Just before Christmas 2010 we were contacted by Google Creative Lab and asked if we would like to participate in a project that included a truly amazing musical collaboration and interactive storytelling through WebGL technology. A project that had so many aspects of excitement.
In the simplest of terms explaining it – “3 Dreams of Black” is an interactive music video developed in WebGL and optimized for Chrome to showcase its possibilities; written and directed by Chris Milk; based on the song “Black” from Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s ROME album; an album that somewhat is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist.
The music serves to express a story that takes place in a post-apocalyptic landscape where the main characters are played through the voices of Norah Jones and Jack White. More specifically, “3 Dreams of Black” is Norah’s lucid dream where users can partake and gain control of her characters experience.
Together with Chris Milk and Google Creative Lab we took on the role to lead the development across disciplines and serve as one unifying hub to tell the story of ”3 Dreams of Black”.
Most of what you see during the experience is not video, but is real-time rendering of visual models through WebGL, a technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser. Combined with different live action and 2D-cell render animation assets it gives users a vivid visual and compelling musical experience where a story is told with new and ground breaking technology.
Launch Project and learn more about the technology behind it.
Chris Milk, Aaron Koblin, Mr Doob, Branislav Ulicny, Google Creative Lab, Google Data Arts Team, Mirada, @Radicalmedia, Anthony Sheppard.