Penrose Studios: VR innovators to keep an eye on. The company, founded by former Oculus exec Eugene Chung, will premiere The Rose and I, its new animated VR short, at the Sundance Film Festival next year. (In total, the fest’s New Frontier program will feature 30 VR experiences.) The company has also released a mobile version of the film (titled Rosebud) for the Samsung Gear VR headset. And Rosebud breaks some new boundaries: Using the Gear VR’s touchpad, users can move around within the experience, examining it from all angles; they can also manipulate and rotate objects within the experience. Advanced headsets have been able to accomplish similar effects with the help of sensors placed in a room, but this is something of a first for mobile VR.
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