Groove Jones

I work for Aurea Software. We’re a software company with a growing portfolio of solutions, which are a combination of companies we’ve acquired and products we build. One part of our portfolio is organized around what we call “the future of work,” which is about how tomorrow’s workforce will require a more hybrid approach, becoming more global, remote, and distributed.

We got an opportunity to participate in a large telephone conference that happens every year in Barcelona. We wanted to showcase a super futuristic view of what we believe work will be like in 5–10 years based on VR and AR. We think people will be able to work with the kind of technology that we see in movies and games like Matrix or Ready Player One, but adapted to the business side.

When we started, we weren’t sure of what we wanted or what was possible. With Groove Jones, we quickly came to the conclusion that we wanted to build a physical environment where people could step inside and experience VR as if they were in it. Therefore, we wanted to create a room like Star Trek’s holodeck where customers could go inside and be in the virtual world.

We worked with almost the whole company. Typically, we would’ve spent nine months doing this project, and we did it in three, so it was a last-minute project. We didn’t know how many people were involved, but it was an all-hands-on-deck type of work. We had at least 20 people on it.

We were looking for a partner with deep VR experience that could help us with all the aspects of working in a foreign country, building an experience at a conference we’d never been to before, and delivering in short time frames. We searched online, and we found 5–6 companies with the right sort of skills. We spoke to 3–4, and we chose Groove Jones for two reasons.

It was a fair amount of money. We spent at least $2 million on this project.

We started working with them around March 2021, and the event was at the end of June 2021. We’re still doing some post-production work, creating an ongoing, reusable version. It’ll be embedded in a headset that we can send to our partners and customers. Moreover, we’ll almost certainly use them again on other events.

It was the best demo experience that I’ve seen. It had the quality of a Disneyland ride and the production level of a Super Bowl. It was truly first class, and everyone that went through it was blown away. I took about 40 executives over 4–5 days to see it, and every one of them said it was incredible.

They managed the project incredibly tightly. The biggest challenges were around our end; we were moving so fast and weren’t quite sure of what we were doing. Groove Jones’ team did a good job of pushing us when they needed answers and dealing with many last-minute changes. They drove the schedule pretty well, but they were also very accommodating to what we needed. We told them upfront that it was a challenging project and we would be super needy, but they said that some of their best work is done under those circumstances.

The breadth of knowledge that they had about all the different aspects of technology was invaluable. The project could’ve gone 50 different ways, but they were great at getting us on the right path thanks to their expertise across everything. We never could’ve got those results if we’d assembled a cast of different vendors; we simply wouldn’t have been able to do pull it off.

I can’t think of anything. Realistically, I couldn’t expect them to do better. It was a crazy, wildly ambitious, last-minute project, and they knocked it out of the park.

If you come in with a preconceived idea, they WILL execute against it, but they’re the experts, so I’d let them steer the course.

I’m the owner of a VR development company.

We were creating a location-based experience for a theatre, and we needed someone with experience in both technology and creative.

Groove Jones determined which game engine we should use. Then, they designed a VR experience based on a script that we provided them with. They designed what the environment would look like, as well as all of the characters and animals. The team added point of view and creative content.

Our main point of contact was Gary (Executive Producer & Partner).

We had to evaluate several different technologies and make a few technologies work together that had never worked together before. In discussing that with various service providers, Groove Jones seemed to have the deepest technical expertise on how to make it happen.

It was over $1 million.

Our work together began in December 2019, and we wrapped up in October 2020.

The VR experience is available publicly, and it’s been received with overwhelming praise. I don’t think my experience working with Groove Jones could’ve been any better.

They were very responsive. We communicated through typical tools like email, phone calls, and texts. They were forward-thinking, and they took it upon themselves to get to the next step.

Their ability to marry their technical acumen and creative capacity in order to provide something that the public would really enjoy was very impressive.

No, I don’t think so. This was a hard project, and they did a great job.

I would recommend anybody that needs these types of services to hire Groove Jones — it was a great experience for me.

My company is called Thinkbank. I represent animation studios and solve problems for agencies. I’m a hybrid, so I’m not just a representative. I don’t just find jobs, but I also executive produce them.

I directed a campaign for a studio in South Carolina that was working on a real-time motion capture otter for the St. Louis Aquarium. They designed the character but didn’t know much about real-time motion capture, which is complex. The aquarium also didn’t have the budget for a traditional real-time motion capture project.

Groove Jones came up with a new motion capture system that allowed us to hit our budget. Their team had the idea to use hand controllers as modifications of joysticks, which were typically used in real-time motion capture projects. They also had the idea to use an iPhone for facial capturing.

I worked with Ashton (Head of Production AR/VR), Dale (Executive Creative Director & Partner), Dan (EVP Interactive Digital & Partner), and Gary (Executive Producer & Partner). For the most part, I communicated with Ashton, Gary, and Dale.

I knew Groove Jones when they ran a different animation studio. I’ve always liked their work. They’d done cool animations. I’d been talking to Gary for years. We think similarly and have fun. In these crazy times, you want to work with people that you can trust.

We spent between $160,000–$170,000.

I started to contact them when we put this project to bid. We started the work in July 2019 and finished when the aquarium opened in December 2019.

The otter—Tommy—became part of the aquarium’s brand because he was so interactive. He’s now a signature to the aquarium.

From a project management standpoint, they were excellent. Their team stayed involved throughout the project. With smaller studios, I executive produce their projects. I have to make sure that everyone’s in line. I don’t have to do that with Groove. I can bring them a job and turn back, which is rare.

Groove Jones literally invented a brand new system in the middle of this project. They brought all of these elements together—hand controllers and iPhones—and made the project possible. This type of motion capture didn’t exist. But now it does.

I’ve been happy with them overall.

Call them and let them do their job.

I work for the Dallas Mavericks, NBA basketball team. There, I am the VP of the creative studio. I lead and oversee the expressions of our brand and how it comes to life in marketing, advertising, social, and game presentation.

This past season, we’ve been trying to focus on players. We wanted fans to get to know them a bit better. They’re all great at basketball, but what are their other passions? For example, one of our players had a lot of heart and wanted to do more philanthropic efforts, and he wasn’t able to do that as much as he would have liked with his last team. We thought it was a great opportunity for us to create a campaign to end childhood hunger and food insecurity. For every block he had in season, he donated $500, and we needed to get that message out. We brought in Groove Jones to support that.

We pulled in Groove Jones to create an AR element that would allow some of our fans to get into the experience. We have a lot of wall space for ads and marketing in downtown Dallas. So we created these wallscapes, and fans can use their device to get more involved.

There were about 6–7 people involved in the project. I worked with two figureheads, and I know that the project involved an audio person and a few designers.

I worked with a few of their teammates before and they’re based in Dallas. They’re a great group, and I knew they would get it done and improve upon our concepts. They’ve also worked with the team in the past.

We’ve spent about $500,000.

We started working together in November 2019 and it’s ongoing. We were planning to do another project leading into playoffs, but everything was put on hold for COVID-19.

Our player was very pleased with the outcome. It was exactly what they were looking for. We’ve been trying to evolve our brand, and this project has helped bring some swagger back into our brand. We want to invest in more innovative fan engagement pieces. Now other players are interested in doing something similar. The more buy-in we get from our players, the better for everyone.

One of the benefits of being local, we could meet in person a few times. We also used phone and email.

They came into every conversation with some curiosity and excitement. They would be like, what if we tried this? For example, every time he blocked a shot, a comic-book type graphic would say something like ka-pow! That’s the fun type of collaboration that really made the product better. It wasn’t part of our original plan, but I’m glad they came up with it. A lot of vendors just deliver what their clients want, or they try to upsell them. Groove Jones just wants to deliver a quality product.

It didn’t really affect our project, but I just hope that as they continue to scale and do bigger things, that they have the infrastructure to support it all.

If you’re too focused on your own concepts, you might miss out on the what if conversations with them. The benefits of hiring an outside collaborator, is that they can bring additional resources and ideas. At the same time, if you have an idea, you need to be forthcoming about it. The more collaborative you can be, the better the work will be.

I’m the chief creative officer at an advertising agency, 3Headed Monster.

Our biggest client wanted to create excitement and social sharing around one of their activations.

Our idea was to put consumers into our client’s TV commercial. We wanted to take the commercial’s principal actor and replace them with the consumer in real-time during an activation, and then provide the consumer with their own version of the spot that they could share on social media. The real-time rendering had never been done before. Groove Jones came up with an AI-driven, cloud-based solution that nailed it.

I worked directly with the founder Dale (Executive Creative Director) because he and I go back, but there were a number of folks involved. 4–5 people from their team carried most of it.

I have a longstanding relationship with Dale; we’ve produced several successful projects together over the years, so I have a great deal of trust in him.

This project was about $70,000–$80,000.

This project happened in March–April 2019. Part of the challenge was solving something that’s never been done before in a quick timeframe.

It was highly successful; the client was pleased. The program rolled on longer than expected across the country and even out of the country because they were so happy with it.

They’re great at project management. Communication is fast and fluid, and it’s never a problem.

They’re incredibly talented creatives who understand technology. Their backgrounds in animation, VR, and AR makes them very well-rounded to handle any type of creative production with any technical aspect to it.

No; they’re great.

Communicate your idea and challenge clearly, and they will help you solve it.