“We looked at a lot of the existing tools for 3D creation, such as CAD, and thought that a lot of them make it hard for people who are more visually and spatially inclined to use because they’re so reliant on math,” Oluwaseyi “Shay” Sosanya, one of the creators of Gravity Sketch, told Digital Trends. “We wanted to strip all of that back and make a very natural, intuitive creation experience for everyone, using virtual reality.”
Having previously created a Gravity Sketch iPad app, the new software lets users don an Oculus or HTC Vive headset and set about bringing their concept to life by drawing in the air in front of them. They can even “pick up” parts of the design and move them around, all with the Jedi-like wave of a hand.
“It’s an awesome opportunity to be able to come up with an idea and then represent it in 3D space, and to be able to do that without building a physical model,” Sosanya continued.
At first, Sosanya thinks that virtual reality is going to be most suited as a substitute for 2D sketching.
“The idea is that, with this software, you’ll be able to put together really nice concept sketches in 3D,” he said. “You can do a rough sketch and use that to better understand the volume and the shape of what you’re creating. Then you take that concept and dump it into a more tradition CAD package to finish it off and get it ready for manufacture.”
Long-term, though, that ambition may well change. “In the future, we’re expecting tools like this to be able to go right into production, with no extra step involved,” Sosanya noted.
Sound exciting? If so, you can put in a pledge for the software as part of Gravity Sketch’s pre-order Kickstarter, where a software license will set you back 25 pounds (around $32.) Check out the campaign here.
