Way to Go (interactive)

Way to Go (French: *Jusqu'ici*) is a 2015 interactive film and virtual reality web experience, a co-production between Canada and France. It was developed by the Montreal digital studio AATOAA—whose team includes Vincent Morisset, Philippe Lambert, Édouard Lanctôt-Benoit, and Caroline Robert—and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (Hugues Sweeney) and France Télévisions. The project blends animation with immersive video, letting users take a virtual walk through a forest.

Users control a block-headed, hand-drawn avatar as they explore. They can pause to observe the surroundings, which sometimes triggers a tunnel-vision effect that switches the view to a first-person perspective. The environment shifts between black-and-white live-action footage and a low-resolution, colored digital mode. In real time, eighty-three custom shaders adjust lighting, grain, and visual effects, while thousands of sounds are mixed live and synced to the user’s actions. The generative music score, composed by Philippe Lambert, responds to the pace of the user as they walk or fly through the forest.

The experience debuted as a VR installation at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier showcase. It has won two 2016 Webby Awards: the Webby and People’s Voice awards in the NetArt category. On April 27, 2015, it was named Cutting Edge Project of the Week at the Favourite Website Awards.