Empress VR is founded on the principle of amplifying diverse voices in immersive storytelling. We do this by providing educational opportunities that follow an economic justice model. If you can’t afford a class, we have scholarship opportunities available, please get in touch at classes@empressvr.com
What We Offer
Our Online Classes are designed with artists & creatives in mind. Knowing that we all sometimes struggle with business concepts, technical skills, and fighting the myth of the starving artist, these classes are designed to move at your pace and focus on empowerment while keeping concepts simple and direct - freeing up your time to focus on the creative and emotive elements of your projects.
EmpressVR believes in economic justice and sliding scale pricing are available for all our courses, with the standard cost listed on our scheduling service. If you would like to either pay more, or if you would like to request a scholarship, please email classes@empressvr.com
Online Createch and Business Classes
The EmpressVR Social VR Classes focus on giving people who already own VR headsets a supportive and educational introduction to Social Virtual Reality Applications , such as VRChat, Horizon Worlds, RecRoom, and Spatial, among others.
If you’ve tried these apps on your own, you may have found that it’s a bit overwhelming to join a public lobby and not know who you might meet there. It can be loud, it can be confusing, and unless you have a friend to teach you about your menus and settings, it can be uncomfortable.
These classes are different!
In these classes, you will learn about your comfort settings, how to use your menus, change avatars, navigate to worlds that only your friends can join, and add friends that you meet in your tour group so that you can connect with them later on. We will visit at least 3 user-created worlds per tour, and as an added perk, you’ll be added to the EmpressVR Community so you can connect with creators, academics, and immersive storytelling professionals!
For the last 30+ years, social communities have been enthusiastically creating the realm of 3D virtual space, which can now be explored through virtual reality headsets! This wonderful space of connection and creativity is being expanded by users as they learn about world building, immersive storytelling, and creating delightful and surprising interactivity in their creations. Book a tour and join the community today!
Social VR Recreational Classes
Community Events
EmpressVR supports a Global Community of individuals from diverse backgrounds who are exploring careers as virtual reality developers, immersive storytellers, creative technologists, sound designers, and 3D modelers among many others. We are exploring the innovative intersection between technology and traditional art forms, to create emotionally complex and technically experimental works, to test the limits of our own imaginations, and surprise and delight audiences while working to make the world a better and more equitable place by fulfilling on our primary objective:
To Amplify Diverse Voices in Immersive Storytelling.
Sign up for a community event, join us in VRChat for Virtual Vibes on Sundays, or keep an eye out for other local events that we’ll be putting together over the coming months and years!
We can do more as a community than we can alone!
Join us and see what we can make together!
This is a 6 Week Bootcamp-style course with low-to-no coding designed for Creatives and Artists who want to fast-track their ability to prototype immersive VR applications and test ideas in pre-production.
This class is perfect for you if:
You have no previous knowledge of the Unity game engine, but are enthusiastic about learning creative technology
You are an artist or creative and would like to begin exploring prototyping in VR to express your creative concepts
You would like to begin your journey into VR Development and game design, but from a creative perspective
You have a prototype idea that you would like to take from concept to first iteration during the 6 weeks of this course
Tech Requirements: Download the Equipment and Technical Requirement List Here
Syllabus and Homework:
Week 0:
Prepare for class: Download Unity following the step-by-step PDF provided
1:1 Call with Instructor if support is needed
Week 1
Class Topic: Unity Tour, Asset Manipulation, coding concepts
Homework: Download Meta Quest Developer Hub
Optional HW: Unity Create with Code Lesson 1 and apply this to your own project
Week 2
Class Topic: Meta Quest Developer: Setting up the MQ Software Development Kits and running play mode in your headset
Homework: Step-by-step PDF provided to get into Play Mode on your own system, plus install Meta Interaction SDK
Optional HW: Unity Creative Core: Shaders & Materials and apply this to your own project
Week 3
Class Topic: Interaction SDK Tour: What you can do, how you can do it!
Homework: Interaction SDK tutorials
Optional HW: Apply interactions to your own project
Week 4
Class Topic: Locomotion → Movement in VR
Homework: Locomotion Settings tutorials
Optional HW: Apply locomotion to your own project
Week 5
Class Topic: Worldbuilding Prototyping in Gravity Sketch Collab
Homework: Work on your own project, apply concepts learned
Week 6
Class Topic: Multiplayer App Theory
Homework: None
Upcoming Classes and Socials
This 1 hour class will take place in VRChat and will navigate to several worlds that are educational in nature and is specifically designed to allow you to acclimate to virtual reality gradually which will give your nervous system time to adjust while limiting the risk of motion sickness and allowing you to enjoy your time exploring virtual worlds fearlessly!
Accessibility: This class does require a VR headset. We will not visit any PC VR only worlds, so Meta Quest or Pico should be fine. If you have any accessibility needs, please get in touch with classes@empressvr.com And here at EmpressVR we believe that everyone should have full control over their reasonable adjustments. Please do what’s right for you! We’re here to support that in any way we can.
Syllabus & Schedule:
Introductions & Motion Sickness Tips → 10 minutes
Menu Basics → 15 minutes
Comfort Settings
Adding friends
Avatars
Break →10 minutes
World Visit → 15 minutes
World Settings
Complexity of World Physics
Conversations & VR Etiquette
Wrap-up → 10 Minutes
Disclaimer: Although this tour is designed using data and research into Motion Sickness, we cannot guarantee that sickness will be fully avoided. Please respect your own body <3 Studies have shown that VR motion sickness can be overcome but that won’t be possible if you do not respect the limits of your own body. You have full permission to take off the headset at any time, take a breather, and come back to the class if and when you feel better. If you miss the second half of class due to simulation sickness, you are more that welcome to attend another class in the future. Our commitment is to your growing ability to navigate VR comfortably. Reach out if you have questions or concerns.
This 2 hour class will take place in VRChat and will navigate to several worlds that are educational in nature and will demonstrate the principles of immersive storytelling in either very good — or very bad — ways!
Note: This class assumes that you already have fluency in navigating VRChat and VR in general. If you would like to learn VR Fluency, please consider taking our Intro to VRChat Fluency --> In VR! class instead!
Accessibility: This class does not require a VR headset, but it will be the most effective way to experience the immersive principles we discuss. Feel free to attend class via 2D on PC or phone/tablet app. We will not visit any PC VR only worlds, so Meta Quest or Pico should be fine. If you have any accessibility needs, please get in touch with classes@empressvr.com . And here at EmpressVR we believe that everyone should have full control over their reasonable adjustments. Please do what’s right for you! We’re here to support that in any way we can.
Syllabus & Schedule:
Introductions & 3D Design Basics → 15 minutes
Tour of Immersive Storytelling World → 30 minutes
Lighting and Visual Cues
Object Affordances
Interactions
Terrain & Audio
Emissive Objects & Particle Effects
Colliders & Triggers
Use of heights, single-sided normals, & falling to respawn!
Break →10 minutes
World 1 Visit → 30 minutes
Best Practices, Easter Eggs, Games
World 2 Visit → 30 minutes
Flying - Good, bad, ugly
Human Nature & Multiplayer
Wrap-up → 5 Minutes
Disclaimer: Although this tour is designed using data and research into Motion Sickness, we cannot guarantee that sickness will be fully avoided. Please respect your own body <3 Studies have shown that VR motion sickness can be overcome but that won’t be possible if you do not respect the limits of your own body. You have full permission to take off the headset at any time, take a breather, and come back to the class if and when you feel better. If you miss the second half of class due to simulation sickness, you are more that welcome to attend another class in the future. Our commitment is to your growing ability to navigate VR comfortably. Reach out if you have questions or concerns. C