New Canvas today announced the Oculus TV premiere of episode one of its ground-breaking, immersive series LUSTRATION following its world premiere at SXSW 2022. The virtual reality-based series is now available to audiences for viewing today and marks the first new project released by XR studio New Canvas’ award-winning team since the studio was spun out of Start VR. LUSTRATION was written and directed by leading First Nations creative Ryan Griffen. Each episode is told from a different character’s perspective and can be experienced from different vantage points, allowing the audience to build their own picture of the characters, the world and ultimately the story.
LUSTRATION is a multi-platform property, the VR series allows audiences to step into this animated world and be an active part of the experience. The fantasy, noir style story is set in the afterlife that is ultimately about the power of knowledge and how damaging misinformation can be to not only ourselves but also the communities that we live in. The series was created entirely in the VR painting and animation app, Quill and marked the first time that Meta invested in a Quill project from New Canvas, which also marks the first time an that Meta invested in a Quill project from an Australia-based company. Meta Quest commissioned LUSTRATION VR for its Oculus TV platform, where season one of the series is now available for release to audiences globally on Meta Quest VR headsets now– Friday March 25th, 2022.
SYNOPSIS – LUSTRATION is a 4 part multi-strand, animated series following a group of characters whose stories are mysteriously intertwined both in the real world and afterlife. As these characters’ stories unfold and intersect, we discover the lengths that some will go to in the name of love, while uncovering a conspiracy so vast it has affected every facet of our existence . . . and the next.
The cast features Australian talent alongside iconic US-based voice over artists, including Kevin Conroy, the voice for the US’ Batman: The Animated Series for the last 23 years; Grey Griffin (Lego DC Super Heroes, Batman: Arkham; Scooby-Doo); Dante Basco who played the cult hero ‘Rufio’ in Hook and is also the voice of ‘Prince Zuko’ in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Tamlyn Tomita who is best known for playing the role of ‘Kumiko’ in The Karate Kid II and more recently in the spin-off Netflix series Cobra Kai.
“The fascinating world and exciting story told in the graphic novel and skillfully transposed to VR, the visual design that really seems to put you inside a graphic novel, and the opportunity offered by LUSTRATION for the viewer to choose their own perspective on the scenes… All of these elements — show a deep understanding by the people working at LUSTRATION (New Canvas) of what is most needed to take VR from where it is now to mainstream status. And what we need is to create fans of our works. To create a fandom.” – Agnese Pietrobon, XR Must
New Canvas today also announced the launch of its Discord Server to further entice its fans by building a vibrant community where its properties like LUSTRATION can connect with members and creators to chat, hang out and get access to news and content and the series. New Canvas will also be launching a blockchain powered community platform with social tokens and NFTs in Q2 2022.
We are moving into a new era of content distribution and engagement where audiences can become active communities, participating in, and generating ownership of the content they love. We are very excited about the social token that will launch for LUSTRATION in Q2 and will also release a very limited run of NFTs of some of the amazing artwork from LUSTRATION. The tokenised community for our new series will have access to exclusive content and be invited to participate creatively and commercially with us as the property develops.
Wadooah Wali, New Canvas, Chief Strategy Officer
