Dilruba's taking a novel route for her mentorship session highlights, she's making comics to depict them!

What better way to introduce the finalists to the Tribe than through a special edition of Kanpai! Our very own Shuzo sat down with Stephan, Alexandra and Christoph to chat about all things Icebreakers ;)

Watch to see highlights, revelations and even a live VR demo!

We're at the beginning of an exciting adventure, so to kick things off, we asked the teams for their gut-reactions to the following questions. Dilruba's candid responses shed awesome light on what she's hoping for out of this mentorship.

1. What are you hoping to get from this mentorship?

Growing some creative balls and becoming a more confident storyteller. I see this as my opportunity to nurture this skill, and connect with other creatives who are keen to exchange the joys of making marks and using tools. People are connecting to what I have to say so I want to really understand the emotions, roots and instincts at play here. I want the mentorships to help me see what works, and guide me in terms of moving with intention and clarity in leading this project.

2. What do you think you'll struggle with the most?

Project management, this is the first time I’m leading like this and I’m bringing folks that haven’t collaborated on a project together before. I would like to work on managing my time so I can encourage them to pour their efforts into this in a way that is fun, productive and efficient. I think play will be the strength of this project and it has been thus far, so building up some management muscles will hopefully only make our playtime as a team more valuable.

3. What do you think you'll enjoy the most?

Opening this project up to other creatives. So far gathering tools was a very solo experience for me, and something I would be sharing with only those close to me. Now there is an incredible opportunity to learn and grow with others by spreading the word and seeking the strings of a community. Seeing what others will create using new tools they made inspired by their findings will be the ultimate feel-good moment. Already one of my mentors has been playing with the brushes and it is so badass to see.

4. What do you think will be the most surprising/unexpected part of this experience?

All of it if I'm honest. It’s already been awe-inspiring how much exchange and learning is possible over these Google Hangouts in just 2 weeks. Everybody's distant but keen to grow and support each other. I didn’t imagine THU was this loving, and solid a community holding up creatives and empowering them with so much dedication.

What better way to introduce the finalists to the Tribe than through a special edition of Kanpai! Our very own Shuzo sat down with Dilruba to chat about all things Togather ;)

Watch to see highlights, hear more about the vision, and get inspired!

The journey began back in July 2020, with Sony and THU's invitation to connect, collaborate and contribute. The result is the incredible adventure we're currently embarked on. But it all began here: with a pitch and a dream.

Meet Dilruba Tayfun and follow her as she welcomes us into the world of Togather.

It’s like the tools are the storyteller and I’m just it’s instrument!

Description

Let's take a step back and watch nature unfold. Look below & around before infinity & beyond. The idea is to create a digital platform that enables us to share discoveries as gatherers, in search of unique mark-making tools. An app is to act as our portable journal, the web-based platform to discover/exchange our digitized brushes and related stories/processes. Twigs, fallen flowers, anything that can make an organic imprint can be used. Tips on how to render these physical marks in digital programmes are shared between creators as well as a vast library of resulting digital brushes. This dual-platform would breathe new life to dry and dead plants releasing their artistic nectars for creators to pollinate into their world-building, thus enabling these tools to thrive in the digital world of entertainment and indefinitely, in our imaginations. Our context as artists no matter how digital our pursuits will always be bound to the physical universe and we can tap into this all-reaching and instinctual network of natural tools everywhere, within even a 5 minute walk to the local grocery store. An invigorating world of visual languages can unfold - and we need nothing more than the patience to kindle it while it happens, the willingness to surrender to, come togather, and share our tools.

Statement

Since the dawn of time we've demonstrated immense gifts of expression using found tools. Throw it back to a hunter-gatherers’ drawings. If we tapped into the boundless, playful essence of found natural tools (e.g. twigs) and translated them into digital brushes, Oh the places we could go! Our living environments have their own stories to tell, and there are creators out there desperate to extract them. This is exactly where we come in as collaborators, and there's already an entire community of us! Fusing organic talents with our creations in the digital realm. Wouldn’t we be overcoming creative distances if we bridged this dichotomy of digital and physical creativity by archiving, rendering digitally and transplanting our hand-picked tools; ultimately sharing the fruit and joys of our primal collaboration? Translating the visual manifestations of these into digital brushes, and watching our natural world thrive in, as well as add dimension to the equally vast landscapes of digital entertainment.

Tools Description

Natural mark-making tools of all shapes and sizes, from absolutely everywhere, Adobe Creative Suite & Wacom Mobile StudioPro.

The journey began back in July 2020, with Sony and THU's invitation to connect, collaborate and contribute. The result is the incredible adventure we're currently embarked on. But it all began here: with a pitch and a dream.

Meet Lydia Mugure and Tabitha Karaba and follow them as they welcome us into the world of Kawia's Adventure.

Statement

When crossing borders, this project will take us on a time-traveling safari across the African savannah to discover an ancient magical land lost to time, witness the lives and the history of a people lost to the sands of the Sahara sing with them, play with them, learn from them and listen to their stories echoing in the wind. The concept is basically a movie you play through using animation to capture the magic lost to time and video game mechanics to let people live out the stories themselves. You get to play as a Kawia a girl on a journey home and through this journey, we get to experience how life was in the old days; filled with music, dance, art, and cute elephants! In what is basically a cultural showcase of the East African community that literally takes you back in time to hang out with our ancestors and dance with them! why dance though? It's a well-known fact that Africans love to dance, we dance for everything! Someone just had a kid? time to dance! It's raining? time to dance! Hmmm...It hasn't rained for a while, we should summon an amazing storm...time to dance! oh no, someone died...time to dance, but like...in a sad way. So we choreographed the dances from each east African region from Rwanda to Ethiopia to use as a weaponized form of magic and expression while show casing our history! Now doesn't that sound like a fun time!

Tools Description

Blender, A free 3d and 2d animation tool used to develop models and animate them Unity incredibly powerful game development software

The journey began back in July 2020, with Sony and THU's invitation to connect, collaborate and contribute. The result is the incredible adventure we're currently embarked on. But it all began here: with a pitch and a dream.

Meet Christoph Graf, Alexandra van Caloen and Stephan Rumping as they welcomes us into the world of Icebreakers.

Statement

Icebreakers takes the fun adventurous comics, set on weird and distant worlds, of one’s childhood and blends it with Virtual Reality. Our project truly bridges the creative distance by taking comics, a medium that hasn’t changed over the last few decades and VR, a medium not fully explored yet. Like the crew of Icebreakers themself, we want to explore. We want to take the core elements of comic book storytelling and styling, and make it into a truly new form of entertainment with the dynamic 3D perspective of VR, supplementing the experience with ambience, soundtrack and voice acting. The production of the pitch itself has been a fulfilling challenge in its own right, being a wonderful exploration for the artists in storyboarding near-360 degree panels, yet also having a sufficient technical challenge for programmers as well in emulating the art within VR. 

Tools Description

Unity, Oculus Quest, Photoshop, Blender, Instant Terrain, Procreate, Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter. The project's unique style necessitates a custom renderer and stands out among 3d projects in general and VR especially.