Hold The World is an interactive VR experience commissioned by Sky VR and produced by Factory42. It sets out to give users something most can only dream of - a private audience with the UK’s most trusted figure Sir David Attenborough. Placing users in secret rooms inside London's Natural History Museum, they’re given powers they don’t have in real life by enabling them to pick up and examine priceless artefacts – before the objects come to life. The project combines several cutting-edge technologies for the first time: high res digital scans; advanced game design and interactions; creature animation and a 3D hologram of Sir David.

Our objective was to create a high profile, ground-breaking interactive world first to drive awareness of the launch of interactivity on Sky’s VR app. The aim was to appeal to a broad base of Sky customers and engage them with the much-loved Natural History Museum.

Creating Hold the world was an exciting and very complex undertaking. When the idea was first envisaged, the technology was not sufficiently developed to be able to create the experience that we desired. However, we realised that the technology to support the experience would become possible during the lifetime of the project. So we started work in anticipation of rapid technological change, which was a risk that paid off and ensured that the experience used capabilities at the cutting edge of what is possible in VR.

The team (involving Natural History Museum curators, researchers and digitisation experts) ensured that the specimen models and animations were as scientifically accurate as possible, and that the story behind each one reflected the latest research into each animal. The museum therefore allocated a scientific expert to each object who then worked with storytellers, digitisers, modellers and animators. Photogrammetry was used to recreate rooms inside the Museum, and Sir David's hologram was created with more than 100 cameras in volumetric capture.

We launched Hold the World as part of the Sky VR app in June 2018. Sky promoted Hold The World across Sky News, Sky 1 & Sky Sports and in digital adverts. The project involved bringing together many different disciplines from science, digital media, technology and marketing across a variety of partners.

Hold the World is an extraordinary next step in how Sky can communicate and educate people about experiences they wouldn't usually have access to in the real world. It is a world first as it brings together a holographic narrator with accurate, 3D scanned objects, animation and documentary storytelling. The user is provided with the ability to ‘hold’ and explore each object using the controller with the same technique used in VR gaming.