Facebook has delivered the virtual reality illustration and animation tool Quill to Iñigo Quilez, the developer who created the application. Quilez has formed a company called Smoothstep and has changed the tool like Quill by Smoothstep, which is now in the Oculus store.
The original Quill app will be removed from Oculus Store on October 18th. It will still work for those who have downloaded it, but Oculus will no longer support the app. Users will have to manually upload creators to Oculus Media Studio instead of Quill.
Facebook says Quill content shared on Oculus Media Studio or Oculus TV will still be available on Oculus for now. The Quill Theater app will remain in the store; will change the name of VR animation player next month. The Oculus team also noted that Smoothstep has opened both the Quill Theater Immersive Content Distribution (IMM) file format and an IMM player.
Quilez built the first version of Quill during a 2015 hackathon to help produce the Oculus Story Studio VR short film, Dear Angelica. The film was the first to be completely hand-painted within a virtual reality environment. Other filmmakers have adopted Quill, with works created with the tool that are screened at major film festivals such as Sundance and Venice.
Some major companies are expected to enter or delve into the virtual and mixed reality space in the coming years, such as Apple and Sony. As such, developers of VR creation tools like Quill have a great opportunity for growth in the medium term.
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