In animated film production, a great bulk of work goes into animating and scene layout. Currently, the industry is centered around flat screens and keyboard and mouse interfaces, which require a substantial amount of time to lay out scene sets and animate shots, resulting in high production costs and lengthy production schedules. This study was designed to determine whether immersive VR interfaces could reduce the time taken to lay out 3D scene sets and animate those scenes compared to traditional interfaces. More specifically, this study compared the time 38 participants took to set up and animate a 3D scene by using two different interfaces, e.g. a VR immersive interface and a traditional mouse and keyboard interface. Further, the study investigated subjects’ interface preference. Findings show that the virtual reality interface was about twice as fast for laying out the scene as the traditional interface. When surveyed, participants preferred the virtual reality interface by a large margin over the provided traditional interface.
