Quill is a painting and animation software for

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

. It runs on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

with

Oculus Rift Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets, virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey that is widely credited with reviving the virtual reality indust ...

headsets. It is used to create 3D paintings and animated cartoons. Quill was released on November 29, 2016 on the Oculus Store. Theater Elsewhere(formerly Quill Theater), an application for viewing creations made in Quill, was later made available following the release of the

Oculus Quest The first-generation Oculus Quest is a discontinued virtual reality headset developed by Oculus (now Reality Labs), a brand of Meta Platforms, and released on May 21, 2019. Similar to its predecessor, Oculus Go, it is a standalone device, tha ...

. In September 2021, Facebook, now known as

Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads ...

, and the owner of Oculus, sold Quill to its original creator, who continues to develop and support the app.

Development

Quill was originally developed by

Oculus Story Studio Oculus Story Studio was an original animated virtual reality film studio that was a division of Oculus VR. The studio was started by Oculus VR to pioneer animated virtual reality filmmaking and educate, inspire, and foster community for filmmaker ...

as an internal tool for the creative needs of the studio's project ''Dear Angelica'' directed by Saschka Unseld along with its art-director Wesley Allsbrook.

Controls

The software works on Oculus Rift utilizing its

6DoF Six degrees of freedom (6DOF), or sometimes six degrees of movement, refers to the six Degrees of freedom (mechanics), mechanical degrees of freedom of movement of a rigid body in three-dimensional space. Specifically, the body is free to cha ...

motion controllers. Users can paint in 3D space using their hands naturally, and animate those paintings with

keyframes In animation and filmmaking, a key frame (or keyframe) is a drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of a smooth transition. These are called ''frames'' because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of film ...

. They can also capture videos and photos of their creations.

Reception

''Dear Angelica'', a VR story fully painted in Quill, was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

in 2017.

References

Graphics software 2016 software Oculus Rift {{graphics-software-stub