Namoo is a 3-D animated VR short film with a runtime of about 12 minutes. This is a silent film, accompanied only by music, and in this case, images really do speak a thousand words. 

The story is about one man’s Tree of Life as he journeys from birth to death. This short film is beautifully crafted and tells so much with so little. I appreciate the simplicity because it gets us right to the meaning. 

The story begins in a void and transitions into a grassy knoll that contains a small tree and a baby who becomes a young boy, then journeys through adolescence into true love, then loss and the boring jobs where you always keep track of the time. With the passing of time, the man comes to a renewed sense of self discovery and artistic vision until his journey takes him upwards, where he escapes this planet and journeys on to the next adventure.

It is described as a short poem and that is apt. It’s a touching piece about life with its ups and downs. I appreciate the optimistic view, even with all the hardships, and the journey to the next life is one of the most beautiful aspects of the short. It is the one time when we leave the grassy knoll setting and travel through the clouds to space unknown. Watching this in VR is spectacular as you float with the main character and get to look around and above your whole entire journey of life on this planet.

I love that you get to watch this project and never have to interact with any objects. This is a third person narrative, so you watch other people and are not a character in the story (you are simply the viewer). Some of the strengths and pitfalls of VR is that it is best suited for first person narratives, where you are a character in the story. This makes telling traditional short films somewhat difficult because the medium so convincingly puts you in the space and you feel the need to interact or do something to take advantage of “being there”. 

Namoo works as a third person narrative because it is not too long and because it engages you with the characters journey. The set piece of the tree and the objects that the character places on and around the tree perfectly illustrate life through time. It is something that most adults can relate to. Leaving out any dialogue is a good technique for third person narratives in VR, but it is not something that most stories can accomplish. Also, if they attempted to make a longform story out of this, it would not work for VR. 

But what they did present is perfect and impactful. These are the kinds of projects I want to see more of in VR. 

Technical Specs:

3-D Animation – This puts you right there with the character on his journey.

360 Degrees – You are able to look all around you, however, the action is always directly in front of you.

3 Degrees of Freedom (3DoF) – This means that you can move your head and look around but that you cannot travel through space / move your position.