Learn to Paint Your Own Happy Trees in ‘Vermillion’ for Quest 2
Fans of the oil painting app Vermillion have been able to create amazing pieces of digital art on the Rift Platform since last year. And starting today, both pros and amateur artists alike can paint wherever they want with Vermillion’s release on Quest 2 for $19.99 USD. The app supports cross-buy between the two platforms, so purchasing it on either Rift or Quest 2 gives you access to both versions.
Vermillion on Quest 2 has all of the features of the Rift version, including realistic color mixing, the ability to resize your canvas at any time, and a built-in web browser for painting with reference photos or for following along with how-to videos. But you’ll also find some new content like Passthrough mode, which uses Quest 2’s Passthrough feature to let you paint within your own home (instead of using one of the app’s virtual studios).
And when you’re satisfied with your artistic creation, you can export it as a 3D model or directly post it to Facebook as a 2D image with the new dedicated share button.
To celebrate the launch of Vermillion on Quest 2, we spoke with solo developer Thomas van den Berge about what inspired him to make the app and the joy of seeing people share their digital paintings with him.
Thomas van den Berge: My first job was at a creative agency where I used Unity and Unreal to build interactive experiences for museums and enterprise, such as projection mappings and mobile AR. We got the Oculus DK2 shortly after it was available, and that was my first time experiencing VR—love at first sight! I stayed in the office after hours to keep playing around with it. Since then, VR has been on my radar, and I was eagerly anticipating the first consumer VR hardware release.
Once I had my own VR gear at home, I started building game prototypes for it. I’m not a painter myself, though I recently discovered that my grandma used to do oil painting back in her day. Maybe that interest passed on to me!
TB: My girlfriend and I had to cut our planned six-month travel short while we were in Cambodia once COVID really started to unravel society in March of 2020. With the unplanned return, we found ourselves in a locked-down Belgium, staying in a town we weren’t familiar with. All our ideas for the future were put on hold, and we were feeling a bit down. Looking for some peace of mind, I rediscovered Bob Ross, and being a developer I thought I should try replicating the experience in VR. The first prototype video I made went viral on LinkedIn, and I figured this was something others were also interested in trying. I haven’t stopped working on it since!
TB: Since I’m not a painter myself, it all came through observation and feedback. I closely watched painters on YouTube, noting how the paint is shaped on the canvas and how it behaves. Once I had a decent baseline, I ran a closed beta and implemented a lot of feedback from artists familiar with the medium. One of the big challenges was getting colors to mix realistically. In digital art, mixing blue and yellow just gets you a shade that lies somewhere between those two colors. With pigments, you get green instead. Getting this working was a big milestone for me!
TB: The number of people for whom Vermillion is their favorite VR experience, even those who have never painted before. I think it really goes to show that people have an innate desire to express themselves creatively, and that VR is a great medium to do this in. You can use your body the same way as you would in reality—rather than being limited to mouse and keyboard—but you get all the benefits of it being digital. The Discord community has been sharing new paintings every day, and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me. Seeing first-time painters discover this new side of themselves and marveling at the work of established artists makes me feel truly blessed.
There’s of course been countless Bob Ross paint-alongs, as well as (pet) portraits, abstract art, landscapes from their own reference photos, game characters, and more. One of my favorites was a dad letting his young daughter unleash her creativity in VR, and then ordering a canvas print of her artwork for her room as a surprise.
TB: Yes, getting Vermillion running at 72Hz on Quest 2 was a serious challenge! It might seem strange that a game where you’re just painting in a single room is as demanding as an open-world shooter, but the oil painting simulation has to crunch a lot of texture data every frame, and this really strains the hardware. This is also the reason why it’s launching as a Quest 2 exclusive—Quest 2 is a lot more powerful than the first iteration, so getting it running on Quest 1 is an even greater challenge, one that I haven’t yet tackled. RenderDoc for Oculus was an invaluable tool to measure performance, and to make informed decisions on what’s causing frame drops. Shoutout to Cristiano from Meta Developer Relations for his tips!
TB: Being a solo developer means you need all the help you can get when it comes to testing, and getting user feedback to polish the experience as well as the painting simulation itself is gold. Many of the core features, such as the easel that can be adjusted to any height and inclination to allow you to rest your hand on a table while painting, are only there because people asked for them. But more than that, the Discord community of testers feel like friends, being much of my social contact these past few years where I’m glued to my screen from before dawn ’til after dusk.
TB: I’d have to mention two things. First, the viscosity of the paint. It’s not just flat color, but the paint has thickness that you can squash and build up on the palette and the canvas, and the specular reflection of the paint changes with the direction of the brush stroke. Carving into the dollops of paint on the palette with a brush feels so satisfying! Secondly, it’d be the sound design. I recorded all the game sounds, such as the brush hits and movement of the equipment, using my phone. But it feels so real in-game. Swirling a brush around in the bucket of paint thinner and then beating it against the easel’s frame always brings a smile to my face.
TB: Definitely! One of the tutorials is by a resident community member, Markus Franz, who teaches you how to paint a robin. The other is by me, showing how to do a Bob Ross-style landscape in Vermillion. It’s been surreal to see people learning to paint with us, just like Bob did. I can’t wait to have the time to record more tutorials!
TB: Oil painting may seem daunting at first, but Vermillion gives you all the tools to make it as accessible as possible. No need to worry about messing up the canvas since you can just hit undo. You have a web browser right next to the easel, giving you the internet’s library of painting tutorials to stream. You can also project the browser onto the canvas, allowing you to trace images, removing the challenge of drawing from reference. Once you get started, you’ll soon find yourself creating beautiful pieces of art to share with your friends and family. Bob believed that anyone can paint, and from what I’ve seen the community do, this definitely holds true. Don’t keep your inner artist waiting!
TB: I still have many features in mind, such as the addition of paint tubes and more quality of life improvements. Something I’m particularly excited about is the ability to customize your studio, putting your framed artwork on the walls, and then inviting your friends over to come take a look!
TB: If you’re an indie VR developer currently working on your project, all I can say is hang in there! All it takes is finding the right people to believe in you. I’d personally like to thank Harry from UploadVR for covering the first announcement, and Kat for being the one at Meta who believed in Vermillion from the start, seeing me through release on the Quest Store.
Sit back, relax, and start painting your masterpiece in Vermillion, now available on both Quest 2 and the Rift Platform.
