From Virtual To Reality VR movie

In celebration of its 250th birthday, London's Royal Academy of Arts decided to explore VR technology as part of its From Life exhibition.

From Life presents the past, present and future practices of life drawing at the Royal Academy.

Portrait artist Jonathan Yeo was one of the 6 artists selected by the RA to create a piece of Art for the exhibition. His masterpiece Homage to Paolozzi is the first self-portrait created in virtual reality then realised in bronze as a sculpture. This hybrid approach of painting and sculpture done in Tilt Brush was made possible thanks to the direct collaboration between Yeo and Google Arts and Culture.

Google Arts and Culture decided to create a 360 immersive movie to explain Jonathan's vision and the process in more details. The company commissioned Factory 42 to produce it with Dan Smith as the director.

Alter Equals took charge of the photorealistic 3D reconstruction of the iconic studio of Jonathan Yeo in Chelsea, which was previously also famous sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi's studio.

It was a pleasure for our team to recreate such an interesting an nice looking place. Witnessing Jonathan visiting his own studio in virtual reality for the first time was a special moment for us, both exciting and a bit intimidating. His very pleased reaction and feedback provided Alter Equals' team great motivation to deliver the best possible final version of the studio for the movie. The team, for instance, took great care at reproducing the many light sources in the studio because Jonathan insisted on the importance of them during his painting sessions.

The final 360 video is published on Google Arts and Culture Youtube channel and is also embedded in this webpage. We are very proud to be part of this project and would not dare to explain Jonathan Yeo's process ourself. We encourage you to look at the video with Jonathan Yeo himself explaining the project and to enjoy his masterpiece exhibited in virtual reality directly in his studio.