Cycling Ukraine — the first virtual bike ride: Ukrainian Bike Ride 360°
The Ukrainian Institute together with the creative company MOON Studio invites you to a virtual bicycle tour through the streets of Lviv, Kyiv and Kharkiv. The bicycle tour was first presented in Vienna during the Ukrainian Night - Electronic Music and Contemporary Art project within the framework of the Austrian-Ukrainian Bilateral Year of Culture 2019.
"Ukrainian Night" is a single-day festival meant to inform about contemporary Ukraine, which took place in the centre of the Austrian capital in October 2019. In addition to the music programme and a 3D installation on the facade of the Leopold Museum, the Ukrainian Institute has also organized a special bike station to introduce Ukraine to the visitors of the event through virtual reality. By putting on VR-goggles, Austrians and guests of the city could "cycle" around Ukrainian cities with 360° view and see Ukraine's most beautiful places. Now, this journey is available to every owner of a smartphone and VR-goggles.
"We are constantly looking for new ways and means to tell foreign audiences about contemporary Ukraine, and we are glad that technology is helping us do it. Virtual reality opens up a significant storytelling aspect and provides the user with an immersive approach, in other words, it plunges you into a different reality. Such interaction gives an invaluable experience since it engages most of the sensory organs and stays in memory longer", says Tetiana Filevska, the creative director of the Ukrainian Institute, explains. "So it's no surprise that this VR installation was in dire demand and there was constantly a line of people awaiting their turn."
MOON Studio, a creative company, has worked for over two months on the Ukrainian Bike Ride 360 ° project for the Ukrainian Institute.
"We are constantly looking for new ways and means to tell foreign audiences about contemporary Ukraine, and we are glad that technology is helping us do it. Virtual reality opens up a significant storytelling aspect and provides the user with an immersive approach, in other words, it plunges you into a different reality. Such interaction gives an invaluable experience since it engages most of the sensory organs and stays in memory longer", says Tetiana Filevska, the creative director of the Ukrainian Institute, explains. "So it's no surprise that this VR installation was in dire demand and there was constantly a line of people awaiting their turn."
MOON Studio, a creative company, has worked for over two months on the Ukrainian Bike Ride 360 ° project for the Ukrainian Institute.
"This is the first time that this filming format was used in Ukraine," says Dmitry Andreev, founder of MOON Studio. He explains that, specifically for filming, the team designed a helmet with mounts for nine cameras located around the perimeter. The mounts themselves have been printed on a 3D printer:
"The mounts were created by trial, error, refinement and more trial. Given the fact that we have a 360-degree video, we needed to keep the cameras in a uniform position in order for the edges of individual videos to converge. The most difficult thing was to shoot in Lviv because the streets are in the city centre are mostly paved with stones. Therefore, the video had to be further stabilized in the post-production to reduce shaking."
Keep working them pedals of the Ukrainian Bike Ride 360 ° on our Youtube channel!
"The mounts were created by trial, error, refinement and more trial. Given the fact that we have a 360-degree video, we needed to keep the cameras in a uniform position in order for the edges of individual videos to converge. The most difficult thing was to shoot in Lviv because the streets are in the city centre are mostly paved with stones. Therefore, the video had to be further stabilized in the post-production to reduce shaking."
Keep working them pedals of the Ukrainian Bike Ride 360 ° on our Youtube channel!