Warrnambool's One Day Studios has thrown open its doors for children to spend some of their holiday time in another world.
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Through its virtual reality technology, children aged eight to 15 can head into the studio for an hour of engaging activities.
Founders Richard Pritchard, David McIntyre and Gareth Colliton launched the Legends VR holiday program this week and have been inundated with eager children coming in.
"We've had a huge response," Mr Pritchard said. "We've had a massive amount of bookings from only a few posts on Facebook. The kids are absolutely loving it and the parents are too."
Through the technology, what the user sees through the headsets is cast onto a screen for parents and the One Day Studios team to watch and be entertained themselves.
VR experience has always been the aim of One Day Studios from the very beginning and for the founders, the space offers more than just an hour of holiday fun.
"We always had this idea from the inception of our digital media space idea," Mr Pritchard said. "We used our grant (of $74,550) from Creative Victoria to develop the space and buy all the equipment. This is the fulfillment of our idea from 18-months-ago.
"We want kids to come in here and experience virtual reality, think about how they could make VR and then come in here to learn how to do it.
"We want to ignite that passion and help people step across from playing a game to making one."
Hawkesdale's Alex Atkinson, 9, was one of the first to try out the VR stations. His father Ayron said his son was "obsessed" with everything VR.
"It was Alex's choice to come today," Mr Atkinson said. "We knew he'd love it because he's right into VR.
"He knew everything before it was even happening."
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The studio is equipped with art stations which provide the ultimate work space for digital literacy and gaming technology.
Designed to be a replica of the ones at Disney and Pixar but with an added third screen, the stations use Unreal Engine software to create VR and also have video editing, drawing and animation software right at the user's fingertips.
While the coronavirus halted the classes One Day Studios had planned for 2020, the team still completed a six week program with Warrnambool East Primary School and made an animation project for a disability service to teach computer skills.
"We sat here and thought; 'now we've got all the equipment, how do we get people to use it?'," Mr Pritchard said.
"Coronavirus forced us to re-examine our classes, gave us more time to set up the space and be prepared for our launch."
One Day Studios has plans up its sleeve to continue expanding the space into a world-class digital technology facility for experiences and education.
The team hopes to complete a podcast and film studio for content creation and a robotics workshop in the near future and begin VR sessions for teenagers and adults.
To book your Legends VR experience or to find out more about One Day Studios head to onedaystudios.org.au
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