Charlotte Huggins Enters the Virtual Realm with Founding of AXYZ Studios

Nov 10, 2015 Joe Kleiman Attractions, Business, News, People, Theme Parks 0

ABOVE: Charlotte Huggins, Sean Chung and Ryan Miziker of AXYZ Studios

Los Angeles, CA, USA (November 10, 2015) – Charlotte Huggins, Ryan Miziker, Sean Chung and Raj Deshpande will attend the IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando with their new company, AXYZ Studios (pronounced “axis”), producers of scalable, virtual reality (VR) experiences tailored for theme parks and visitor attractions.

Huggins is well known in the themed entertainment space as a pioneering special venue producer of 3D content for theme parks, giant screen theaters in museums and science centers, and world expo pavilions. Some prominent work includes serving as VFX Producer on “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” for Disney, and as Producer on “3D Mania” and “Thrill Ride” for nWave Pictures. In the feature film world, her Producer credits include “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Journey to the Mysterious Island” (New Line/Warner Bros.) and “Metallica Through the Never” (Blackened/Picturehouse).

Current VR development is predominately tied to in-home use for social media and real-time gaming. However, “We’re not going to do either of those,” says Huggins. “We’re producing cinematic experiences for fun, thrills and immersive entertainment: pre-rendered, 360° shows 4-18 minutes long, for out-of-home venues.”

In order to further improve the quality of their cinematic VR experiences, AXYZ is currently developing a custom 360 camera system which will be more portable and easier to use for location based live-action photography, and will also help simplify the post production process.

READ INPARK’S 2011 INTERVIEW WITH CHARLOTTE HUGGINS ON HER EXPERIENCE IN SPECIAL VENUE MEDIA PRODUCTION

AXYZ Studios is active within the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and a sponsor of TEA’s booth at the IAAPA Attractions Expo.

“Today’s VR technology has the speed, precision, detail, accuracy and robustness needed to deliver a quality guest experience in the demanding, 24/7 theme park environment,” says Chung. “And with players such as Google, Facebook and Sony Playstation investing billions of dollars, VR will only get better and more versatile.”

Applications of VR as seen by the AXYZ team include:

–Roller coasters and hard rides: Integrating VR with a new or existing thrill ride is already being tested. “With Hollywood style cinematic visuals, AXYZ will increase the emotional and physical impact of the experience,” says Huggins.
–Scalable, motion-based experiences: “Footprint doesn’t matter,” says Chung. “No matter how small the actual physical space, AXYZ will deliver a giant, immersive VR experience.”

Sister company to AXYZ Studios is Pulseworks, a leading manufacturer of motion ride systems and digital content for media-based attractions. The two companies share technology and resources, and Deshpande is a principal of both. “This is absolutely the time and the team for producing VR to deliver the next generation of media-based guest experiences,” he says. We’re very enthusiastic about this venture.”

For more information, or to set up a business meeting or media interview with AXYZ Studios at the IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando, contact Vacheh Shahmoradian, vacheh@axyzstudios.com, +1-310-980-4020.