what Flipside 1.0 ought to be.

We also demoed Flipside at a ton of events, from All Access to Vidcon, grew into our very own office space from our previous co-working spaces, and also grew to a team of seven. Compared to the year before, having a whole team working on a single shared vision has been amazing, to say the least.

Early access, at long last

And now, just in time for the holidays, we're sending our first Flipside Early Access release out into the wild to our first group of beta testers, warts and all.

They say if you're not at least a little embarrassed about showing your app to the world you've waited too long. I wouldn't say that we're embarrassed because we're all immensely proud of the work and creativity that's gone into this release, but there's a list a mile long of things we can't wait to fix or add in.

2017 has been the craziest year yet for us, and ending it by getting Flipside into the hands of its first users feels like exactly how it should end. I expect 2018 to be even crazier, with more beta updates, a budding new creator community to grow, a wider public release and more content in the works.

We'd like to end with a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been along for this ride, and who have supported us in any way this past year. Flipside is the most ambitious and creative thing I think any of us have attempted to make, and it wouldn't be where it is today without you.

And another huge THANK YOU to our creator community who have waited patiently for us to get Flipside into your hands. The desire to help people share their stories has been at the heart of our company from before the beginning, and we can't wait to see what all of you come up with!

Sincerely,
The Flipside Team

PS. Have a safe and warm holiday, and an inspired new year!

 

We brought the xkcd web comic into VR!

- by John Luxford


By Rachael Hosein (CCO / Co-founder) & John Luxford (CTO / Co-founder)

The Winnipeg Winter Game Jam was this past weekend, which conveniently overlapped with the itch.io xkcd Game Jam, so we chose to make something for both.

The result is xkcd vr, a virtual reality experience that lets you be all the characters from the xkcd web comic in VR using the same motion capture tech found in Flipside.

Concept

The first step was to see what being a stick figure avatar felt like in VR, which it turns out is ridiculous fun! From there we wanted to let people make their own comic cells with speech bubbles and props and save them as images that matched the xkcd style.

We did have to deviate from the style in some places, like adding outlines to our speech bubbles because without outlines they were harder to grab and place. But overall, we're pretty proud of how well we were able to match the look and feel.

Features

Here are the features we managed to finish over the course of the jam:

  • Be one of 8 xkcd characters (VR as mocap)
  • Choose from 12 different props
  • Make speech bubbles with our VRKeys virtual keyboard
  • Compose wide, regular or narrow comic cells
  • Switch between light and dark themes
  • Take screenshots to make your own comics
  • Switch between comic cell and mirroring the in-VR perspective on the computer screen


This was a super fun project that we'd love to incorporate pieces of in Flipside proper. Imagine making your own animated shows as the xkcd characters in a web comic world? How cool is that?

You can download xkcd vr for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive here. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it, and feel free to reach out - we'd love to hear what you think!

 

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