Gaming Special: Rewind FX

One of the few companies to really know how to maximise an Oculus Rift, Rewind FX has grown in four years from a bijou digital studio to a contender at a glitzy LA awards bash for global excellence in VR. It also designs games. Founder Sol Rogers tell Emily Ansell about diversification and riding the VR wave

Nestled in the heart of the genteel market town of St Albans in Hertfordshire is a creative hub generating some seriously cool stuff. A boutique visual-arts studio, Rewind FX blends animation, visual effects, design and cutting-edge technology to make stunning immersive experiences. Launched in January 2011 by Solomon Rogers and creative director Matthew Allen, what started as a typical post production house now works across a variety of creative tech projects and is becoming the go-to place for companies looking to stand out from the crowd.

Rogers started out at Sony making computer games, but after completing a masters in digital animation, he decided to start his own company specialising in visualisation and animation work. “I got lucky, like anyone who does well in what they want to do,” Rogers says modestly. “Working for Sony was good, but I was a small cog in a huge machine, it takes about 300 people to make something in a games company. I became a lecturer [at the University of Hertfordshire] but always did freelance work. Teaching gave me such a breadth across the industry on a technical level that I could take on a real variety of work.”

Since launching, Rewind FX has grown to a core team of 14 people and has added video production and visual effects to its post and animation work. The team’s gaming work also now covers a huge spectrum, from creating media to support games right through to actually designing them. Examples include an advert for children’s game Moshi Monsters (they were involved in every stage of the project, from sourcing the voiceover artist to producing the graphics) as well as in-game tutorial videos for Xbox game Fable: The Journey, which was commissioned by Microsoft Studios.

Rewind FX is also taking the gaming world by storm by designing quality virtual reality (VR) experiences using the Oculus Rift headset. It is leading the way in the world of VR, an area that most companies daren’t venture into. “VR is such an emerging technology that there aren’t many people doing it well, or doing it at all,” says Rogers. “We’re lucky to have worked directly with Oculus on a couple of big projects recently which have been allowed to be released.”

Red Bull and blu sky thinking

Rewind FX’s work with Oculus includes a campaign for e-cig manufacturer blu. The VR experience accompanies a music tour that launched this summer and is housed within a customised bus that’s been touring UK nightclubs. Visitors have been donning headsets to be plunged into an immersive desert containing events triggered by a dance music track.

The company also designed Red Bull: Air Race, working directly with Red Bull. Using the latest real-time graphics and headset, the interactive experience allows people to sit in the pilot’s chair and feel the blistering pace and quick turns of an Air Racer hurtling around Ascot race course. The team worked with Air Race champion Paul Bonhomme to ensure the flight path was as realistic as possible, while Rogers even went out to Croatia to go on a flight in one of the planes. A stand was built to house the experience and was sent around the country. It was supposed to be available at just four events, but was so popular it ended up being used every day for two months. Other VR successes include an experience for Lexus to be placed in showrooms that allows the user to feel like they’re taking the brand’s new car on a test drive. The team also made an experience for Canon which gave people a taste of what life is like as a catwalk model.

Rogers predicts that VR is going to be huge for the advertising industry, but there’s going to be a blip in its success before it picks up again. “There’s going to be a bit of a crash in virtual reality,” he predicts. “At the moment there’s this big wave of people wanting to get into it because they’ve heard about it in the news. Companies are thinking they need a VR strategy, in the same way that they think they need an app. The quality won’t be there, though, if people want it just for the sake of having it. If it’s being used as a gimmick to sell a product, it’s not the right thing to do.”

As far as VR quality is concerned, Rewind FX’s work ranks highly enough for it to have been one of a select few from across the globe invited to the Virtual Reality Foundation’s Proto Awards 2014, an LA event that recognises the best in VR.

Alongside blazing a trial as VR pioneers, the day-to-day workload of Rewind FX covers an astounding variety of work, from post to graphics. “It’s hard to define what to call ourselves now. We’re becoming known for problem solving and being able to deliver projects that other people say no to,” says Rogers. “We’re never going to be one of London’s 200-strong mega-agencies. We’re light and nimble, there are no investors, it’s just us – for good or for bad.”