A participant kneeling on the elephant mat in the headset, in My Africa: Elephant Keeper

Interactive VR for HTC VIVE: welcome and feed Dudu, a rescued baby elephant, at the Reteti sanctuary in Kenya, using real props instead of controllers. Tribeca and AFI Docs 2018.

What it was

Elephant Keeper follows the 360 film My Africa into interactive VR. Adam May wanted audiences to take part in the work the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary does rather than watch it, so the piece puts you in the sanctuary as a rescued elephant, Dudu, arrives, and lets you welcome and feed her.

There are no controllers or buttons. You pick up a real sponge and a real bottle, and the experience follows your hands. It was selected for Tribeca and AFI Docs in 2018.

Technical approach

Chris Campkin photographed the sanctuary in thousands of high-resolution stills on location. At Vision3 in London, Elliott Round built the environment in Unity from that material and worked with HTC VIVE on the tracking so that physical objects could stand in for controllers.

In their words

Dudu was created from thousands of photographs and detailed CGI to look incredibly real, and the experience proved extremely popular with kids and adults alike at the festival.

Wareable, Sophie Charara · Read ↗
Rakušanová says the experience proved extremely popular with kids and adults alike at the festival, and rates it as the most engaging VR for Social Impact experience she's seen in 2018.

Tech Trends, Alice Bonasio · Read ↗
Audiences can welcome and feed the baby elephant, Dudu, at the sanctuary, with real-world props creating an innovative and photorealistic interactive VR experience.

AFI DOCS · Read ↗