‘Lutaw’ Makes A Splash At Cannes

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Navigating through bodies of water to get to school isn’t something children in North Texas need to think about, but Ruby Wang from Flight School Studio in Dallas got to imagine just that in a new animated reality short.

The film is called Lutaw and it tells the story of Geramy, a Filipino girl who works along side with her brother Isko to figure out a way– other than swimming–to get to school.

Wang, a concept artist at Flight School Studio, was the art director for the film. “My role was to create the look and feel of the film.” said Wang.” So that means designing characters, environments, color palettes, and lighting.”

The film is among six finalists at the Cannes Film Festival nominated for the Positron Visionary Award, a special jury prize honoring excellence in immersive storytelling. It also appeared virtually as  an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it made its world premiere.

Lutaw was created through the Oculus VR for Good Creator’s Lab program with the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, based in the Philippines. This story highlights students that swim between the small islands to the schools in their remote areas. The organization has provided over 4,600 yellow boats to schoolchildren to better access education across the Philippines, an archipelago composed of 7,107 islands.

You can see Lutaw and other virtual reality programming at Cannes by downloading the Museum of Other Realities app on Steam. It’s available  for free through June 26. The virtual art gallery features immersive work from international virtual reality artists. The entire Cannes program will remain available until July 3.

Here’s more about Ruby from Flight School Studio:

RUBY WANG is a concept artist on the Flight School Studio team, creating new designs for characters, environments, and assets. She also contributes to story development for the studio’s virtual reality and animation projects. Most recently, Ruby was the art director for Lutaw, Dream Academy and Island Time VR, as well as for clients including Dell, Chevy, and Starbreeze VR. Before joining the team, Ruby interned with Tonko House, working on the Annie Award nominated animated series, PIG: The Dam Keeper Poems, based on the characters from the studio’s Academy Award nominated short film. In addition, she was an illustrator for Eric Miller Animation Studios, contributing promotional art for their animated web series, Bink, and concept art for future projects. She also contributed concept art to Sonder, an animated short in production at Soba Productions. Ruby earned her master’s degree in visual development from the Academy of Art University and Bachelor of Fine Art in animation, interactive technology and video graphics from Fu Jen Catholic University.

Got a tip? Email Therese Powell at [email protected]. You can follow her on Twitter @TheresePowell13

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