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A VR walkthrough of 2001: A Space Odyssey

A VR walkthrough of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Interior Design graduate Erika Bonat has an obsession with the film sets of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and who can blame her? She’s always been interested in interior design and architecture and during her interior design studies in Verona, Italy she discovered a new found love of 3D modelling and rendering. Coupled with the fact that watching movies is another passion she decided to create a 3D VR walkthrough of some key scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

vr walkthrough 2001 The Hilton lobby of Space Station 5
A still from Erika Bonat’s 3D VR walkthrough of The Hilton lobby of Space Station 5, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Models and shading: E. Bonat. Unreal blueprints: E. Cinquetti. Production: E. Perinelli/Ximula

“I created this VR walkthrough experience as my thesis as I wanted to create a project that united all of my passions. I analysed the interiors of 2001: A Space Odyssey and then replicated some of its environments. The users of this VR experience can enter the spaces of the movie in person.” Bonat told Film and Furniture. 

Watch the 3D VR walkthough and read our interview with Erika Bonat below.

F&F: Why did you choose Kubrick’s 2001 as the subject for your VR experience?

Erika Bonat: I chose 2001: A Space Odyssey because this movie really caught my attention. I didn’t quite get all the story the first time I saw it but I was mesmerised by the interiors. When I was searching for a movie to analyse for my thesis, 2001 was the first film that came to mind and after I watched it again and did some more research, I knew it was the perfect choice for my project”.

F&F: Why did you choose the the Aries shuttle interior, the Hilton Lobby of Space Station V and the interior of Hal9000 in particular?

EB: I did an analysis of the interiors of the entire movie but when I had to choose which room to recreate I had consider several different aspects. I replicated only three rooms because I had a limited amount of time to do this project, and I chose these because they were interesting from an interior design point of view. It would have been interesting to replicate the ‘renaissance room’ of the movie but it was too complicated to recreate within the time available”.

Aries shuttle vr walkthough 2001
A still from Erika Bonat’s 3D VR walkthrough of the Aries shuttle, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Models and shading: E. Bonat. Unreal blueprints: E. Cinquetti. Production: E. Perinelli/Ximula

F&F: What was the biggest challenge?

EB: One of the biggest challenges was to get the dimensions of the spaces right. I recreated everything based of the images of the movie without having many other references, but the perspective of a room can be distorted by the lenses used in filming and the depth of field of an image. Virtual Reality is different because you experience it in first person and you can move through space whereas in movies it is the director that shows you the space as they want you to see it.

F&F: How did you go about creating this VR walkthrough – what tech and software did you use?

EB: I started by modelling the 3D spaces and objects of the various rooms with software called Blender. Once I modelled everything I used Unreal Engine to create the VR experience. I took care of shading and lighting but the programming and production were done by a VR company in Verona called Ximula.

VR walkthrough of 2001 Hal9000
A still from Erika Bonat’s 3D VR walk through of Hal9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Models and shading: E. Bonat. Unreal blueprints: E. Cinquetti. Production: E. Perinelli/Ximula

F&F: How long did this take?

EB: I took almost a year to complete everything because I was also studying at the same time and bearing in mind this was my first VR project!

F&F: Do you love the film sets and objects of 2001 even more now you’ve spent so long studying them or are you now sick or the sight of them?!

EB: When I was developing the project I got tired of seeing them! but now that I have finished it – I can say that I appreciate them even more.

F&F: What’s your favourite film interior and why?

If I had to choose a movie based on its interiors it would be Inception.

Watch the VR walkthrough below:-

You can find more features on 2001: A Space Odyssey film sets together with furniture and merchandise from the film here >

Please leave your comments and feedback in the comments box below.

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15 responses to “A VR walkthrough of 2001: A Space Odyssey

  1. Incredible and amazing. I’ve always fantasized there would be a virtual walkthrough of 2001. Nice to see it was in the hands of a master.
    Erica, my name is Wally fields. I voiced HAL 9000 for a museum exhibit for the tech museum of innovation in the year 2001, and also on stage (well, off stage if you will) in a Jules Verne adventures live performance interview with Kier Dullea, Dan Richter, and Stanley Kubrick’s daughter.
    Would you be interested in considering using my HAL voice in your walk through?

  2. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!! I’m 59 now and first saw 2001 when I was 9. I’ve been an obsessive fan since reading the book aged 13. Yes, for what you have created you are most certainly a MASTER! An ARTISAN!! And what wonders are yet to come? I wish you all the very best. THANKYOU!

  3. I would love to be able to download this VR to view. Having the HAL voice would be awesome. Just let me know how much you want.

  4. I have an Oculus Quest and am a big Kubrick fan ; could you please tell ,e how to access the VR experience? THanks you in advance,
    Nicolas

  5. Nice to see someone taking the time to do this. FYI The entire inside of Discovery was built in VR for the 2012 documentary 2001 The Science of Futures Past on DVD in the book “2001 The Lost Science Volume 1”. The build was done for Fred Ordway, science advisor on 2001. The book was just reprinted in a limited supply at cgpublishing.com

  6. This is magnificent. I’d love to buy a download or disc of this – or any further addition themed on this. Especially the final room where Dave Bowman makes his transformation.

  7. nives and forks in the Aries Moon shuttle kitchen, when everything in the dinner trays was sucked through a tube?

  8. Very nice work Erika!
    I’m a big 2001 fan.
    In 1999 I discovered a Virtual Reality language called VRML. I immediately began building a 2001 in VRML site back then. You could actually walk through the sets I built like a video game online for free. Unfortunately VRML no longer works on any web browser. VRML has morphed into X3D and is just too difficult for me to convert right now.
    I just uploaded my old site (without the actual VRML) to be seen online once again.
    The url is vr.alexllobet.com if anyone cares to see what my site looked like back in 2011.
    I had also built a VRML site for the original World Trade Center in NYC which you can see there also.

  9. Very nice work! I’m a big fan of the movie since I first saw it in the late 60s. Is this VR world available to navigate, like a video game?
    In 1999 I built my own 3D site with the 2001 space ship models. Unfortunately it doesn’t work any longer. But I did put up my original site again without the 3D models.

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