Virtual reality software developer Pixvana Inc. announced Monday the full release of its video editing suite, Spin Studio, that lets users use VR headsets for the full life cycle of video creation.

Spin Studio is a cloud-based cross-platform publishing suite designed to give creators the full capabilities of a 360-degree video editing platform – in a VR environment itself, meaning creators never need to leave their native space while editing.

“With this release, we’ve completely reimagined the way people create interactive stories, and made it possible for them to unlock the real potential of VR media,” Pixvana Chief Executive Forest Key said. “Both expert and novice creators can now make VR video experiences and engage with audiences in more powerful ways – enlivening events, presentations, classrooms, tours and more.”

At its core, Spin Studio seeks to make life for VR storytellers easier by adapting to the most recent technology at hand.

“The tools in 2016 we were using were slow, complicated and limited the types of stories that we could create,” Sean Safreed, co-founder of Pixvana, wrote in a blog post about the announcement. “The stories didn’t look cinematic because of limitations in headsets and with video-based content there was no way to quickly add interactivity to enhance immersion.”

Pixvana was founded in 2015 and raised $14 million in 2017 after publishing its own investment pitch through a VR demo of the platform’s capabilities. With that investment, Pixvana reached $20 million in investments for its platform.

Since that time, the tools for VR have advanced significantly. Before 2016, most production needed to go through lower resolutions for processing and “stitching,” a process of putting together multiple camera shots into a single 360-degree scene. Much of this work needed to be done on a workstation, PC or Mac, and rendered slowly.

The stitcher in Spin Studio, however, uses the company’s cloud-based technology to offload the computational weight of rendering large scenes and allows a much quicker workflow by rendering multiple files in parallel. As a result, projects can be produced much faster with Spin Studio than with a suite of desktop tools alone.

According to Pixvana, in tests, Spin Studio brought the time it would take for a 30-shot project down to less than two hours from render times of a few days.

On the production side, Spin Studio really begins to shine since it allows creators to do all of their work in VR, the native environment where the 360-video would be viewed by audiences. This opens up a whole new world for VR creators to experience their own creation while working on it, instead of switching between headset and 2-D monitor while working with the editing software.

“Using the power of an Oculus Rift with touch controllers and Spin Play app, we can stream optimized video from the cloud to headset and let you place graphics, sounds, and links in a scene in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get environment,” said Safreed. “This new tool radically speeds up the design process since you are no longer guessing about placement or scale. The creator also extends VR to have 3-D interaction that enhances immersion and starts to unlock the potential of video-based interactive content without programming or scripting.”

The key features of Spin Studio include automatic camera-agnostic stitching, support for mono 180-degree shots and stereo 360-degree video and correction tools for horizon and interactive depth leveling. Users can also fine-tune look and color precision presets built into cameras such as the GoPro Omni and Insta360 Pro.

Finally, at the end of the project, creators can download the master and preview their work in 8K resolution for offline finishing in real time using the cloud capabilities. And then, to finalize or export video between different platforms, creators can extract optimized formats for web production or high definition playback on VR headsets.

Pixvana’s Spin Studio platform is free to try today and is available on the site for download. The platform is provided as a client and a service at three different pricing schedules: Starter, Pro and Team. Each tier is designed with access to more capabilities and greater audience reach through the platform. Pricing is available for businesses and individuals on request.

Image: Pixvana