The last time we saw VR art created in Google's 3D painting app Tilt Brush was in London's Royal Academy of Art at a private view - fancy. Typically for Google, though, it has just launched an open-to-everyone online gallery for Tilt Brush creations - Sketches. You can peruse the works, like them and 'remix' them yourself in the VR app which is available for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. VR artists are using the Vive or Touch controllers to act as their virtual paintbrushes or sketching pencils.
Sketches arrives alongside an app update which brings features like changing the position, colour and intensity of lighting and environment effects. It's also an attempt to make VR art a more social experience. You can already use multiplayer Tilt Brush though this discovery site is missing some obvious functions like being able to follow other users and comment or chat about each other's work.
We've picked out a few of the most intriguing and impressive artworks amongst the 130+ uploaded to Sketches in its first week as well as some early themes in the types of creations we're seeing. The app has been available for a while now but as more people buy headsets and bring their projects out of secrecy, all that could change quickly.
You can get a taster of each below but head to the Sketches gallery itself to zoom in and out, rotate and pan around the 3D artworks.
The VRealists
One of the delights of apps like Tilt Brush - and game worlds in titles like Ubisoft's Eagle Flight - is the ability to painstakingly recreate real cities, environments and objects. It's a process reserved for the patient, though, as Daniel Bittman notes on his Adidas Trainer piece: "Spent many hours constructing this as precisely as I could... The result? I decided not to try to recreate reality so precisely again."
Adidas Trainer by Danny Bittman
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
George Washington Bridge by Rick Sarlo
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
Japanese Shrine - Jinja by Aimi Sekiguchi
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
NASA Orion by Karl Channell
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
The Virtual Cartoonists
VR art is still so new, with only a handful of exhibitions under its belt, that it also acts to amplify each new work above regular illustrations and cartoons. That means topical and political work can get a nice internet boost. And deservedly so.
Make America great again? by Rein Bijlsma
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
Hillary vs Donald by 3Dominus
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
The 3D Art Pioneers
What's really interesting is to see, especially experiencing in VR, are pieces that wouldn't work in any other form even when pop culture references abound ( Rick and Morty FTW). Whether that's a 3D mountain scene that you can zoom into the middle of, pulsing dots that you can walk around, a mix of 3D and 2D illustration, or a monochrome three-dimensional portrait.
I'm Mr. Meeseeks, look at me! by Brian Rose
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
Mountain Range by Elizabeth Edwards
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
3D Portrait - Step 9 - Final! by Elizabeth Edwards
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
dots by Andrea Zvinakis
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
The Blank Canvassers
Most of the Tilt Brush artworks in the new Sketches gallery are remixable - you just have to 'like' it first. Remixable means you can fire up the app when you're inside a Vive or Rift and use the works as a starting point for your own VR doodling. Quick off the mark supplying 3D environments to encourage you to start 3D drawing, if only in 2D to start, are the couple of examples below.
Clean Museum - DO NOT REMIX by 3Dominus
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
Graffiti Wall - Paint on Me! by Ashley Pinnick
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
The Manic Glowy Nerd Painters
Whether it's iPad apps or charcoal, every medium inform artists' choices in some way. For Tilt Brush, it's the 'light' or 'fire' painting - it was the first thing we wanted to try in our first demo of the app a few years ago and it's still a nice crowd pleaser for newbies. Once you get past the wave-your-arms-and-twirl stage (which is really fun), the tool can also be used to create some neat, nerdy 3D images, some referencing games and movies.
Soul of Cinder - Dark Souls by Vladimir Illic
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
Koi Fish by Midhun Kumar
View on Tilt Brush Sketches here.
What's the coolest piece of VR art you've seen/interacted with? Let us know in the comments.
What do you think?