Ever Thought of Walking into Arts? Gigoia Studios Did It.
Gigoia Studios belongs to the Serious Games segment. They focus on Art education through interactive media like Virtual Reality and games for museums, schools, workshops and customized virtual art galleries.
Game exhibit at Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, Denver, USA (Photo by Gigoia Studios)
The studio’s founder Carlos Monteiro is a designer with a combined background in communication, painting and art history. He has 18 years of multimedia and 3D experience, and has accumulated a great deal of experience through doing exhibitions at galleries. Camila Candal later joined the team as a specialist in financial management and creative economy for museums.
Games and Arts Workshop (Photo by Gigoia Studios)
“VR tech is quickly getting better each day”, said Gigoia Studios. “As we focus on education, we work on solutions to bring the young generation closer to the art world with a new approach.” Visitors inevitably generate real sensorial perceptions in visiting an art space and museums which are sacred places. Of course to look at art in real life is and will always be an amazing and unique experience. However, virtual reality can help extend some visual and auditive stimuli and add layers of information. The combination of layers of information, ambient sound, animation, connectivity, and accessibility is really awesome!
The usual process of creating a virtual reality art gallery tour is divided into several steps. First the team does research about art galleries space conditions, sizes, proportions and lighting. Then they model the 3D virtual architectural structures. The artworks are digitized and carefully placed inside the virtual 3D world. “We realized the paintings fitted well in huge sizes. Our clients loved to see their physical artworks inside the VR world and they are interested in this new media.”
SURREALISTa (Photo by Gigoia Studios)
You will be amazed when you walk into the three-dimensional worlds created by Gigoia Studios and out of two-dimensional paintings. To recreate a 3D environment from a 2D painting, a lot of historical research is needed. For “The Song of Love”, Gigoia Studios did an extensive 3-year study about Giorgio de Chirico’s life and work such as the metaphysical and surreal themes, the architectural point-of-view he painted, the color palette and its style. The next step was to construct all the nitty-gritties in 3D and the surroundings which are not apparent in the original artwork. They filled those spaces based on places from other Giorgio’s paintings and pieces of information available. Giorgio Studios are recreating seven more de Chirico’s paintings in 360 VR to be soon available here on VeeR! No matter you are a big art fan, or a technology geek, I am sure this is such a good news!
“IMPRESSIONIST Water Lilies” is Gigoia Studios’ first VR video and game that simulates painting brushstrokes. “Claude Monet’s world-famous Japanese bridge at Giverny gardens was a challenge and a pleasure to recreate in 3D”, said Gigoia Studios. “It belongs to a series of immersive painted worlds at a virtual museum containing various art periods. The next one will be about fauvist painter Andre Derain.”
Concentrating on the arts field, Gigoia Studios believe that VR is a fantastic way to create and communicate art. “It is information being shared at a higher level with new possibilities.” For example, many people can’t go to a museum or an art center for some reason, so VR provides an alternative way to make up for their loss. Some people have never gone to a gallery or a museum to look at art in person. Therefore, maybe their first contact with a historical artwork or contemporary art can be through VR.
Virtual Art Gallery (Photo by Gigoia Studios)
Artworks like drawings, paintings, and photography are suitable to be represented in VR. But artworks with a strong sculptural property are harder to digitalize such as a mixed-media collage artwork that uses objects, glue and very thick paint. These artworks need to be fully recreated in 3D to achieve very good results in the virtual world.
Although VR is quickly becoming available to many people, Gigoia Studios would like to integrate those who are above 60 years old with this new technology. This particular population is quite involved with the art world, has a lifetime experience and shares excellent opinions and feedbacks. But VR headsets and the tech skills are still a little intimidating for them so far.
Gigoia Studios are creating a series of immersive paintings based on all art periods (Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, etc.) and will be available as 360 VR and games. Also new ambient styles for the Virtual Art Gallery. You can see more of Gigoia Studios works at their website.
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360, Animation, artist, arts, Interview, VeeR, Virtual Reality, VR video