Life Before Birth

Life Before Birth enables clinicians to give expectant parents a unique insight into antenatal phenomena.

Released : 2019

Runtime : 12 minutes

Format : Room-scale Real-time VR

This immersive and interactive experience transports parents inside the womb to witness the formation of their child; to educate about key developmental stages and the importance of vital medical examinations.

Developed with New Frontiers Ltd in collaboration with Alchemy Immersive and Zoo VFX – Life Before Birth gives parents an informative and magical insight into one of the most life-changing journeys they’ll face. The user can explore and interact with the growing foetus – meaning they can zone in on various moments of development important to them, creating a tailored experience that is unique to VR platforms.

This project harnessed the power of the Unreal Engine’s most recent developments in real-time rendering and ray-tracing to create a breathtakingly high-end experience. Our teams worked hard, creating medically accurate, realistic 3D models of the foetus throughout its development in the womb. These models can be manipulated to help expectant parents understand what is happening from the moment of conception through to giving birth. The experience is completed by a voiceover and interaction points, allowing users to spend time exploring what is important to them.

Life before birth was designed as part of the larger educational project by the Development Research Centre of the State Council and the Shanghai Medical Innovation & Development Foundation to improve China’s maternal care. The experience educates both prospective parents and medical professionals outside of centralised giant hospitals as part of a drive to get parents to attend pregnancy education classes and important key checkups.

Credits

Director

Alexander Horton

Producer

David Barker

Realtime Supervisor

Bhaumik Patel

Creative annd Technical Lead

Elliot Graves

Alchemy Production

Vianney Comot

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Executive Producers

Professor Guangzhong Yang
Dr. Bo Wang, Richard Han
Anthony Geffen

Unreal Engine Developer

Sargey Rose

Spatial Sound and Music

Mark Sayfritz

3D Artists

Frank Eagan
Jaime Fernandez-Muro
Matthew Baker-Jones
Stefan Mathez

Production Manager

Claire Buswell

Researcher

Charlie Girdlestone

In Association With

Zoo VFX
New Frontiers Limited
Yinmo Information Technology Limited (IMM)
Shanghai Medical Innovation & Development Foundation
Shanghai Institute of Medical Quality

Atlantic Productions is one of the world’s leading factual production companies whose TV and theatrical films have been seen in over 150 countries.

Alchemy are leading the way in creating immersive, narrative led content for mediums like VR, AR, MR and even AI.

The multi award-winning Colossus Productions produce high-end 3D films for an international audience.