360° VR Paintings Explore New Dimensions with Tilt Brush

With bold, three-dimensionally dynamic strokes, Google's VR creation tool, Tilt Brush allows tech-savvy artists to create works of art without a canvas. With an HTC Vive headset, controllers and the Steam platform, Tilt Brush enables artists to paint in new dimensions.

The first entertainment brand to implement this innovative technology for design is Marvel Studios and in conjunction with the release of Doctor Strange, the company selected three artists to paint their own 360-degree alternate realities, much like the ones discovered by the title character in the film. Artists Stuart Campbell, Steve Teeple, and Danny Bittman each used only one Tilt Brush file, and the results have been showcased and shared with audiences in New York City, London, and Hong Kong — all locations that are central to the plot of Doctor Strange — before the release of Doctor Strange on regular and RealD 3D screens. Below, we get to know each of the artists shifting our artistic perceptions with new forms, thanks to Tilt Brush technology.

Stuart Campbell (better known as Sutu) is an Australian illustrator and interactive designer who creates fully immersive VR environments that not only provide visuals, but also strong narratives. He's created an interactive series for mobile platforms called Nawlz, and the responsive comic, NEOMAD. But Sutu properly cut his teeth on Tilt Brush with SUTUWERLD, which features a sequence of 21st century tableaux vivants that give participants the sense they're actually stepping into paintings. Similarly, Sutu evokes an alternate dimension with a mind-bending trip through space, much like the one the title character takes in Doctor Strange. As we float along, we don't know what we'll encounter next, and the slow movement of the otherworldly voyage gives us a sense of being discarnate. Sutu effectively represents the mystery of the nonphysical realm, where psychic phenomena and paranormal experiences swirl in a neon haze of wondrous exploration, adeptly evoking the mood of Doctor Strange.

Based in Oakland, California, digital artist Steve Teeple (aka Teeps) draws inspiration from sci-fi anime, gaming, and synesthesia — striving to find a way to unite the senses of sight and sound into one cohesive experience. Making live and programmed visuals for bands and musicians inspired Teeps to render an original work of 3D art every day for a year, and by designing for VR and 3D, Teeps has expanded his own understanding of multiple dimensions, as witnessed in his own interpretation of an alternate dimension. Here, technology and organic matter converge within an inverted, globular space where multicolored lights pierce through the uncharted inky black terrain of deep, dark space. Teeps’ vision ties directly to Doctor Strange, as the hero of the film bravely navigates the unknown.

Before becoming a digital artist, Danny Bittman was a filmmaker with experience in everything from writing and directing to cinematography, editing, and music composition. After working on dozens of films and videos for eight years, however, Bittman made a bold pledge to create content that's exclusively AR and VR. As a storyteller, it's the uncharted territory of virtual reality that Bittman finds so appealing, and the fact that it offers audiences opportunities to become fully immersed in a narrative that might not be possible in 2D. Bittman’s orderly, structured view of the mirror dimension features geometric, architectural forms that play with our perspective and, just like Doctor Strange himself, has us questioning what’s real, and what isn’t.

This content was paid for by the advertising partners and was created in collaboration with VICE creative services, independently from The Creators Project editorial staff. 

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