Oculus is giving away its mesmerizing VR painting tool, Quill

VR has quite a bit to offer creative types in terms of building worlds and images that would be impossible otherwise. Oculus Story Studio is looking to redefine the concept of a digital art with their latest effort, Quill.

Oculus announced today that it will be releasing a beta of the application for free on December 6 in time for the launch of the Touch motion controllers. The input devices, which will cost $199, allow Oculus Rift users to have their hands tracked in VR experiences, something that’s pretty essential for artistic creation in VR.

Oculus Quill, which I was able to play around with a bit at Oculus’ Connect developer conference last month, was built as a custom tool for Art Director Wesley Allsbrook to shape the visual style for the Oculus Story Studio original film Dear Angelica. Much of the product was actually built during a hackathon last year by the lead engineer on the project. The product has seen a few changes since TechCrunch took a look at it earlier this year.

Take a look at the hauntingly cool artistic style of the yet-to-be-released short film Dear Angelica below.

The application allows for much more than doodling with sophisticated editing tools and layering options that make the most of the new Touch motion controllers. Compared to a product like Google’s Tilt Brush, which is currently only available for the HTC Vive, though a version is in the works for Oculus, Quill allows users to create a distinctly unique style that feels much more like a 3D oil painting.

The product exists alongside another artistic tool, Oculus Medium, which allows users to sculpt solid, sophisticated 3D models. The two seem to share much of the same DNA in terms of mechanics, but perhaps differ a bit in their philosophy. As opposed to taking a creation and just showing it off as an observable object, Oculus Story Studio is really trying to enhance a narrative with their artistic tools through Quill.

Quill be available for free on December 6 in the Oculus Home Store and will require the new Touch motion controllers.