Apple and Google are hiring special effects specialists to work in augmented reality and virtual reality, and they're finding them in Hollywood.
Projects like those that Apple has launched on Augmented Reality are more attractive, with better wages and better paid specialists than those offered by Hollywood studios.
Although augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality projects (which combine both) are waiting for devices like "Apple glasses" before they can become an everyday thing, they are already showing their potential to induce professionals to change careers. .
Special effects and technical artists are leaving Hollywood and the film industry to join tech companies like Apple and Google.
"The difference is, in technology, you are generally treated more like a human being," one artist who prefers to remain anonymous told The Wall Street Journal. Described as a visual effects veteran who left Hollywood, he is now dedicated to developing platforms for AR (Augmented Reality - Augmented Reality - AR).
The Wall Street Journal quotes Hao Li, former director of the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, whose work was acquired by Apple. Li's facial recognition technology was used as the foundation for the Animoji, and while he didn't join Apple, many of his peers did.
Likewise, around 2016, Google hired another University of Southern California (USC) executive, Paul Debevec, who attracted three members of his team to Google. "Many of the most highly skilled professionals I've ever met in the visual effects industry have ended up in the technology industry," he told The Wall Street Journal.
Although Debevec is now a professor at the university, during his time at Google, he worked specifically on digital head and face scanning systems. Called the Light Stage, it is a spherical fixture with 14.000 lights and more than 40 cameras.
This is the system used to create digital scans of actors, such as Will Smith in "Gemini Man" or Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".
LiDAR, included in the iPhone 12 Pro, helps create AR environments that mix real objects with virtual objects.
More recently, Google created a larger Light Stage that could scan an entire human body. Debevec remains associated with the project, working to create digital humans for AR and VR.
In addition to the new challenges in AR, tech companies are investing far more than Hollywood in attracting talent. An Accenture PLC estimate, according to the Wall Street Journal, is that AR / VR projects will cost $ 21 billion in 2020, reaching $ 121 billion in 2023.
All the rumors suggest that Apple is in the last stages of development of its virtual reality glasses, with a launch that could be this year and its commercialization in 2022.
If Apple's latest launches are any indication, it could be, in addition to the hardware device, a subscription service where new experiences are added every month for the whole family, be it virtual tours, cool spaces, or integration. with games (possibly a variant of Apple Arcade with games played in virtual reality environments).
