Analysis of Virtual Reality Application: Tilt Brush

.Abstract
Virtual Reality Applications can be critically
analyzed using the Virtual Subjectiveness (Pars &
Pars, 2006) model. It is a key element in the userexperience relationship and makes a connection
between the user, the virtual environment and the
virtual reality experience. Using this tool, we can
get a base from which to design and analyze VR
applications. VR is often mistaken by the
technology and not as the medium of transmitting
information. We also try to critically analyze how
well the information is communicated.

.Author Keywords
Interaction, Virtual Reality, Virtual Subjectiveness,
Applications, Tilt Brush, Sketching, Painting

.Introduction

case, it was focused more on the user experience.

None of them managed to deliver the whole story
or the bigger picture.
As we mentioned before and as Giuseppe Riva
mentioned in 1999 in his paper Virtual reality as a
communication tool, VR is confused with the
technology per se, for instance with the head
mounted display.

The goal of the Virtual Subjectiveness model is

firstly to offer a view on Virtual Reality as a
communication medium and not just as the
technology behind. Secondly, it can help detect the
misuse of the medium for as a sensationalist
instrument.
We chose Tilt Brush, an awarded virtual reality
application as a subject for our critical endeavor.

4. Tilt Brush
Virtual Reality has been defined in different ways
but one of the essential features of an AMVR

application is the real time generation of stimuli.

One of the first models proposed for virtual

environments was defined by S.R.Ellis and another
attempt was defined by Latta and Oberg ( Latta &
Oberg,
1994,
IEEE
Computer
Graphics
&
Applications, 14, 2329 ). However, both models
were incomplete and they were defining the virtual
environment in the first case, or in the second

Tiltbrush (Hackett & Skillman, 2014) is announced

by its authors as a virtual reality application that is

able to create paintings in 3D in a virtual space,
through a mouse and a keyboard and visualize the
actions with a virtual reality visor as the Oculus Rift
(Oculus VR, 2015).
The application allows the user to use three
dimensional and animated brushes strokes with
different kinds of ink, with the opportunity to create
new ones with special effects such as light, stars or
smoke, inclusive music and sound reactive brushes.
After creating the drawing it is possible to export
and share the creation to GIF or to a especial
visualizer to be able to be an spectator of the
artworks creating process and to observe the
drawing from diverse angles in the virtual
environment with tools as Google Cardboard
(Google, 2014

to understand the things that are around him and

how they work. Is the whole composition of the 4
elements, how they interact between them and
how the user develops in the experience. They
effect is created in the cognitive level, by this
definition the user doesnt have a relationship with
the physical inputs or the physical outputs, the
relationship is made directly to the virtual
environment. A change in some of the elements
wont change the virtual environment, it will
change the complete experience.

4. Tiltbrush as an AMVR Experience

Tiltbrush is announced as a Virtual Reality

experience because it allows the users to create
and visualize drawings in a virtual environment.
The interaction is through the keyboard and the
mouse, and the observation is mediated by a head
mounted display. This gives the user the possibility
of generating and observing the artworks in the
virtual environment. Through the movement of the
plans is possible to do drawings in 2D pans and
then make a manipulation of the plan to rotate the
painting in any direction.
The authors of this virtual experience define it as
virtual reality with the base of the observance of a
virtual environment and the power to make
modifications in it. They fully exploit the virtual
environment by letting the user play with unusual
textures and fabrics. For example, you can paint
with light or with metallic building blocks.

Figure 2. 3D drawing of a cat in the Tiltbrush virtual

world

3. Tilt Brush Virtual Subjectiveness

We will describe the application Tiltbrush
according to the elements of its Virtual Reality. To
achieve
this
we
will
follow
the
Virtual
Subjectiveness model (Pars & Pars, 2006), that
make use of four different elements: Physical
Interfaces, Logical Interface, Mappings, and the
Behavior of the Logical Interface.
The virtual subjectiveness defines the whole
experience that the user will have in the virtual
environment. Is the way in that the user is allowed

In this application the virtual environment is the

scene where the drawing is taking place, the virtual
subjectiveness consist in the place of the user in
this scene and the experience is created in the
cognitive level given by the configuration and
assembly of the next particular elements.

Figure 3. Virtual Environment of the

Retrieved from www.facebook.com/Tiltbrush

application.

3.1 Physical Interfaces

In Tilt Brush the user has different different ways of
interaction with the 3D environment. The most
important is the possibility of drawing in different
planes and move the position of the planes,
secondly, the user can explore the environment and
admire, contemplate the created artwork.
To achieve the previous objectives there are three
physical interfaces: two of input and one of input
and output. Lets focus in the input physical
interfaces: Keyboard, mouse, and Head mounted
display (Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard) The
keyboard is the users way to control the planes in
which the drawing is taking place; using it is
necessary to control the movement of the objects
in the virtual environment. In second place we have
the mouse that is the input used to make the
strokes in the virtual canvas. These two previous
interfaces are potentially replaceable for other
kinds of tools like a Leap Motion for example; that
is the future approach that the authors propose but
not implemented yet because the wanted to
address the lowest common denominator of
controls (Flaherty, 2014)

For the visualization of the scene the information of

the position and orientation of the head is retrieved
from the head mounted display and reflect in the
virtual environment as a way to change the point of
view of the user in the scene. The same head
mounted display is used as the only output physical
interface to show the image.

different options and has behaviors able to interact

and manipulate the virtual system.

Figure 4. Person using the Tiltbrush application with the

keyboard
and
the
Oculus
Rift.
Retrieved
from
www.facebook.com/Tiltbrush

.
.
.
.Behaviors of the Logical Interface

3.2 Logical Interface

The logical interface defines the kind of view, the
direction of the viewing, the expression of the
physical inputs interfaces and so the representation
of the character in the virtual environment.
In the Tilt Brush app the logical interface is the
cursor from the screen, and when you select a
brush is the brush itself. Its inside the virtual
environment that is the scene where the drawing is
taking place surrounded to the buttons and

.3.3 Potential Mappings

When we speak about the mappings we are
expressing about the sensation of the user about
how are related his interaction with the physical
interfaces reflected in the logical interface, is the
relationship of the physical actions in the virtual
world. The way in which a mapping is created can
affect and change completely the experience and
the self-understanding of the user in the
environment. Tiltbrush has a direct mapping 1:1
between the movement of the head and the point
of view of the scene and the movements of the
mouse into the drawings realized in the virtual
canvas. The mapping could be modified by
changing the configuration of the mouse to be able
to encompass a higher distance in the virtual
environment with a smaller movement of the
mouse and consequently create larger drawings
with smaller movements of the mouse.

The behavior is the relationship between the logical

interface and the elements and objects in the scene
of the virtual environment. The behaviors are the
way in which the user can interact with the
elements of the virtual environment through the
logical interface.
In Tiltbrush the user can make strokes in the
virtual canvas modifying the scene through the
logical interface but only inside of the canvas, he
can also touch and select different brushes to use
inside the virtual reality. About the viewing of the
scene, the user can change his view angle of the
scene but he cant move to explore it.

10. Levels of interaction

According to the Virtual Subjectiveness framework,
the user can have different types of interaction in
the virtual environment. There is the exploration,
the actual navigation (walking, flying, looking
around). The second one is the manipulation - the
user can operate within the environment and has
agency, and the third one, contribution - the user
can modify the environment and specific objects.
Tilt Brush has a contributive type of interaction.
You can use different tools (brushes) to create new
content. You generate and manipulate the content

and create animated GIF's that you can share

within the community. A very interesting feature,
data-driven brushes, that allow users to create
their own brushes (volumetric, refraction, light and
even music reactive brushes). We can conclude
there are many ways in which you contribute to the
virtual environment.
Regarding the user provided capabilities, there are
human capabilities used in the experience. The
parameters required from the user are the input
coming from the keyboard and the mouse. In the
close future, the developers will make possible
other type of physical inputs like the movements
of fingers using LeapMotion and Kinect. The logical
interface of this system is the cursor of the mouse
when you operate within the selection or options
menu and the chosen brush, when you draw/paint.
The virtual objects necessary for the interaction is
the control panel and the grid that you draw on. It
is very clear what do you have to do and what is
the goal of this app. The first advantage would be
that the user is probably already used to drawing
environments for 2D like paint or Photoshop, so the
designers had an easier job.

11. Interaction design. Content-driven

versus Interaction-driven interaction.
The content driven design focuses more on the
subject of the application while the interaction
driven design focuses more on collaboration and
the relationships between the users and the
environment. The different types of interaction can
be : user-user, user-environment, environment environment and user-environment.-environmentuser
In this case we can talk about an content driven
design. Being an application created for a head
mounted display, it can be accessed from anywhere
in the world so it doesn't depend on the location.
Why is it content driven? First of all the message is
quite clear, it is about sketching and the novelty
consists in the fact that app allows you to
manipulate through rotation, flip and reposition a
grid that operates as a stationary plane in space.
By switching the plane ( horizontal or vertical) you
have liberty of expression. The sketching tool was
intended to be, as one of the developers declared :
An expression tool, not a precision tool. We want
users to create images easily, quickly, and share
them in ways that make sense with VR.
We can say that
there is definitely userenvironment interaction but there is no multi user
experience. The only way that you can interact with
other users is uploading you work, in a form of a
animated GIF and seeing other users' work.

Ellis in 1991, defined optimal design as :A well

designed human-machine interface affords the user
an efficient and effortless flow of information
between the device and its human operator. Also
he states that a well designed application should
decrease the adaptation period with the interface
and the tools. From this point of view, Tilt Brush
seems quite intuitive and user-friendly.
12.Critical Analysis
Tilt Brush offers a virtual reality experience in a
virtual environment generated by a personal
computer and mediated by a head mounted
display. The
difference
between
a
virtual
environment and the virtual reality is that the
environment
is
represented
by
structures,
parameters and functions and it was defined by
Ellis as being the sum of the content, the geometry
and the dynamics. On the other hand, the virtual
reality is the real- time experience the user can
have.
A specific feature of a virtual reality application is
that the interaction with digital stimuli is generated
in real time (Pars & Pars, 2006). Another
characteristic of the virtual reality is depicted by
Grigore Burdea and Philippe Coiffet, in their book
Virtual Reality Technology and it is the real time
interactivity Painting and drawing is done in real
time in this case, so it successfully fits into this
description. The user sees the objects that he
draws change on the screen in response to his
input.
4. Is it adequate?
It is the most adequate model for the desired end
result, as it is meant to be a virtual reality
sketching
application.
Choosing
a
virtual
environment as a medium for Tilt Brush is fully
justified. The most attractive part of this application
is the idea of drawing/sculpting with light and
unusual fabrics and textures. It is not officially
released yet, so it is difficult to say if there is room
for improvement. We can conclude that Tilt Brush
follows the Virtual Subjectiveness framework.

Riva, G. (1999). Virtual reality as communication

tool: A sociocognitive analysis. Presence:
Teleoperators
and
Virtual
Environments, 8(4), 462-468.

References
Flaherty, J. (2014). A WILD LOOK AT WHAT ITS LIKE
TO PAINT INSIDE AN OCULUS RIFT. Retrieved
March
10,
2015,
from
http://www.wired.com/2014/11/tilt-brush-couldbe-photoshop-for-the-oculus-rift-era/
Google. (2014). Google Cardboard. Retrieved from
http://www.google.com/get/cardboard/
Hackett & Skillman. (2014). Tiltbrush. Retrieved from
http://www.tiltbrush.com/
Oculus VR. (2015). Oculus Rift.
https://www.oculus.com/

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