In-app filming guidance

The process of creating your designs is part of the story behind your ideas. Being able to share this and your Gravity Sketch progress is a great way of providing context for your design - but recording in VR can be tricky. Here’s some guidance for getting the best recording possible.

Getting the best VR footage

Although some headsets such as Meta Quests offer in-headset recording, there are other methods to get the most out of your workflow recordings. These are the internal Gravity Sketch guidelines that anyone in the community is also able to follow.

Recommended set up

• Tether your headset
• Plug your laptop into a power source (if not it can make the footage jumpy)

Record via OBS

• Download and install OBS Studio
• Record the screen streaming Gravity Sketch via OBS

OBS settings

Source = game capture

Mode = capture specific window

Capture cursor = OFF

Add audio input capture (if using audio) = select your microphone

Settings > Video = Switch everything to 1920x1080, 60 FPS

Before you start recording, try to put the headset on your head as straight as possible. Make sure that what you’re looking at in-headset is sitting center screen on your tethered computer screen.

What appears in the middle when you’re looking through the headset doesn’t always show up in the center of the screen on your computer, so you might need to peek at the screen to make sure the framing looks good.

Prepare your screen

Hide the taskbar on the bottom of your desktop screen

• Press and hold (or right-click) any empty space on the taskbar, and select Taskbar settings
• Turn on either Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode or Automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode (or both)
• Once tethered hit escape and turn on head smoothing
• Hit ctrl+g to get rid of GS watermark
• Turn controller visibility in GS settings to solid (all the way left on the toggle)
• Turn scaling off to make for fluid movement

Prepare your room

• Make sure you use flashlight in GS room to set up lighting for a shot you’re getting, particularly detail shots
• Make sure that the color of your background contrasts with what you are trying to show.

In VR you can have a busy space that looks amazing, but that doesn’t always translate well to video. For close up shots, turn off layers you aren't focusing on so you can clearly communicate the details of what you’re showing.

Add a 3D element (such as a last) behind your wireframe sketch to make sure that it is easily visible. Lines need something behind them to make sure the viewer can see them.

Draw lines or make edits that strongly show that these are 3D elements. Be sure to pan around an object or manipulate it to show that it is 3D.

Suggested shots

Think of your recording like a movie - you have wide establishing shots and close up detail shots of the design and features in use.

TRY THIS: Start really wide and put either hand lined up with either end of the room to do a smooth pan of the full room

TRY THIS: Scale really far in / out and smoothly zoom into or away from an object

TRY THIS: Go in at an angle to make for a more cinematic camera movement. Think like you’re moving a camera while filming a scene in a film

• For slow/steady wide shots have vertical lock turned on
• For close ups, detail shots with more dynamic movement turn vertical lock off