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Factsheet
Description
Developer/Publisher
Nick Ladd Art & Animation
Meta Quest Release Date
March 21 2024
Gesture VR is a drawing app with an emphasis on figure drawing. It offers artists a private virtual drawing studio where beginners and professionals can practice and improve their drawing skills anywhere at any time. Artists can choose to draw either on a digital 2D paper pad or in the 3D space around them. The app features high-quality photogrammetry scans of real models and allows artists to adjust the lighting, rotation and pose durations. Draw alone, or invite up to three friends.
Platforms
Meta Quest
Steam
Viveport
Website
Contact
Regular Price
USD $13.99
EUR €11.59
GBP £10.99
The Team
Nick Ladd
Project Lead, Art Director
Denis "Wataru" Patrut
Technical Artist
Nicholas Saunders
Developer
History
Gesture VR is a project by Canadian artist: Nick Ladd. He has been a proponent of VR art since 2017 when he got his first headset and discovered the magic of software like AnimVR and Quill, tools which he used to create numerous animation and illustration projects. He believes that VR will revolutionize the creative process and empower artists with its fun and user-friendly approach to 3D. To help artists get into VR, he has created dozens of free tutorial videos and taught workshops worldwide.
As an art school alumni, Nick understands the importance of life drawing classes and how valuable they are to developing one's skills as an artist. Gesture VR was conceived as a way to introduce artists to VR drawing in a fun and familiar way, while also providing a new avenue for artists to sharpen their skills from the comfort of their homes.
In September 2019, he created the first prototype by importing 3D models in Quill and drawing them in 3D. Although simple, this showed promise and spurred the development of what would become Gesture VR.
Within a few months, Nick partnered with his friend Denis Patrut (Wataru Kanzaki) and together, they began building a proper prototype from the ground up using the Unity game engine. The Oculus Start program accepted the project, which allowed the team to get hardware and support to assist with development. The prototype was completed in March 2020 and shortly after moved into full-fledged production with the addition of an experienced VR developer: (Nicholas Saunders).
In December 2022 Gesture VR launched on Meta Quest applab, ViveXR elite and SteamVR. It is currently preparing for a launch on the official Quest 3 store on March 21 2024.
Features
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The Drawings: Sketch in 2D or 3D with pressure-sensitive strokes for dynamic thickness and shading.
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Mixed Reality: Activate passthrough to blend virtual models with your physical drawing space allowing you to draw with real pen and paper.
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The Models: Gesture VR features over 200 models to draw from. Many of these are 3D scans of real, professional models representing various age groups and body types. Also available are some miscellaneous models, including a skeleton, a horse, statues, and anatomy guides.
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The Studio: Choose from three environments: the traditional art studio, the white void, and the black void. The traditional studio is modeled after actual figure drawing classrooms, complete with decorative objects that you can use to do studies.
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The Sketchbook: Every time you open Gesture VR, you create a new page in your growing sketchbook. You can add or delete pages from this sketchbook and revisit past drawings.
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Multiplayer: In the spirit of a real Figure drawing class, you can connect with up to three other artists and draw together from either the same model or different ones. This feature can be used to showcase your sketches, practice together, share tips and tricks, and most importantly, just chill.
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Sharing: Artwork created in Gesture VR can be captured as 2D snapshots using the camera or exported as a PNG, ready to be shared online.
Coverage
"Multiplayer VR Drawing App ‘Gesture VR’ Aims to Make You a Better Artist in Real Life"
-Scott Hayden, Road to VR
"VR drawing app Gesture VR launches Dec 6th"
-Julian Horsey, Geeky Gadgets
"Life modeling app ‘Gesture VR’ now available on Steam and App Lab"
-Sam Sprigg, Auganix
"Gesture VR: Useful Figure Drawing App"
-Gloria Levine, 80.lv
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