Psyop Drives VR & AR by Hiring Matthew Seymour

Psyop LA announced today that it is expanding its AR and VR offering by employing Matthew Seymour as executive producer/business development director, VR/AR.

Boasting an amazingly-technical CV, that includes over two decades-worth of experience working across studio operations, product management and content production for gaming and VR studios, Psyop hopes that Seymour's experience will help to elevate the company's production of original and brand-related VR/AR content and experiences. Formerly Vice President of product development at game console developer, Heavy Iron Studios, Seymour has gained experience working on various VR projects, including Hollywood offshoot, The Martian Experience among others. 

shots caught up with Seymour to find out what he expects for VR and AR in 2017 and what he's learnt through exposure to these mediums already.

VR and AR seems to have finally entered the public domain, with last year’s release of Playstation’s headsets and the explosion of AR through Pokémon Go. At what point in your career did you realise VR/AR was a medium that would be realistically adopted by the creative industries? 

I am a heavyweight sci-fi fan, so I have been waiting for the advent of real, solid VR and AR technology for some time. We’ve had a few missteps back in the late 80’s but it’s here now and its very clear from here on out, that VR and AR is here to stay. These tools and new ways of communication are going to change a lot of industries forever, from shopping to entertainment to advertising, and of course, corporate training and education as well. I’d say that when Facebook acquired Oculus Rift in 2014 for the somewhat staggering sum of $2 billion, that sent a signal to all creative industries that they had better pay attention.

What do you expect to see in 2017 in terms of VR/AR? 

A lot of people are claiming that 2017 will be the year that VR and AR go mainstream, and I think that they’re right. You could argue that AR went mainstream last year with the phenomenal success of Pokemon Go, but if you look around there weren’t really that many other big hits. I think you’ll see a lot of developers and marketers come out with amazing AR applications over the next few years. What’s going to make AR really mass-market though is when it augments YOU. We all want to be superheroes, and in the future AR will give us all some cool superpowers – think real-time language translation using a heads-up display and sound, or coming across as a professor of botany and geology by simply focusing on a plant or rock. Using AR in Larping gatherings will compete against theme parks in the near future, and AR-driven history lessons while visiting famous landmarks will turn you into a time traveler. 

On the VR side, as better and cheaper headsets become available - and PlayStation VR is a great example, but we already know of several others on the horizon - you’ll start to see more of them throughout US households. There are already a lot of developers that have turned their attention to VR, and we’re about to see a slew of new experiences come out. One needs to understand that VR is opting out of reality, and a lot of people are not yet comfortable when experiencing this type of closed-off and separated reality. Fortunately, there are a lot of clever people spending a lot of time and money to make VR as engaging and immersive as possible. So when the majority of VR experiences are not anchored in only games, people will become more accustomed and acclimated to it all when they are able to virtually “travel” to exotic locations, watch TV or sports, preview venues like hotels and restaurants, and shop within virtual malls.

What have been the biggest challenges that you have personally weathered through the expansion of VR and AR and how did you overcome them?

Developers and content creators love new “toys” and tools to create stories, games and means to greater immersion and fantasy. This new wave of AR and VR came on so quickly, many of us were unprepared, and as we all know, there is a lot of trial-and-error going on at the moment. It’s a good thing these creators are a pretty sharp group and are used to adapting to new tech. The biggest challenge is to quickly learn from their mistakes, and then have the chutzpah to make bolder and better leaps towards creating more meaningful connections and more immersive experiences on the next go-around. Audiences have fortunately been wowed by our initial VR and AR experiences, but that is changing rapidly, and they are already wanting more and more. Point in fact, 360 degree video-only experiences are waning in interest now. This idea that you can see all around you was cool at first but it’s from a single vantage point. This inherently limits immersion and a truer sense of connection due to the lack of zoom, close-ups and clever narrative direction.

As to AR, the tech needs to improve a bit more before it really takes over the world. We are hoping the hardware folks at places like Microsoft, CastVR and Magic Leap hit the actionable future they envision sooner than later. Nevertheless, the trick and challenge here is to not wait around but push any available AR tech and ideas as hard as we can right now.            

You’ve worked on the development of some pretty prolific VR experiences, like The Martian. What’s been your favourite VR experience to date and why; what did you learn from it? 

As to The Martian VR Experience, the team I worked with on this title was responsible for the base software tech; VRC and MPC did the majority of the heavy lifting. It certainly helped that Andy Weir, Ridley Scott, Matt Damon and company created a world that was so interesting and well-suited to a VR experience. It is a fantasy most of us want to try. It’s always difficult to pick one favorite anything but as a developer and content creator, I can find gems in most AR and VR experiences. Again, I am going back to quickly learning from what works and what doesn’t from others and our own endeavors. Some favorite moments include: how close-in you got to the characters in Batman: Arkham VR, the humor and freedom in Job Simulator, the navigation shortcuts and sound design in Here They Lie, and the terrific choice of VR views one has when flying fighter planes in War Thunder. Lastly, I am very happy with the sense of intimacy the user feels in Psyop’s Kismet title.