Exp. 03
Virgin Galactic
Spaceship digital twin
- Role
- 3D Artist, Designer
- Year
- 2020–21
- Stack
- Maya, V-Ray, Meta Quest, iOS/Android AR
- Recognition
- Red Dot — Best of the Best, Luminary '21
Seymour Powell brought me on to help design the Virgin Galactic spaceship. We created both a VR and an AR mobile experience to showcase the ship’s interior and the overall flight experience — I worked on building the VR experience, modeling the ship, creating camera animations, rendering, and more.
During the interior design phase, the team maintained a constantly-evolving digital twin inside a bespoke, immersive VR platform, with design tools for visualising choices around colours, materials, and finishes. That approach let teams collaborate across multiple locations, minimised the need for physical access to the prototype, and expedited decision-making through the iterative design phases.
Process
The assets we developed — and the confidence built among the teams — meant we could adapt quickly when the pandemic hit, pivoting from a planned physical reveal event to a virtual one. We also shipped a VIP VR experience for Meta Quest headsets and a public-facing AR app on the iOS and Android app stores.
A significant challenge was achieving the best-looking experience with the limited tools of the time, especially since we were restricted to the Quest 1. Optimization was crucial given the short deadline: extensive light baking through Maya and V-Ray, and custom shaders to smoothly transition between textures as the environment changed.
The project won Red Dot’s Best of the Best, Luminary in 2021, and was covered by Adobe, TechCrunch, and Business Insider.
