Will Roberts is the Founder and Creative Director at Augmented Pictures, a NYC based immersive design and animation studio. As an Animation Director, VR artist and Immersive experience designer, his longtime interest has been exploring the intersection between technology, folklore and the human experience. Will’s personal work fuses a highly stylized 3D aesthetic with Afrofuturist concepts, ultimately creating tangible immersive designs and stories that celebrate the cultures of marginalized populations. While earning an MFA in 3D Animation and Sound Art, Will got his start in VR as a researcher, entrepreneur and virtual world builder in the popular VR platform “SecondLife”.

Now for over a decade, Will has been creating worlds in the film, publishing and technology industry. Outside of world building, Will manages to get away from the computer as well: From documenting the lives of Liberian war orphans, to leading “L.I.F.T” (Learn It For Tomorrow), a youth empowerment technology workshop; his perspective on design and virtual world building is heavily influenced by his experiences in the real one. Virtual and augmented reality may be his vehicle, but connecting and giving back to heritage and culture is his ultimate purpose.