Tales from Soda Island
Bringing storytelling into VR — brushstroke by brushstroke
Tales from Soda Island was born from a desire to explore what storytelling could feel like when built entirely inside VR. As co-founder of Studio Syro, I helped establish a new production pipeline using Quill — bypassing traditional modeling or rigging, and instead relying on intuitive, hand-drawn animation directly in 3D space.
The result was a 7-episode anthology full of charm, movement, and emotion. I directed the first three episodes and served as lead animator throughout the series. Our team embraced VR as not just a tool, but a medium — where worldbuilding, animation, and cinematography could happen all at once.
The project helped set a new benchmark for what’s possible with Quill and was featured across Meta’s platforms, inspiring a growing wave of immersive animation creators.
Inventing without influence — building a language native to VR
When I began work on Tales from Soda Island, I made the conscious decision not to watch any existing VR films. I didn’t want our creative vision to be shaped by what already existed — instead, we approached the medium with fresh eyes. This allowed us to develop a distinct visual language built specifically for VR, from how we guide the viewer’s gaze to how we choreograph movement through space. We ended up pioneering several immersive storytelling techniques that have since influenced a new generation of VR creators.
Community impact and wide-reaching recognition
Tales from Soda Island quickly resonated with the VR and animation community. It was featured by Meta across Quest platforms and gained widespread attention for its emotional tone, innovative style, and technical execution. The series has since been viewed over one million times in VR, sparking conversations around the artistic potential of hand-painted storytelling — and inspiring countless artists to explore Quill and immersive animation.
