Coco VR:
Immersive, Interactive VR

Overview

Brand
Disney+ Pixar

Technology
Virtual Reality

Platform
Oculus/Meta

Industry
Film

Release Date
November 2017

Awards
Emmy Nominated
VR Marketing of the Year - VR Awards
Grand Clio
Cannes Silver Lion

Introduction

Coco VR is Pixar’s stunning debut into virtual reality: an adventure into the beautiful Disney-Pixar film, Coco. We combined creativity and technology to transport players into Pixar’s unique vision of the Land of the Dead.

The brief

Magnopus was tasked with immersing fans into Pixar’s vibrant vision of the Land of the Dead and letting them feel part of it in a shared experience with friends. The challenge was getting it right, and making it believable.

The solution

We worked closely with Pixar to focus on painstaking details to bring this magical world to life and make the experience feel real. We optimized facial animation, for instance, and used kinematic technology to create realistic body movement and interactions with the living skeletons. In the process, we developed boundary-pushing tech that made this level of detail possible.

As well as exploring the world hundreds of feet above the city, players are immersed in the vibrantly coloured Land of the Dead as they wander through a series of mini-experiences—including an art gallery, a costume shop, cinema, photo booth, and musical performance.

Choosing either a single or multiplayer experience, users follow the magical Alebrije into the luminous world of Coco, filled with loveable characters and beautiful settings from the film.

Features

  • Clown around and capture the moment in the photo booth

  • Take a gondola ride and see the gorgeous city from above

  • Live a little in the spotlight! You’re the star alongside Hector in a musical celebration of Dia de los Muertos!

  • Meet Miguel, Ceci and Hector in fascinating locations featured in the movie

  • Multiplayer enables you to include your amigos and have fun together!

  • Express your uniqueness and rock a new style in Ceci’s costume shop

The impact

We created a stunning VR experience where users feel like they’ve crossed to the Land of the Dead, just like Miguel did in the film. The visual detail and realistic encounters with skeletons and other players takes VR to a whole new level.

"We set out to both explore the creative opportunities of the medium as well as push the technology to its limit. So instead of just doing a narrative short of the film, we designed an active experience that gives users the opportunity to visit many of the beautiful locations in the film, including taking a gondola ride."

John Halstead, Pixar’s Supervising Technical Director,

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Cast

Miguel
Anthony Gonzalez

Hector
Gael Garcia Bernal

Coco
Denise Blasor

Mama
Denise Blasor

Narrator
Sarita Ocon

Gondola Operator
Carlos Moreno

Art Studio Prankster
Eduardo de Colossio

Magnopus

Producer
Kelsey Wong

Lead Engineer
Zo Douglass

Lead Experience Designer
Kalan Ray

Lead 3D Artist
Luke Schloemer

Executive Producer
Alex Henning

Hand o the Lead Engineer
Chris Chavira

Engineers
Yossi Horowitz
Kuang-Hsin Liu
Tahnee Smith
Sally Slade
Andrew Bueno
Scott Holman
David Swift
Peter Newton

Project Manager
Darren Bunch

Production Coordinator
Jasmine Aguilar

Realtime Rendering Engineers
Xavier Gonzalez
Jody McAdams

Technical Artists
Cosku Turhan
Coralie Phanord

Concept Artist
Eduardo Borrego

IT
Caio Andrade
James Micheli
Brian Peyatt

Head of Technology
Lap Luu

UI Designer
Jenny Yoon

Animators
Chonlawat Thammawan
Mari Long
Rey Chang

3D Artists
Brian Magno
Kellie Brewart
Ralph Roma
Devon Mathis
Sam Knudson
CJ Savage
Yong Park
Joseph Cadell
Sean Phillips
Brian Choi
Christen Smith
Nicholas Prufer

QA Manager
Grant Marzette

QA Testers
Andre Gusmao
Jon Querido

Production Assistants
Sabrine Allen
Dionna Fuentes

Head of Production
Magdelena Wolf

Full Credits

Music

Featuring

“Remember Me”

by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Additional Original Songs by

Germaine Franco and Adrian Molina

Original Score Composed by

Michael Giacchino

Oculus

Head of Experiences
Colum Slevin

Executive Producer
Yelena Rachitsky

Project Manager
Kat Bachert

Special thanks

Pixar Animation Studios

John Lasseter
Jim Morris
Lee Unkrich
Darla K Anderson
Andy Dreyfus
Jim Kennedy
Kerri Martin
Paul Kanyuk
Chris Bernardi
Paul Mendoa
Mich Kopelman
Marlena Fecho
Adrian Maruri
Ed Catmull
Steve May
Adrian Molina
Johnathan Garson
Adam Gates
Serena Dettman
Stephen Gustafson
Mark Meyer
Eric Andraos
Johnathan Pytko
Susan Fisher Fong
Jody Weinberg
Matthew Strangio

Walt Disney Studios

Andre Fonseca
Jamie Voris
Chadd Kawaii
Calis Agyemang
Molly Petulo
Olga Alvarez
Alice Taylor
Ben Havey
Matthew Duel
Melina Gharibi
Donna Cole-Brule
Jackson Rogow

Pixar

Directed By
Ross Haldane Stevenson

Producer
Marc Sondheimer

Suprvising Technical Director
John Halstead

Production Manager
Stephanie Brooke Hamilton

Manager
Claire Munzer

Layout
Derek Williams

Technical Artists
Andrea Goh
Amit Baadkar
Gary Bruins
Chris J Chapman
Jonathan Hossman
Brett Kevub
Justin Ritter
Yekaterina Satanina
Stephan Steinbach
Joseph Suen

Lighting
Nick Bartone
J.D. Gardener

Graphic Artist
Jenna Huerta

Animation
Rachel Fite
Ross Haldane Stephenson

Editorial
Kevin Rose Williams
Nicole Vandernaut

Additional Story Material
Sequioa Blankenship

Creative Advisor
Harley Jessup

Executive Assistant
Jeanette Penley Marker

Production Assistant
Delilah Smith

Finance Lead
Michelle Lui Chung

Sound Designers
Andrew Vernon
Samual Lehmer

End Credit Design
Laura Meyer

Source Sound

Supervising Sound Editor
Tim Gedemer

Sound Design and Implementation
Francois Lafleur

Sound Editors
Bryan Jerden
Julian Aicholz

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