Being a photographer and also a 3D & tech artist I have always flirted with ideas of crossing the borders of the medium.
For the last 100 years art in all its forms has merged and mixed bringing new ways for the artist to express himself. Film, for example, has merged with music and CG and on the horizon there seems to be a point where the viewer will also be part of the film, merging thus with VR and video games. However, for most intents and purposes photography (as medium and not subject) has lagged a bit behind.
A few years ago I saw this video about parallax photography using After Effects. It was quite cool but I thought I could do something more than some layers.
So I got to work. I started taking some of my photos in Photoshop and splitting them into layers after studying each image and see what needs to be a separate element. Using clone tool and content aware I filled the missing background information under each layer. After that came I made geometry in 3D program that mimicked the one in the photos and mapped the layers on it.
The end result was nice, but I felt it was still not enough. So I got to work again, this time learning some programming and bringing some interactivity to the scene. It was a way of breaking the fourth wall. The result was much better than anticipated.
And, last but not least, the final step was VR. I quickly learned the basis of of a VR app and within a week of heavy work I managed to finish the project : "Window to the World".
Times are changing, virtual reality will be part of the world from now on and I think that even photography has a place in that world.
More info: aurelm.com
Working with layers
Layer mask
Merging Worlds
