There aren’t too many cool apps that launch first on Android, but Google Spotlight Stories is one. It plays sweet, animated stories using a mix of 2D and 3D imagery – the cool part being that you can ‘look around’ the scene simply by rotating your phone.
There’s some heavy-duty talent behind the creation of the stories, the debut story Windy Days being created by former Pixar animators, and Help by Justin Lin, director of The Fast and the Furious …
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling made just for mobile. Engineers and critically-acclaimed filmmakers are bringing stories to life using the latest advances in mobile technology. Using 3D and 2D animation, 360° spherical cinema-quality video, sound sphere audio and sensor fusion techniques, the screen is now a window into a story that unfolds all around you. Look anywhere, follow individual characters, watch it over again and again. It’s a little different each time. Google Spotlight Stories is your mobile movie theatre.
The tech behind it all was developed by Motorola’s Advanced Technology And Products division, acquired by Google in 2011 – the reason it launched first on the Moto X.
The app, and its stories, are a free download from iTunes – but Google hints that it may plan to charge for the stories at some point, so grab them for free while you can (if you’re using an iPad, select ‘iPhone only’ in the App Store or it won’t show up). You can watch the 2013 promo video for original Moto X launch below.
Via TechCrunch
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAJXkZ0WB_o]
